Serval Babies Page

This page started out to be about Serval Kittens, but it's hard to draw the line between the kittens, and the changes that having the kittens make in your life.

Serval kittens are cute, and respond very well to hand feeding and good care. They are very affectionate, and bond very closely to their human. They love to play, and include their human in their games. They must be fed several times a day and will consume from 2 to 4 ounces of Just Born milk replacer as little kittens, and 6 or more as they get older.

These pretty babies are Sporty and Davidson. We started hand raising them when they were around 10 days old. Lorre travels a whole lot, and for the first 6 months of their lives, if she had to be away for an extended period, she took them with her. They've been all over Texas, to Florida and Arizona.

You would think that an 8 month kitten that weighs around 20 pounds wouldn't need it's nightly bottle. You would, but the 8 month kitten has his or her own idea about the matter. Here, Lorre and Wayne are giving Sporty and Davidson their nightcap. They do head-butts and give these little plaintive cries until someone breaks down and feeds them. At this age it's more a matter of habit and comfort than nutrition.

Up to now, it may seem that Servals are the ideal pet. But this picture begins to illustrate one of the potential problems. Harley here, was around a year old. He weighed around 25 pounds here, and now he weighs 40.

Not everyone is prepared to care for a pet that large, and the 10 am rodeo where you have two such animals working the kinks out of their systems by running from one end of the house to the other has to be seen to be believed.

Sporty would come charging into the living room, run the length of the sectional sofa, jump to the top of a cat tree around 6 feet away and 6 feet tall, from there jump 6 or 8 feet to another sofa, then another cat tree, and over the hall door to the top of the piano. Then back to the floor, to the top of the counter, jump over to the sink, then to the top of the fridge, and panting, she would take a break on the top of the cabinets. If she saw Davidson, she would then run the whole route in reverse, with him in hot pursuit. Somewhere along the way he would catch her and a huge WWF match would occur with lots of room rearrangement happening at the same time.

Harley has excellent litter box habits, Sporty and Davidson don't. Sometimes it seems they think nothing is more annoying to them than seeing a big old ugly box right where they wanted to poop. So they find another place.

Also, you can't leave them unsupervised for long periods of time while you go to work, to church or grocery shopping. An essential part of having a Serval for a pet is having a large, safe area where you can put them when you are away.

Realize here that you are dealing with survival traits of a wild animal, and these traits help them to live in their native environment, Central Africa. These traits have been developed over hundreds of thousands of generations, and while they will bond with you and accept you wholeheartedly, they will still behave as they know in their hearts that they should. In the wild, Serval kittens stay close to mom, they depend on her, and are very affectionate and close. When they mature their personality changes, they become more cautious of strangers, they try to dominate their associates, and frequently they have this desire to hunt small things.

Because we have a relatively large area for our cats we are sometimes approached by people who took on a Serval pet and now, with the house in a shambles, and the Serval has changed by the onset of maturity, they want out. In several instances the adult Serval, having been mis-raised, has to be handled with special care and placed in a secure run by him or herself. Adult Servals can be handled relatively easily, they aren't vicious or hostile, but they are determined to have their own way, decide who they will tolerate as an associate and frequently get upset easily. Patience, gentle handling and being close to other Servals in nearby runs usually calms them down,

All this having been said, before we place a Serval kitten with someone, we really want the person to know what he is getting into. Several times we have invited the prospective owner to come stay for several days and help with the feeding, learn the nuances of special care required, and learn the ropes of Serval husbandry. If you aren't willing to take several days out of your life, fly 2,000 miles and spend $2,000 on a baby kitten that weighs less than 2 pounds, then you'd best look for another pet. Believe me, these are among the least of the sacrifices you may have to make.

This is Sporty's porch. It is constructed entirely out of pressure treated lumber, it has a metal roof with insulation underneath it and measures roughly 12 by 40. It is totally screened in. At this point, it's roughly 90% complete. Since this picture, we have added a walkway across the front, and still have to enclose a buffer space so that the enclosure doesn't open directly to the out of doors. The entire inside is lined with a bench/shelf that opens up for storage beneath. The 2X6 that runs around the perimeter is actually a back rest for when we are sitting on the bench and visiting. Sporty shares her space with no one but humans..

We have lots of hummingbird feeders out, and the cats love to watch the darting little birds.

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