Serval Scratches Me
This male serval scratched me. I was my fault. This is a bit of fun (it makes me laugh now) but at the time it hurt a bit and I wasn’t immediately sure how serious the injury was. The video quality is poor but it does highlight the need to take care when playing with a serval or any wild cat even the small ones are stronger than the domestic cat.
This serval is Morpheus and he is a very large cat by domestic cat standards. He is the size of a large dog. He had his claws (nobody had declawed him) and his teeth and all his weapons were intact.
Morpheus was an intimidating cat but I really wanted to get close and see what the serval is like. He was semi-tame living in a large enclosure at A1 Savannahs.
I was using a domestic cat “tease” – a feather on a stick to play with him and he got a bit excited and scratched my hand. He did is forcefully. I forget how I dealt with it; probably antiseptic and a bandage. It healed OK. Perhaps a scratch from a serval is less dangerous than a scratch from a domestic cat. There might be less bacteria on the claws. I don’t know though.
I felt sorry for Morpheus. He was in an enclosure that was too small despite being quite a large enclosure by breeder standards and he suffered from behaviorial problems. He paced back and forth. I hate seeing that sort of thing. His breeding partner was Penelope. His offspring were sold to breeders of Savannah cats I suppose or people selling servals as pets.
See a female serval hiss – impressive.