Percentages

[Treywi]

Thanks Brigitte! To be honest, when I would see breeder sites that listed the % I would wonder if it was marketing ploy to get more money for kittens. But I can see now that it can effect the breeders who purchase those kittens and it's fertility so knowing is better. And for pet owners like me, know if it's possible for say my F4 to act more like a F2 or F1 might. lol

Of course you pointing out how genes may or may not split right might explain why we get F4-SBT's looking more serval like then some others. At least that is how I am understanding this. Might be off, since it is early am and I haven't been to bed yet. hehe If I am please correct me.

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

Yes, that is exactly how it may work out... that when we have an F4 looking more Servally then it may be due to them inheriting more Serval genes, but then it might also just the be specific ones they got that make them look special. Serval DNA is not that different from domestic cat DNA, which is why we don't have a DNA test to detect it. It may be possible one day, but so far beyond F1 they cannot distinguish...

There ARE some lines with the higher percentages when you have F4s that are ~25% or more (I had one of those lines) and so then yes the F4s look exactly like F2s and of course would act the same too (although I don't know how much behavior is different in "normal" F2s vs F4s mostly). I had a theoretically 46% F3 and being half-Serval in % meant she looked and behaved EXACTLY like an F1, compared to the other three F1s I've owned plus all the others I've met in my career. So in terms of those kinds of situations, the % is going to give you a headsup on what to expect too...

But you are also correct, I do think some breeders throw around "high percentage" when the cats are not very different from any other SBT cat, especially if there was a fertile F4 male involved somewhere in the pedigree... and it becomes a bit of a marketing ploy.

 

[John Popp]

That's a nice take Brigitte, and part of the reason I ran with the breeder I did as there F3s looked more similar to the F2s I was seeing from other breeders. I also wish that some of the breeders would place a percentage on the ALCs/bengals used in breeding their foundation cats, or whatever other crosses have been used as I think it tells a more complete story. It's also one that isn't likely to be told by the TICA papers as too many cats were dubbed "Experimental" while propagating the Savannahs of today.

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

Yes, as you say there were breeders that used Bengals as "Experimental Shorthairs" so it is hard to do that ALC calculation. I did once do calculations with an F5A male I had in the early days of my program... he turned out to be twice as high in ALC content as Serval content! But it was so hard to do that calculation...took me days as Bengals have been bred for so much longer that I had to go back so many generations. Luckily there is a bengal pedigree site that helped with that!

 

[John Popp]

I'm pretty certain that Chongo carries a relatively high percentage of ALC, probably in the 5-10% range. Haven't done the math for a guesstimate but this weekend when we pick up our new kitten, something I'll poke around for some answers to.

 

[Treywi]

Luckily there is a bengal pedigree site that helped with that!

I've checked that out and it helped with my Bengals. Really wish there was one for SV's. lol Hubby didn't want to spend the extra dough and get the 5 generation pedigree. Was hoping to know what breed was bred with the servals myself. But considering some people tell me my SV looks like a Bengal I wouldn't doubt there was some Bengal in there somewhere. lol

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

The Bengal breed is a LOT more developed than ours so in time I am sure someone will do the same for Savannahs. It's just a daunting task so probably takes someone that is crazy to take it on! We have plenty crazies but likely it is a special kind of crazy to take on a pedigree website.

There IS a pedigree program developed by a Bengal and Savannah breeder that is useful though... in developing it, he added a lot of Savannah pedigrees to the database so sometimes you can find cats in there that would round out your cat's pedigree. Probably then depends on whether your cat's forebears were used in many breeding programs...