We are now one of a small group of Breeders currently DUAL BASED in the West of England and in Lincolnshire we are one of a small group of breeder ACTIVELY INVOLVED in setting up a foundation breeding stock in the UK. Our aim to produce the prefect .. happy , healthy and handsome Serengeti. ALL OUR CATS AND KITTENS ARE REGISTERED AS SERENGETI WITH THE TICA.
Karen Sausaman from Kingsmark Farms in California had an idea , she wanted to breed a wild looking cat but without the wild blood input. In 1994 she became the founder of a new breed The Serengeti a domestic cat bred to resemble the wild cats of the Serengeti plains. The Serengeti is NOT an exotic cat, wild cat / domaestic hybrid cross there is NO wild blood in them. The Serengeti is produced by breeding together an Oriental Shorthair and a Bengal Selecting an Oriental. Ears should be large placed towards the top of the head. The Oriental should be heavy boned and were possible choose spotted tabby cats with round eyes . Individuals should be selected from lines that are predominantly non- dilute. Selecting Bengals. Good size and upright posture. Non standard larger than average ear size. Round eyes. Distinict spot pattern avoid bars/ rosettes. Choose cats with clear biege to gold coats with black spots to counteract the ticking that comes from the Oriental Heritage. Once the inital Bengal / Oriental cross has been achieved the result kittens will be registered as AOP Serengeti. Selective sub breeding is aimed at producing the perfect Serengeti. Individual cats from other breeds can be used if they will add something to the breed. Appearance. The Serengeti Coat should be short, thick and moderately soft, it should have long legs, extremely large upright round tipped ears, long neck , wide startling wild look eyes and a very upright stance. The accepted colors for a Serengeti are brown spotted . A clear yellow to gold coat with a distinict widely spaced randon spotted pattern. Silver spotted a grey base coat with a distinict random black spot and blcak /smoke pure black with shadow ghost spots. Occassionally there will be snow spotted, white background with grey to fawn spots. Mink spotted , cream background with fawn / light brown spots and a blue spot , cream back ground with grey spots; these colors are still registered as Serengeti but are variants and are not eligible to show at the is time. .
Size males are larger than females and can weigh anything from 10 pounds to 15 pounds , females from 8 to 10 pounds. Temperament. The Serengeti is open , self assured and people friendly . They are active and can be vocal but not as much as their Oriental l ancestors. They love to climb and will play for hours. An intelligent cat with bags of character. If introduced properly they should get along with other pets. Serengetis are currently recognised as a Preliminary New Breed with TICA they may be shown in the Preliminary New Breed class at TICA shows, but are not yet eligible for Championship status. The next step for the Serengeti as a breed will be to achieve Advanced New Breed Status ( short term goal for 2007) and then long term goal Championship Status. Each advancement of the breed requiries a certain number of breeders to be working with the breed , a certain number of litters to be registered each year and a certain number of unique cats to be shown each year. Working with am new breed takes a lot of patience especially when you are folding two breeds together and selecting a very specific trait . It takes generations to set "breed type" . There are only a few Serengeti breeders in the UK that are working towards breed standard and are registering their cats with The International Cat Assocaition. Up until 2006 when the Serengeti and Rare breed club was fromed SE breeders in the UK were working in isolation . From a very small beginning here in the SouthWest we are branching out and spreading across the UK. A decade behind America in the Serengeti breed programme interest in this rare new breed is rapidly growing
home page photo is of Tiago whose new Mummy is Claire Patterson in Hemel Hemptstead. This photo was taken By Claire . WE would like to thank her for allowing us to use it on site. Claires website is www.artbyclaire.com
