Please help!

[Pam Flachs]

He sure is a good looking guy!

As for the heart murmur heard by two separate vets, you do need to let your breeder know as soon as possible of that finding. Some murmurs can be outgrown and are graded by severity, with a Grade 1 being the least severe, to Grade 6 (most severe). This link gives the basics, treatment and possible causes of murmurs:

http://www.vetinfo.com/feline-heart-murmurs.html

I am sure you won't mind if he does not get as big as you hope; I never guarantee adult size on my kittens as it is really hard to predict most times with accuracy. You surely know by now that a Savannah is huge in personality, and that is all that really matters

 

[SV Dad]

My boys are F3's, 4 and 3 yo. Not to worry, they are very long and tall. Noticeably bigger than an average cat. And very lean. If they put on the pounds like us humans in middle age, these boys will pork up nicely.
John Popp is running a survey on SV generations, sizes, and weights as adults. I don't think my boys are far from the median at all.
My son has a F3 moose from SE. Just shy of 20 pounds as of late. Has a peculiar personality, not typical of their product.
Treywi, nice to meet a cousin!. That face is Rascal all over!
Out of curiosity who is the mom's mother?

 

[John Popp]

Wow, such a beautiful boy! Sure has some of his bengal heritage showing through which to me is one of the most endearing qualities of the SE SVs.

As for the heart murmurs, they are not uncommon in kittens in those rapid growth months. Generally they are gone at 6-8 months, but just the same I would keep an eye on it.

With the foods, don't be surprised if you find something they really like and a few weeks later they grow tired of it. As Brigitte mentioned, if my cats get a hint of vegetable or fruit in something they won't eat it. Turkey I could get a 24 hour hunger strike, and chicken I often get a 12 hour objection. They love their duck and especially rabbit, I just try to keep their diet mixed up,

Also, we feed primarily raw, a minimal amount of canned and a little kibble dispensed from a puzzle feeder if they cleaned their plates before we retire. Don't really like feeding the kibble, and oddly our SV won't eat it from a bowl, only from the puzzle feeder.

As for size, our boy isn't very big at 15lbs and a year old but probably above average. He is really lean and rarely cares about eating. All my worries about how thin he was were put to rest when our vet said he was perfect and just what all cats should strive to look like. He is a couple inches taller and longer than our other cats who are by no means fat, but weigh in at about the same amount. My guess is that he has a couple more pounds to put on but isn't likely to put on much length.

Anyway, not that the size thing matters that much to me as his personality is much more than I could have ever dreamed of. Can't wait to get our send in about 6 more weeks, and then let the games really begin when he has a rough and tumble playmate.

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

Did they say what grade the murmur was? A slight murmur I think you might hope he outgrows...and I have documented a kitten here doing exactly that but being paranoid me I had the cardiac ultrasounds done at 12 weeks, 6 months and 2 years of age. His murmur was grade III at 12 weeks. By 6 months it was ~1/2 and completely nonexistent by 2 years of age. Some unofficial ultrasounds in between.

As most say, size is so very unimportant once you get to know your Savannah. My very first, an F2 Savannah male never got to more than 13 lbs but he was a huge personality. He left us recently and it's left a huge hole in our hearts. I have Savannahs here that are 9lbs and ones that are over 20lbs and really in terms of personality, the size does NOT matter. The small ones more than compensate in other ways. My recently deceased F2 had a 35lb brother btw, and my Bobo did have a serious heart defect. We discovered it at 18 months of age and he was not meant to live to 2 years of age. With great vets and medications etc, he made the grand age of 12 years old before cancer took him. I'm an advocate of early detection because of this, I am firmly convinced that knowing what was wrong with his heart early on let us help him as much as possible. He had a great quality of life with that too.So if that murmur persists, definitely have it checked out by a cardiologist.