Meet Balthazar

This is Balthy, he is just under 4 months old and weighs 5.6 lbs. anyone know how big you think he will be full grown? Mom is TICA F3 Savannah dad is a Bengal. Can you see these breeds in him? What's with the white paws mom and dad don't have em...dad also doesn't have papers so I assume he has something in him that is recessive white paws. Is there any cat food out there that helps kittens grow big and strong? Prob not but thought I would ask. Thanks!!

Only one load at a time? Yarg

Welcome to TCS.   I bet young Balthy is keeping you busy!   He is a super cute young fellow and he sure looks happy and comfortable in his new home.

SIZE   He is a  larger than an average kitten at his age,  but it's hard to say what his adult size will be.   You say you saw the father,  so there is one clue. You could ask about the mom's father and brothers;  

Normally an F4 Savannah is not huge,  but Savannahs in good physical condition very often look like they weigh more than they do,  because they are rather long and quite tall.   I think he may end up  around 14-15 pounds at a lean healthy weight  but many people (who are not very familiar with these sort of cats) may guess he is 20 or 25 pounds!  

 Bengals are not usually huge cats either,  and their wild ancestor , the Asian Leopard Cat,  is certainly a much smaller wildcat than the Serval.    Bengals are generally more filled-out looking.   I've heard the comparison that a BG is more like a soccer/ football player, while a SV more like a basketball player.  

Food:     To maximize healthy growth and development,  your Balthazar needs a diet that is  high in animal protein,  moderate-high in fat and very low in carbohydrate.     i know a lot of Savannah & Bengal breeders and owners think it is best to feed a balanced diet of raw meat, organs & bone.  There are some commercial ones that are good such as Radcat or Natures Variety Instinct,  or there are recipes for making homemade diets.   You can find out about that in the Nutrition forum here. http://www.thecatsite.com/f/64/cat-nutrition        ( you can see at the top there is a sub-section for discussion homemade diets) .

Just don't get focused on wanting a big cat and overfeed your cat so he gets overweight.   He should be lean and muscular. 

LOOKS/   In the avatar photo and a couple others I do see a tabby pattern that's similar to what I have seen in some SVs.  and in Posts 4 and 5  I see some resemblance in the head to SV.   If I had just seen the kitten with no info,  I would have noticed some resemblance but I wouldn't have felt absolutely sure ,   since sometimes kittens who are probably entirely ( or almost entirely) from random-breeding domestic cats , could end up with a similar look in shape until they "grow into" their ears and legs.

I don't see a strong Bengal resemblance .   but it sounds like it may not be certain how much Bengal is behind the father anyway.

In the exotic hybrid cat breeds,  there is a good deal of variation in generations like F3 -F4 - F5;   the amount of the exotic species is usually going to be less,  so it depends a great deal on the other cats  (not just which lines but which breeds -- or lack of breeds ) have been used in the breeding program.   Breeders have used many different cats to develop those breeds.     One issue is that the males in early generations are infertile.  so they had to use other cats. 

But by now there are plenty of Savannahs with multiple generations of SV to SV breeding behind them ,  and fertile males,  so they really do not need to be outcrossing like they used to,   but instead selecting to improve type. and usually in these breeds the idea is to create a  mostly domestic cat who looks like the wild species on which the breed is based.   Here is an example  of an F5 , SBT ( at least 3 generations of SV to SV breeding ) SV girl ,  that shows how some breeders are really starting to succeed at producing cats who have a pretty "Servally" look, despite being several generations removed.  http://www.kirembosavannahs.com/ourcatfamily/Zari.html

  This is even more true of Bengals , which have been around longer and are more popular. Most Bengal breeders have progressed beyond a need to outcross to cats of unknown ancestry  especially those with non- Bengal traits,  when there are so many stunning show quality Bengals.

WHITE   Re the white on the paws and underside.   This comes from the White Spotting gene (S).    It's actually not recessive, it is  dominant,  but it's variable in expression of  the amount and the placement of white.  A cat with one copy of S may turn out with what is nicknamed a "tuxedo"  pattern,  or perhaps with white paws and a streak on the forehead,  or it may show only in some smaller way  -- like a few white toes ,  or even some light pink toe pads contrasting with an otherwise dark  paw pad.  

  And there are rare cases where it doesn't show at all.  where the gene is present but not expressed.   That is  certainly unusual,  but it's not impossible that it could have happened here ( or else you just did not notice a  small white mark on one of the parents.   Or else the breeder is mixed up about who the father is!.)

  But White Spotting is not something that is normally carried hidden for generations in the manner of recessive genes that have to be inherited from both parents in order to show.     so even if one of Balthy's parents had that gene present but not expressed,  the odds are that it WOULD have been expressed in a grandparent.

 You mentioned you could only load one photo at a time?     I thought you could do more , but in any case, one can definitely put more than one photo into a post if you just edit it and attach another one. 

Thanks for the info, it was very helpful and informativr