Brigitte, Baz was the first thing I thought of when I saw that serval pic. He wins hands down for glossy coat.
Savannah Cat Chat - THE Place for Savannah Cat Talk
Welcome to the Savannah Cat Chat Forum! Our forum has been in existence since 2012 and is the only one of its kind. We were here, serving the savannah cat community before Facebook and Instagram! Register for a free account today to become a member! Please use an email program other than Hotmail, since Hotmail accounts are blacklisted by many servers and ISP's. Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site in some of the forums by adding your own topics and posts. But in order to take advantage of the full features, such as a private inbox as well as connect with other members ad access some of the larger topics, a donation of $2.99/mo or $25/yr is requested. This will allow us to continue running this forum!
Mel Serval
- Thread starter Trish Allearz
- Start date
Trish Allearz
Moderator
He does- and Charlotte's mel Savannah too... It's amazing when you take away the spots, how awesome that body/face is!It really does remind me of my Baz...with bigger more upright ears but the face and body are still similar...and when Baz saunters down the hallway he definitely has the wild cat swagger
There's definitely a different intensity to the look when there are no tabby markings on the face...and the body just seems more slinky too. The black coat is definitely glossy, Deborah, judges tell me the lushness of Baz's coat is the result of all the melanin packed into the hair shaft... it feels wonderful!
Well, we don't even know if it is possible, Rylie. This would require a number of things, firstly for the genetics of solid black &/or colorpoint to be the same in the Serval as in the domestic cat. We don't know that it is, especially for the white Serval which we think looks similar to the seal lynxpoint tabbies we get in the domestic cat world, but we don't know if it is the same.
And then secondly, you would need a Serval that carries for solid or colorpoint too... as in the domestic cat world these are recessive traits. In the case of the melanistic Savannah it is the nonagouti (solid) gene working with the black gene giving you a solid black...there is always a ghost pattern as genetically all cats are tabbies... the nonagouti gene just stops the tabby pattern being expressed. And then in the snows, it relies on the colorpoint gene best known in the Siamese breed working with the tabby pattern giving the faint markings and darker points on the whitish coat.
If there was a black or white Serval in a breeding program here in the US we might have more chance of finding out if any of that is possible or true... a black F1 would be amazing!
And then secondly, you would need a Serval that carries for solid or colorpoint too... as in the domestic cat world these are recessive traits. In the case of the melanistic Savannah it is the nonagouti (solid) gene working with the black gene giving you a solid black...there is always a ghost pattern as genetically all cats are tabbies... the nonagouti gene just stops the tabby pattern being expressed. And then in the snows, it relies on the colorpoint gene best known in the Siamese breed working with the tabby pattern giving the faint markings and darker points on the whitish coat.
If there was a black or white Serval in a breeding program here in the US we might have more chance of finding out if any of that is possible or true... a black F1 would be amazing!
Trish Allearz
Moderator
Nope- so far, we only have standard Servals breeding in the US. As is, I think Serval breeders have to be leery to make sure they are not inbreeding too much (I think- I could be wrong), but from what I've heard- there isn't a lot of new bloodlines coming in from out of the country.
I think that may be an issue for Servals, as they don't have a registry tracking pedigrees...so although they would know for a couple generations that the cats aren't related...
I imagine it is a lot of trouble and expense to import a Serval and not sure how much concern there is amongst Serval breeders to make it worthwhile to them? But if someone imported a couple of black Servals they not only would be helping the Serval gene pool, they could probably make a fortune selling Servals into SV programs too... LOL!
I imagine it is a lot of trouble and expense to import a Serval and not sure how much concern there is amongst Serval breeders to make it worthwhile to them? But if someone imported a couple of black Servals they not only would be helping the Serval gene pool, they could probably make a fortune selling Servals into SV programs too... LOL!
When I was breeding with Peggi we approached an exotic importer to find a black Serval for us - years later that never happened... they are just not that easy to come by I guess...
Trish Allearz
Moderator
Yeah- reading the article from the picture, it makes it sound like they'd be easy to find! LOL!