Welcome to Sweetspots Savannah Cats!

We are located in Northern Virginia, within easy driving distance from WV, PA, MD or Washington DC. We do ship kittens to other states (where savannahs are legal), Canada and some international locations.  Please contact kim@sweetspotssavannahs.com for more info.  

Please note that we only allow a few select visitors that are specifically ready to purchase a kitten to visit our home and interact with our kittens and cats.  It is very time consuming and disruptive to our schedule and to our cats to have people visit that are simply curious about the cats. 

What are Savannah Cats?

Savannah cats are a spotted breed of domestic cat, with an elegantly tall, slender, and long body frame. The savannah breed originates from a serval bred with a domestic cat. A serval is a small species of wild cat native to the African plains (or 'savannah', hence the breed's name). The first generation of savannah cats are referred to as 'F1' for first generation, and are 50% serval. An F1 female bred to a domestic or savannah male produces the second generation, referred to as F2s (~ 25-27% serval). Similarly, an F2 savannah female bred to another male produces F3s (~ 12.5-14% serval).  And so on. 

Because savannahs are produced by breeding two different species of cats together (serval X domestic), the male offspring are sterile for the first 4-5 generations (although a few F4 males have been fertile).  Initially, fertile domestic males were bred to early generation females used to produce the later generations of savannahs.  After several years of developing the breed however, fertile male savannahs (usually F5 or later generations) are now common in most breeding programs. 

The TICA registration code designates the pedigree of a cat; a savannah female bred to a domestic male has an 'A' TICA code (such as A2S for an A F2 offspring).  When an 'A' savannah is bred to another savannah, the offspring are coded as 'B'.  When a 'B' savannah is bred to another 'B' coded savannah, the offsping are coded as 'C'.  When a 'C' savannah is bred to another 'C' savannah, the offspring are considered SBT (which stands for 'stud book traditional').  An SBT savannah thus has a minimum of 3 generations of savannah to savannah breeding in their pedigree.   

The goal of the savannah breed is to develop a domestic breed of cat that retains the beauty and positive personality traits of a serval, but in a smaller domesticated cat that makes a wonderful pet.

kim@sweetspotssavannahs.com