Tell me about your SV household

[NikkiA]

We have three boys, F3, F4, and F5. Our F3 is food-dominant, our F5 otherwise runs the show. Our F5 boy loves to explore and experience new things. Our F3 boy constantly craves attention. Our F4 boy is super cuddly and extremely confident.

House has an open floor plan on the 1st floor.

3 litter boxes, one automatic and two traditional, all upstairs.

2 water stations, one plain ceramic bowl (goes in the dishwasher every night) upstairs, one fountain downstairs.

Food is on the first floor.

Yard has a 6' fence, but I don't let them out on their own because I am afraid they would get out (they can jump the fence). When they go out, they are on long leads that let them get close to, but not over or under the fence.

What is your SV household like? Where do you keep food, water, and litter boxes?

How many kitties live with you, and how do they interact with each other?

 

[Becki]

I have 2, a boy and a girl, both f2bs. They get along great and it is rare to see one without the other. Right now, Nyah is the dominate one and can typically get Kovu to leave her alone with a look when he is being the obnoxious little brother he tends to be. I don't know if it will stay that way as Kovu is only 5 1/2 months old. He is tall and lanky, already a bit taller than Nyah, but she still outweighs him. It will be interesting to see if the dynamics change when he is full grown.

Nyah is my perfect princess. Kovu is the devil spawn! In fact, just the other day my husband said he thinks our breeder pulled a fast one and substituted a baby Tasmanian devil for a kitten. When he isn't running around making mrrrrp noises and crashing through everything in his path or otherwise destroying whatever he got his paws on, he is quite possibly the most cuddly Savannah on the planet. He loves to be held and has to be In your face, he is still jumping at you to pick him up, ready or not! Do not open your eye even a sliver at night, or he is purring nose to nose and will lick you to death. We seriously are considering buying a bigger bed as they both sleep with us and who knew cats could take up so much room! Serious bed hogs and are not very happy when you move them once they are comfy. Do they care about us being comfy? The answer is no. They both have so much personality. We watch them like most watch TV, and we tell stories about them to point normal people avoid us.

We have 3 litter boxes, all sterilite clear totes, one on each floor of our house. Our house is modern and very open with the back being mostly glass. We have created areas for them to be able to climb and look out the windows at a number of heights. They eat in the kitchen. My husband (remember the one who didn't like cats?) has started to let Nyah eat on the breakfast bar because "she wants to eat there". How gross is that? He at least puts a place mat down and cleans the granite as soon as she is done, but seriously, she sits on the bar stool waiting for her order to come up. They both like separate things so we make 2 different raw meals for them. Nyah only eats twice a day. Kovu still eats every 15 minutes. At least it feels like that! He gets 4 meals a day. They have crunchy food too, that is upstairs in our master bathroom. They graze on that very rarely at this point, so I just put a little bit out each day. They are spoiled rotten creatures and I can't imagine life without them now, even when they stampede at 3am.

 

[WitchyWoman]

We have 3 male SVs -- 2 F2s and an F6. My husband and I are occasionally allowed full access to whichever parts of the house the SVs are not occupying. Typically, we are put back in quarantine anytime the cats do not wish food, their litter boxes cleaned, playtime or cuddle time. There are 2 litter boxes in the laundry room, 2 in a sunroom, and one on the catio. Most horizontal surfaces of the house are covered in cat toys and the remnants thereof. They have a 15' x 8' screened patio with kitty pool and cat tree directly across from which are bird feeders and the bird bath for the cats' viewing pleasure.

The cats are fed in their own areas -- one in the sunroom, one in the laundry room and one in the powder room. They get a whole prey diet along with various meats for variety.

My first SV, Juba, is my soul mate -- sweet as sugar with enough dash of imp to make life interesting.
Taji, my F6, is devil spawn but with a sense of humor and an unabashed, unapologetic chutzpah that allows him to get away with things he shouldn't.

Maliik at 4 yrs old is the baby of the family. He is well mannered, never breaks or damages anything, and is grateful for what he has. This is in direct opposition to the other two.

Our dining room chairs are covered in large bath towels because apparently fabrics containing silk are quite tasty. Our custom leather sofa has a distressed patina complete with fang marks in one of the arms. Anything they did not break when they were kittens is now held down by Quake Hold and Museum Gel including art hanging on the walls and a 80 lb granite and iron table in the living room which would get knocked over every time one of the big guys jumped off of it.

Becki, if you're reading this, don't bother getting a bigger bed. We have an extra wide king and it doesn't make a bit of difference. They will displace you from whichever small bit of space you try to occupy.

I thought I would lose all my hair that first year with Juba. He wore out the first cat sitter. I kept hoping he'd calm down when he either reached 1 yr of age or when I got Taji. I swear his feet did not touch the floor for 8 mos. except when he was eating or sleeping. He was an air borne rocket careening around the house bouncing off walls and furniture. And I had done a lot of research about the breed before I got him so while I though I knew what to expect, nothing compares to actually experiencing the vortex of energy that is a SV.

 

[Kristin]

My house isn't as fun as your houses...I just have my Zeddie (well, I have my parrots and dsh as well).
Hopefully I will be moving soon, and able to bring another SV home.
Zeddie eats in the laundry room, as if she eats in the kitchen she will devour her brother's food. Water is in the kitchen. We have 5 litter boxes, but 2 main ones. 1 in my room, 2 on the upstairs landing, and 2 in the bird room (Tiger has little litter boxes and Zeddie has big ones)
Zeddie chases Tiger all the time and he gets mad. She desperately wants a high energy brother...and so do I

 

[scorpius]

2 SV's. F2 male (35% @ 14 mo), F1 male (56% @11 mo).

One floor house, chilled water fountain, feed them raw next to fountain, 4 poop boxes with 3 of them the monster kinds with long and high walls to deflect occasional horizontal pee fountains Poop boxes are spread out around the house with 2 of them in the laundry room. I find cleaning them out 1x/week is sufficient and use 80% clumpless clay and 20% clumping/smell good clay, the latter of which completely cancels out any urine smell. I clean and recharge the fountain's carbon filter every 3-4 weeks. The fountain cools their water -13F room temp and they enjoy that. Good hydration is so important I think...

I feed them raw beef, they long since got sick of raw chicken. I have a small 5 cu ft deep freeze where i store their raw beef (usually defrost 1-2 day worth packets). I supplement separately with taurine+vitamins+Ca using a pumpkin puree about every 2 days (10mL oral injections - this surprisingly works well). Pumpkin helps keep them regular and a great supplement base i've found.

Both critters are insanely loyal. There are daily cleaning sessions where one cleans the other. They often sleep together. They will play fight and it's not uncommon for one to nicely growl at the other. But then they make up and it's best budds again. My F2 gets worried when I leave the house, my F1 could care less. My F2 likes to be held, my F1 does not. My F1 likes to sleep next to me, my F2 not as much. My F2 cannot open doors, my F1 does open doors and i've converted mostly to round door knobs due to this fact. Both like to perch 10 ft high above my pantry and cupboards. They both can jump well 4-5 feet I'd say. Both like water from faucets, but only my F1 likes to get wet. I do have a large brick fence around my back yard, but i don't let them out as i'm super paranoid. i've purposely made them house cats only.

I take them on occasional car rides, stroller rides and will likely walk them more in the winter (when it's not so hot out). I just put together a large, enclosed, guinea pig cage and both love to look at the pigs all day long... They've got it rough...

so there's my story...and this is how i'm typically rewarded dj

 

[Dantes]

I have an F3 and two Ragdolls in a townhouse. In their townhouse, sorry, my mistake. My Duma is the perfect gentleman. He has never broken anything, had any accident, or scared anyone by being too forward or too demanding. Sometimes I wonder if he's really a SV. He's not that big, but he does have huge ears and a slender body, which make it obvious he's not a normal cat to anyone who sees him. He's always trying to make friends with big brother Dante, and occasionally he breaks through; he and Desi seem to be great buddies, although Desi is less mobile than Duma and that seems to frustrate both of them. When I take out Da Bird or Neko Flies, Duma gets first play, but he is such a gentleman that when he sees a ragdoll jump for the toy he'll stand back and let them play for a while. I had no idea that cats would do that for each other! Same with boxes, Dante loves boxes so Duma will wait his turn. Well, maybe it's because if either Duma or Desi is in the box, Dante will sit on top to claim the box.

Dante is very moody and picks on the other two a lot, but despite this, I've caught massive three-way grooming sessions on video. So I know they don't *completely* hate each other, but I do think that Dante hates everyone and everything from time to time.

I have two litterboxes upstairs, both Clevercat boxes, and two downstairs, one Cat Genie and a regular hooded box. Typically the one that gets used is the one in the bathroom I'm in, as we're group pee-ers in this house. Only Duma seems to use the Cat Genie, I think my big Ragdoll 20+ lbs is too big for it and Dante who is under 12lbs is too picky to use it.

The three eat in the kitchen. Duma likes to eat on the counter before everyone's been served, sometimes before it even hits his dish. Desi has a mat on the floor and Dante sits on a ladder I keep in the kitchen. Although sometimes I give Dante alone-time in the downstairs bathroom with his meal. There's a ceramic fountain in the kitchen but I rarely see it touched. Food is commercial raw, home-prepared cooked, or occasionally cans. Rotated frequently because they tend to get bored.

All of my furniture is some form of leather or vinyl. Desi excretes tumblin' Desi-weeds all over everything (ironic since I promised I'd never ever get a long-haired cat), so I can't have anything but leather. Like Deborah's, my sofas have marks and faded spots; one of the sofas is Dante's 2nd favorite place to pee when he wants to punish me for some perceived wrong, such as not letting him roam on his own outside all day. The other has micro-toenail marks all over it from them playing on it. I've given up on having good furniture and just concentrate on furniture that doesn't smell. Nobody notices the marks anyway.

I have a good-sized fenced in backyard and garden but they figured out how to get out, so I don't let them back there anymore I tried putting them out there on leads but it just doesn't work. I've been building a cat cage but as the weather has turned cold and I've been away for work I haven't really had the time to work on it. Duma goes for walks on his leash with me on the weekend, though, so he still gets some outside time.

My office has 3 cat trees in it, 2 of which are floor to ceiling. I had started a project of extending the trees so Duma could literally run the ceiling, but then I thought I was moving so never finished. At some point I will finish this project too.

We all fit on the bed just fine. Dante is always in the furthest corner, just out of reach of everyone--and I think he is responsible for kicking Desi out of the bed, on the few nights Desi has spent the night in the bed Dante slept elsewhere. Duma is always on my legs. It's clear it's his spot. He took it up after he was neutered and never changed. Before that he was my snuggle buddy, so I'm hoping as he gets older he might come back to prime snuggle position (he hits 2 in January). Meanwhile Desi fills that spot intermittently, I think he gets too hot to snuggle for very long.

I think Duma really wants a SV brother. A few nights over the last few months I've had the strangest dream, that Duma was telling me his ears were too big and he wanted to cut them off--eeeek! Maybe it's him trying to tell me that the Ragdolls don't look like him with their little ears. I keep telling him his ears are beautiful but he won't listen. I would really love to get him an F2 (or F1, but I doubt I could afford one) that he could play with, but I don't know that I could handle taking care of four cats. Three is a lot. How did I even end up with three? It's a lot of to scoop.

 

[NikkiA]

My first SV, Juba, is my soul mate -- sweet as sugar with enough dash of imp to make life interesting.

That is how I feel about D. He is my boy.

Taji, my F6, is devil spawn but with a sense of humor and an unabashed, unapologetic chutzpah that allows him to get away with things he shouldn't.

It is amazing how much attitude they can have
This is our little Mickey.

Maliik at 4 yrs old is the baby of the family. He is well mannered, never breaks or damages anything, and is grateful for what he has. This is in direct opposition to the other two.

I can't say Mickey is the same! he routinely breaks, knocks things over, spills, and misbehaves- and does it with such a sweet look on his face we end up not getting mad at him.

Our dining room chairs are covered in large bath towels because apparently fabrics containing silk are quite tasty.

Me too!

Becki, if you're reading this, don't bother getting a bigger bed. We have an extra wide king and it doesn't make a bit of difference. They will displace you from whichever small bit of space you try to occupy.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who loses the battle for space in bed to the kitty. Michael is 6'4", and he STILL takes up less room in a king size bed than our crazys do!

My house isn't as fun as your houses...

Kristen, I very much doubt that is Zeddie's opinion.


My furniture has taken a beating, there are paw prints on my walls, and a lighting fixture was replaced because someone liked to dangle from it. D almost never knocks things over. Sometimes I think Mickey is playing Wreck it Ralph in his head. At the end of the day though, the boys are FUNNNN.

That said, I'm very glad to be owned by kitties like these, and glad to know I'm not the only crazy one

 

[VioletFae]

As of right now it's just Vivi in our one story house, along with our 3yo schnoodle. My mom has 2 dogs which visit weekly, and things get a bit crazy during those times. Not sure if I ever finally mentioned it on these boards, but I have *FINALLY*convinced my husband to get another SV!!!!! We were supposed to get a Cheetoh kitten, but after Vivi turned out to be so awesome and I fell in love, i knew that we had to have another lol. The new SV boy is coming home for New years, and will be my husband's kitten since Vivi is attached to me at the hip. Oh, we are currently building a much larger, two story house that looks like it will be complete in Feb-Mar, so there will be a lot more room for them to play.

As far as litter boxes, we have 0. Yep, we just let her go where ever she wants to in our house. LOL ok KIDDING!!!! Vivi is toilet trained, and I'm planning to do the same with our boy. Fingers crossed! I am extremely happy right now with not having to scoop litter, and enjoying every second of it. To be honest, I think Vivi likes going on the toilet and not having to get her paws dirty, lol. We'll be installing an auto flusher at the new house if all keeps going well. I have not taught her to flush by pulling a string with a toy or anything like that b/c I don't want her to start flushing for fun. She does jump on the sink when i'm getting ready, and likes to play with the water. I find that if I let her play with running water from the sink every few days, she has no interest in the toilet water. If anyone is wondering, I used the Citikitty training system, and it took 10 weeks.

I feed Vivi in the kitchen and she loves to voice her opinion anytime I get her meals ready. I'm currently feeding cooked chicken but also some turkey, beef, salmon and Wellness canned. I leave dry food out (taste of the wild), but notice she only pecks at it at night or if she has gobbled up her other food and is still hungry. When the dogs are staying with us, I feed her on the top of her cat tree so they can't get to it.

It's crazy how many different SV households we have, very interesting to read what works for everyone else!

 

[Kristin]

I think Duma really wants a SV brother. A few nights over the last few months I've had the strangest dream, that Duma was telling me his ears were too big and he wanted to cut them off--eeeek! Maybe it's him trying to tell me that the Ragdolls don't look like him with their little ears. I keep telling him his ears are beautiful but he won't listen. I would really love to get him an F2 (or F1, but I doubt I could afford one) that he could play with, but I don't know that I could handle taking care of four cats. Three is a lot. How did I even end up with three? It's a lot of to scoop.

Awww sounds like Duma feels he doesn't fit in the with the ragdolls. He probably doesn't understand breed difference.

The first time I met a practicing Animal Communicator, I had her come to my house and talk to my animals. My bunny would always chase Tiger (my dsh) around, and kick him out of his sleeping spots, so I asked her what Tiger thought of my bunny. Tiger's answer was "bunny?! I thought she was just a funny looking cat!" LOL!

 

[willowcrickett]

I have three cats. Two of them are DSH rescues.

Rita (Mostly white, but has Siamese points in different colors. Calicomese?) is so beta that she almost doesn't exist. She's very aloof and doesn't interact with the other cats much at all, except at meal times. Rita also seems indifferent to human company, except at bed time, and she's VERY talkative. Any time there's a human around, she'll be meowing up a storm.
Mara (Black. I suspect she's mostly Bombay.) WAS the alpha, but now she and Freya have a sort of joint-custody agreement over the house and humans. She was lazy, (never seemed to want to play with humans...) and starting to become obese, until we brought Freya home. Mara is definitely MY cat, and she only really "talks" when she has something to say.
Mara and Rita are both three years old.

Freya is F5/SBT Savannah, about six months old, is Mara's BFF. She prefers my husband over me, and, like Mara, only talks when she has something to say. She has a lot more to say than Mara does, though, because her vocabulary is a bit bigger than "feed me." She also has phrases for "I want to play," "I want to go out," and "why are you petting that other cat and not me?!?!?" (The last is usually accompanied by her attempting to climb the offending human) Freya quickly became friends with Mara, and now Mara plays a lot more and is slimming down to normal cat size. Mara and Freya take turns being the "Alpha," but Freya's been taking the lead more often as she gets older. Maybe Mara's training her up to be alpha?

We give them wet food (Nutro, Natural Choice, various flavors) food in the mornings for breakfast, and have kibbles (Nutro, Natural Choice, indoor formula) readily available throughout the day. The food and water bowls are in the kitchen, near the dining table.

We have three litterboxes also in the kitchen, but on the opposite side from the food, and one litterbox upstairs in the master bedroom. The only doors that are closed inside the house are the bathrooms and closets. The cats are allowed to roam freely throughout the rest of the house. We have a box fort and a 7' tall cat tower both in the living room, and a scratching post each in the kitchen and master bedroom.

We live in a military housing community, so don't really have a yard of our own to let Freya roam freely in, but I take her on daily walks with a leash and harness. She likes to climb trees and hide in bushes. I try to keep her away from the bushes because the leach gets tangled, but she gets all huffy if I don't let her go play in them at least once a week.