Recently, the discovery of the PRA-gene has been dicovered in a few cats within the Savannah breed. These cats are from A1Savannahs lines and are A1Savannahs cats with several cats in the ancestry which we, as breeders, are all likely to have in our pedigrees. The concern is that finding out where these cats are currently located to be able to test will be a collaborative nightmare between breeders and pet buyers. Some of the cats are even now deceased and unable to be tested.

So what is PRA and why do we need to be concerned?
PRA is the shortened version of the disease Progressive Retinal Atrophy and this gene means that a mutation, which is scientifically labelled as rdAc occurs in the CEP290 gene. This means that a  deficient protein that is associated with progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) in the Abyssinian cat and related cats. 

Usually, clinical signs typically become evident between 8 and 20 weeks of age and the disease progresses so that by around one year of age complete retinal degeneration is apparent in most cats according to Ofri R, Reilly CM, Maggs DJ, et al. Characterization of an early-onset, autosomal recessive, progressive retinal degeneration in Bengal cats. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2015;56:5299–5308. The problem is that this is not always the case as more research is being done, a lot older cats have the gene but haven't yet shown any signs of the disease. (Langfords Vets, UK)

​PRA is a disease which affected the sight of cats. The photo receptors start to deteriorate in the retina and affected cats develop 'late onset blindness'. This is usually detectable, I am advised by Langfords Vets, usually by 3 to 5 years of age. Worryingly though, it may not be detectable until they are aged 6 or older. The problem for many breeders who have retired and sold breeding cats at 2 or 3 years old is that some of the pet buyers are unknown to the breeder by the time the cat turns 7 (4 years later!) or if the cat shows any signs of blindness, the buyer often will not contact the breeder to let them know, leaving them blissfully unaware that there is a problem in the line. Some owners may also put sight deterioration down to old age, even though it is actually a defective gene which the cat possesses. It is very important to know that the age of disease onset and progression can be variable and some affected cats may not develop clinical signs, and eventually blindness, until later in life.

Is this the same as PRA-B?
PRA-B is the gene for the same disease which has been identified in the Bengal breed. You will often hear Bengal breeders saying "PRA-B Normal" in their cattery information or on their kitten adverts. This means they have screened their cats and are only using normal breeding cats in their programme.

Langfords Vets gave me very detailed information about this disease on the 30th of January 2017. They stated that is works in exactly the same way as PK Deficiency (see here) and carriers should not be bred together which has recently happened, producing affected kittens. 

Important Point

A lot of Savannah breeders are still in their infancy of their 'breeding career' (under 10 years) and so therefore, it is difficult to discern IF we have a major cause for concern within the breed or if it is something we can eradicate from a few lines within a few generations.

How many cats are realistically affected and what do I do about it?
By January 30th 2017, Langfords Veterinary Laboratories in the UK had performed tests on 309 Savannah Cats for PK Deficiency and a grand total of 0 (zero) tests were performed for PRA and 0 (zero) for PRA-B. They were happy for me to publish this data. I am currently awaiting UC Davis (University of California Laboratory) to respond to me with this data. They will now have all of our swabs to process, the first Savannah's in the UK to be tested, and can only identify certain markers or breed-specific problems if we all test for this defective gene.

Breeds known to be currently affecting by PRA are:
* Abyssinian
* American Curl
* American Wirehair
* Balinese
* Bengal
* Colourpoint Shorthair
* Cornish Rex
* Javanese
* Ocicat
* Oriental Shorthair
* Siamese
​* Singapura
* Somali
* Tonkinese 

We all have several of those breeds behind our Savannah's and then some....!

Langfords advised me that as Bengal cats have such a heavy influence in the early lines (and some current) of the Savannah breed:

Option A:
Neuter or spay the cat. 
​
Option B: 

1. If it is an exceptional cat then breed it to a NORMAL cat ONLY.
2. The result of this is that you will produce ALL CARRIER offspring. 100% of offspring will be carriers. 
3. MICROCHIP ALL KITTENS - This is important to prevent mix ups.
4. Keep one and 'pet out' all that you will not keep to try and replace the affected parent.
5. Mate the carrier kitten you kept to NORMAL cat. 25 - 75% can be normal or carriers.
6. Keep a NORMAL kitten and spay or neuter the positive cat.
7. You have eradicated the positive carrying cat but still retained the line with NO PRA.​

This is a long process but worth it to eradicate PRA from the line but still ensure you have the beauty of the line locked in.

It is not advisable to knowingly bring a PRA Affected cat into your cattery.

Option A:
Neuter or spay the cat. 
​
Option B: 

1. If it is an exceptional cat then breed it to a NORMAL cat ONLY.
2. The result of this is that you will produce CARRIER AND NORMAL offspring. 25 - 75% can be normal or carriers
3. MICROCHIP ALL KITTENS.  This is extremely important to prevent any confusion on sales between carriers or normal kittens.
4. Scan chip and test all kittens with a swab > send to Langfords.
5. Keep a NORMAL kitten and spay or neuter the positive cat.
6. You have eradicated the positive carrying cat but still retained the line with NO PRA.​
7. NOTE: You can sell other normal kittens for breeding as they will not have the gene. Buying or selling a carrier kitten is not recommended as there a risks involved and prolongs the issue.

Your cat does not have PRA and therefore is able to be bred from without worrying about PRA. It is advisable to check for PRA in any cats you use for breeding moving forward.

​ 

Here are the cats which are contained within the pedigree of one known affected cat so any number of these cats could be the source of the PRA defective genes being passed on.

SERVAL KITTENS UK

We have a crazy waiting list at the moment for boys. As much as we love getting to know you all and chatting with you in PMs, without a copy of your licence, we cannot legally sell you a serval.

We also expect you to have gained a reasonable amount of knowledge either through our website http://www.stylisticat.com/blog/dwa-licence-questions
or other avenues, understand basics on what serval dietary requirements are, the specialist veterinary care you require, imprinting process and if you plan to become a licensed carrier to take them to the vet in your vehicle (yes you need a licence for that too) and when our baby comes to you it needs to be their forever home and had experience either visually or at another owners.

http://www.stylisticat.com/blog/dwa-licence-questions

We will not sell a serval to breeders of Savannahs with less than 3 years breeding experience, this to ensure you are truly in it for the long haul.

And are you ready to give up your holidays away from home? Your baby will need you and that could possibly mean only you!

We won't ship them outside the UK> 16-30 weeks is too old for them to imprint.

We won't fake dates on vaccinations to enable you to get them overseas very young like breeders in Ukraine, Belgium other places in Europe and Russia.

Chances are if you get CITES paperwork it will be fake as there are no CITES for a serval to the UK from the EU. Check the CITES, does it say Savannah when it's supposed to say serval?...

"But they are cheaper overseas". Yes, they are a lot cheaper but there is a reason why our prices are what they are. Importing a serval or a cheap F1 Savannah to the UK means:

1. Not meeting the holder or seeing the facility.
   
2. Not meeting Mummy and Daddy.
   
3. Not being able to do weekly visits from 4 weeks old for bonding time.
   
4. Waiting for 12 weeks before vaccinating for rabies
5. Waiting a further 3 weeks to pass before rabies clearance will be given and entry to the UK allowed.
6. Hoping that the kitten won't have an adverse reaction to the vaccine.
7. You need to pay for an approved DEFRA-APPROVED Rabies Carrying Agent to go and collect the kitten and transport it to a quarantine facility in the UK.
8. You will be required to pay VAT at 20% on the overall travel cost plus the cost of the kitten at customs. For example if you pay £6,700 for a serval and £1,200 transportation. Your carrying agent will be required to pay HMRC £1,580 upon landing at the UK Border for you.
9. This is not just for servals - you are required to pay VAT on the purchase price and the travel cost on any cat.
10. There are no commercial quarantine facilities in the UK with a DWA licence legally open to the general public, only private holders.
11. You can expect to pay £2,000 for quarantine, yes, even an F1 Savannah requires quarantine.
12. Once you have paid in advance for all of this, your kitten is required to serve 4 calendar months in quarantine. 
13. Once everything has been completed by the book and you've paid the example costs of £6,700 + £1,580 + £1,200 expenses, your serval or F1 is ready to come home at 8 months old.

By 8 months old you really have missed the boat in getting to know the kitten and them getting to know you. There is a very high chance, in my opinion around 99% chance that you will not be able to handle a serval who comes to you at this age, and likely will never have a close bond.

This is why buying from the UK makes all the difference as we make sure that your serval is with you in time to imprint on you. You become their one and only.

F1 Savannah Cat for sale....no, not worded correctly. I’ll try again.

Not really the ideal sales advert or the ideal solution for either the cat in question or myself.

Owning early generation hybrids and wild cats means that you really do need to be responsive to their needs and change things to suit them where possible. Sometimes when a group have been friends through a juvenile period, after becoming Mothers themselves or even approaching adulthood, the hormones can really upset the balance in a cattery environment, even in large enclosures. We always aim to keep the cats occupied through various enrichment experiences and change things up regularly within their enclosures. Sometimes when the cats take a dislike to each other, they can stay in their “mood” for weeks and even months at a time. You, as a responsible owner, must take the sufficient steps to ensure there is a balance at all times.

Emira our F1 Savannah has always been the most stand-off-ish out of our F1’s and a bit less predictable. She was completely un-socialised when we got her, which meant she was absolutely terrified to come near us. Our advice when we received her was, “here is some Supermarket branded pouches with gravy, she likes those best and kibble along with a couple of mice”. I kept her on the Tesco value sachets and biscuits for the first few weeks as I didn’t want to make her feel even worse. We then moved to what she should’ve been on and that was raw meat. The breeder had also kindly included a blanket – for comfort of smell you would think? No, the blanket was for picking her up with, it was for our 'protection', not for the comfort of the kitten. We were advised not to look her in the eyes and put the blanket over our hands before picking her up, ideally from her backed into a corner so we could control her spitting fit. “She is an F1” we were told. “This is what they are like at 10 weeks, totally wild but will come round through time”.

Emira was our first F1, we were very naïve and didn’t realise that she was far from what a socialised and loved F1 should be like on arrival. Thankfully all our other F1’s were raised in the family home and loved dearly before they came to us. They purred! Purring is something we never got from Emi until she was with us for about 6 months. I wouldn’t give up on her.

After time progressed Emira came round, never really enjoying male human company despite the endless nights of playing without eye contact and reaching out to her without force from my Husband. She has always been so striking in looks and produced lovely kittens for us. She got on with my female serval so well when she was introduced as a playmate as a kitten. They played great together and even slept beside each other in the indoor sleeping house.

After Emira had kittens, she decided she didn’t like the serval anymore. The serval grew bigger and Emira just ‘felt different’. We resisted the sale of Emi for so long and tried changing the cats round, but then it left everyone else upset. She gave my serval a hard time and then as the serval grew, she got it back twice as hard. “I’ll have to rehome her, it’s the only option to rework the balance”, I said to Gordon. “She just hates this serval and I don’t know what else to do”. I asked a breeder who owns Emira’s sisters at her cattery and she said, “I don’t want her. We have enough problems with her sisters!”. I thought, well, at least Emira is not causing any problems when she is not with the serval, so that is a bonus!

F1 Savannah cats are notorious, along with servals for imprinting on one (to two at the most) human. They do this from a young age, within the first few months of their life and that is why getting an F1 no later than 12 weeks is advisable. Getting an F1 after 12 weeks old could be too late and mean that they won’t accept you without a tremendous amount of work, sometimes to no avail. Moving them to a new home can be catastrophic for them and the new owners. I had heard this for years from several breeders, namely of servals and F1's, where they said they would keep all their cats for life…until recently we were told that several breeders cats had been offered for free as an “off-load” to make way for new cats. Along with advice on how never to advertise on certain listings and just to give them away cheap to make it look like you are in demand. They advised me on not selling cats unless they were excellent type and to give away those ones less than perfect, which would ensure your image was perfect because of the way of customer perception. “Everyone is full of shit”, I thought. "I'm my own person, honest, first and foremost and I can make the right decisions for my own cattery". The people who have done this for way longer than us, that preached the best way to care for early generation hybrids and wild cats in the beginning, were doing exactly what they told us never to do - rehoming! You now see their own advice not applying to the person giving it but happy to deceive everyone through hiding the less-than-perfect parts of breeding. I thought to myself, who-ever I decide to home Emi with must have vast amount of experience and be willing to put in the work to bring her round to trusting them. How else could we work out the situation to accommodate, most importantly? But who can I trust?

I reluctantly advertised her. The advert was the largest post I have ever written for an advert on a cat for sale. I boasted about her type, my darling baby, so perfect in every way, the perfect cat. “Doesn’t get along with my serval”, I wrote. I thought this is absolutely killing me.

I received loads of e-mails every day about her. People saw it as a bargain.
“I don’t have a licence but I’ll get one, how much is it?”
“I breed blue puppies because I get £1,000 more a puppy than regular puppies – breed removed- so I’d like an F1 Savannah 'cause they make the most”
“I’ll give you X for her as she is less valuable than a kitten”
It was ALL about money, no-one had a *swear word removed* care about the difficulties in mating F1's. How can I even consider discussing the TYPE of home on offer when we can’t even get past the financial ‘interest’. This isn’t working. To be honest, she is a really friendly F1 now when she is not kittening and I had no concerns with her temperament on a regular day. No-one was really ever going to understand the difference of an F1’s temperament when they have kittens and how to suit/ adjust things to suit an F1 queen which has kittens, when they were more interested in the financial outcome of such kittens. And what happened when they realised how hard it can be to produce F2 kittens or to have live F2 kittens even AFTER a mating has been successful? The thing I most interested in for my F1 was TRUST.

We sat on the bench one evening, as we do, while I have a cup of tea and a chat with the early generation Savannah girls. They know all my stories and secrets. They chat back to me. Emi was reaching up and pawing my face so I would lower it in order for her to reach and give me a head bop. “Ma-ma”, she meowed and I just burst into tears.

I just can’t let my girl go. She is my child and I am her Mother, her world. I have to make this work, there must be another way.

Revelation moment and total re-evaluation of the setup. We pulled together and brain-stormed, drew up plans, put ideas across to each other.

Emira has a new fantastic enclosure pictured above where she now lives happily with some of our other F1’s, her best friends.
 
The plans were drawn up, the enclosures were all re-worked and within 2 weeks of re-working it all, the equilibrium that we once had, was restored. We now have other enclosures drawn up to ensure that we can move any more girls if required. They are our babies and I couldn’t ever imagine them going anywhere else. 
 
Hallelujah!!!
 
What do you think of your new enclosure Emi?
She just looked at me, just like in this picture below.

Absorbent Bedding
We prefer vet bed for travel but it can be messy. The best thing on the first few hours of your journey is puppy training pads as these can easily be put into the bin and replaced if a toilet break has been required. Generally after a few hours the introduction of your pets favourite blanket or bedding can help relax your animal and encourage them to nap the journey.
 
Litter tray on not?
We use extra large carriers on our long distances. This enables us to have a litter tray and a bed side by side. This is to make sure that the cat feels comfortable to be able to go to the toilet.
 
Access to Water and Food
Bowls which clip onto the carrier are the best as this way they are unable to be stood on or knocked over. They are very cheap to buy and some even come with the carrier as standard. Your pet may not feel like eating or drinking but water is the most important offering on a journey because the stress can make your animal become dehydrated, alongside the heat.
 
Familiarity
Make sure you leave the carrier beside the animal a few weeks before the journey to ensure it has their scent and the have got used to the idea of going inside it to nap. We also offer food inside it so that the cat feels comfortable eating inside – this encourages them to eat on the journey. Toys inside also help them feel safe.

Sometimes it may be necessary to have a courier transport your animal for you. We always recommend fully vetting your courier before paying any deposit or in full before having them transport your kitten. There are many things you should consider when selecting a courier for your kitten.

Firstly, is the animal insured to be travelling with the courier?
Are they giving you a contract for the transportation of your animal?
Will the animal be alone or travelling with other pets?
What's the infection control process to ensure your pet is kept safe and secure from infectious diseases?
Do they have secure carriers for your pet?
If they are transporting a DWA animal - do they have a carrying licence for the animal?

We are Defra-Approved registered carriers for the transportation of Dangerous Wild Animal cats and can carry rabies-risk/ quarantine cats. Generally, we hand-deliver all of our kittens where possible and collect any new cats ourselves with relevant paperwork for border control inspection.

You must have a passport of equivalent paperwork for your animal you wish to travel with, import or export. Generally most animals fall into the Pet Travel Scheme set by DEFRA, the UK Government, but it is worth bearing in mind that some do not. In order to cross the border at some countries you may also require an additional licence granted by CITES. The purpose of the passport is to make sure the microchip matches the passport and vaccinations are up to date.

In our case, for Savannahs, you can import and export anything to/ from the UK with no CITES required provided it's within the EU. A brief guide below:

• F1 Savannah:- No CITES required - see notes. Quarantine required at a DEFRA-Approved facility for 3 months in Scotland, 4 months in England. Transportation of the animal must be done through a licenced carrying agent, such as ourselves. You may not transport an F1 Savannah in your car without a carrying agent licence (even to the vets!).
• ​F2 Savannah:- CITES required - see notes. Rabies Vaccination.
• F3 Savannah:- CITES required - see notes. Rabies Vaccination.
• F4 Savannah:- CITES required - see notes. Rabies Vaccination.
• F5 Savannah:- CITES required - see notes. Rabies Vaccination.
• F6 Savannah:- Pet Passport only required with rabies vaccination.

​IMPORTANT NOTE: Under the above EC Regulations there is effectively free movement of CITES listed animals within the European Union so no export/import permits will be required.  However, we would advise that you travel with proof of legal ownership in case challenged by Customs; this could be in the form of a receipt or a copy of an invoice. You should also contact their colleagues in Carlisle to discuss applying for an import health certificate and also any quarantine issues.  Their telephone number is: 01228 403600 or email: [email protected] and [email protected]

Congratulations to the wonderful Emira on the birth of her baby boy. He is a big healthy bouncing boy, golden in colour with jet black spots. The spots from this kitten will stay as defined as he gets older as there is no rosetting in this mating. This boy also has a lovely clear face with really interesting features. I can't wait to watch him grow. Welcome to the world wee man. 

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Kayleigh
Stylisticat UK