by Heather
(UK)
I live in the UK. How / where do i find either a Serval or a F1 Savannah to own. Do we have any breeders in my part of the world. Please advise...Hi Heather: This is Michael (Site Admin). This is a good question. I am in touch with Kathrin Stucki who owns A1 Savannahs to see if she can provide advice as her cattery has supplied breeding Savannahs to a UK breeder as far as I am aware. As soon as I hear back I will be adding to this page. I hope you are OK with that.
I am sure that you have checked out the legalities. In the UK the rules on keeping wild animals (Serval) are stricter than in the USA. There will no doubt be lots of hurdles to overcome and the hurdles don’t stop after you start living with a Serval. I met a tame Serval at A1 Savannahs. A really nice boy:
You may have seen this video. As you can see he is quite large (there are larger Servals). He was kept in an outside enclosure. Although some people in the States keep Servals inside their homes I don’t think it suitable for the person or the cat! That means an enclosure which translates to expense and space etc. Then there are the extensive legalities I refer to.
I also saw an F1 Savannah at A1 Savannahs, smaller than a Serval but retaining a large wildcat element in character. These cats were also in enclosures. DEFRA (the government department in the UK) will deal with the rules governing the importation (if required) and keeping of a Serval and a F1 Savannah. I am not sure but until fairly recently the relatively domestic F4 Bengal was treated as a wildcat in the UK. The rules were waived for practical reasons but an F1 Savannah is a different matter.
You may have covered all the above points and more in which case fantastic. I will get back to this page once I have heard from Kathrin but if you haven’t checked out DEFRA yet I would. In fact, I will do some research myself today and get back to add to this page anyway. There are Savannah breeders in the UK (not many though, maybe only one or two – not sure) so I would ask them some questions.
Michael