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Possible Savannah mix?

So my family and I think that our 4 month old kitten may be mixed with some Savannah genes based on her looks and personality traits. Unfortunately there's no DNA test to tell for sure since you can't test for any wild cats on standard feline DNA tests. What does everyone on here think? I've looked at pictures of some Savannah/domestic mixes and she looks extremely similar. She's got the big ears/small head combo, she seems taller and longer than an average 4 month old (hard to tell in my pictures, as some of them are from over a month ago). She has a marble pattern which I know some Savannahs actually have, but obviously not as common as the spotted one, but I figure she got the pattern from her domestic genes. She's also extremely agile and can jump at least 4 feet verticle that i've seen. She has a very dog-like personality: she plays fetch, greets me at the door, follows me around the house, highly intelligent and knows some commands and phrases already, and is very demanding of attention. She also is obsessed with watching tv and will even try and jump into the tv set but I don't think that's particularly a Savannah trait lol. I've also seen Bengal mixes with identical markings and features and I know they have similar personalities so I suppose that's another possibility. Any suggestions??

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admin

Paige
Staff member
She is beautiful, but looks like dsh to me...Many domestic cats have the traits you have described!!! I would just enjoy her :)
 

Brigitte Cowell

Moderator
Staff member
As you mention, there is no DNA test available. Additionally, chances are that all the pictures of those SV/domestic mix cats you have looked at were decided by someone to be that, with no actual SV pedigree...hence it's a guess based on other people's guesses... so really just impossible to know.

I don't believe anything you've said does not fit a domestic kitten... I think it gets confusing because kittens often have larger ears (in many breeds the breeder hopes heartily that they "grow into" the ears as they mature) and kittens are high energy and playful and sometimes learn to fetch and jump crazily.

I don't think that there is any harm in deciding your kitten is a mix, just as others do. It only really becomes an issue for Savannah Rescue when someone then wishes to surrender the cat as our resources cannot stretch to helping all those domestic cats with guessed heritage. But I remember as a child wondering if my domestic kitty had some Siamese heritage because he had such a loud meow.... it's natural to wonder!
 
Thanks. I guess it might be easier to tell when she's fully grown, but I will add that I just found out that there are a lot of Bengal breeders in my area so I think it will less surprising if she turned out to be a Bengal mix lol, and outdoor cats are common around here as well. She was found with her 6 litter mates right by our vets office and brought in by the vet tech who found them, which is where I adopted her from. All of the others were already adopted though before I discovered her so I don't know what they looked like.
 

Patti

Admin
Staff member
She's a very pretty little girl, and I think it is possible that she could have some Savannah genes in her :up:
 
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