WHAT IS THE SILVER SAVANNAH?
One of the most desireable colors of a Savannah Cat is the rare and unique Silver!
The strikingly beautiful silver coats can come in a variety of silver and gray shades.
A Silver Savannah will have a dark and/or light silver coat and have dark gray, light gray, and/or solid black spots.
The Silver is not actually a color but a lack in color derived from the inhibitor gene that produces silver by diluting the coat color. The inhibitor gene is a dominate gene and cannot be carried within the gene pool.
In order to create a Silver Savannah cat, the offspring MUST have at least one Silver Savannah parent.
It is impossible for a silver to be born from a cat from any other color, even if they have silver Savannahs in their ancestry. this means that at least one parent must be a silver for a silver kitten to be born.
Silver results from the Agouti gene in addition to the inhibitor gene, whereas a BST ('brown spotted tabby' or what you may know as the traditional golden coat/ black spots) cat only has the Agouti gene.
IF a breeder breeds together one SILVER SAVANNAH and one BST Savannah, the kittens can be either ALL BST, ALL SILVER, or a mix of SILVER and BST (unless there are other color genes present in both parents such as melanistic and snow etc. which can include kittens of one of these coat colors as well)
Most SILVER SAVANNAHS will have what is called " tipped golden" or 'tarnish' in the coat. This means that the SILVER SAVANNAH doesn't have a pure only silver and black spotted coat but may have slight or sometimes significant gold tones in areas of their coat which is usually a band of gold on the end of some strands of fur. this 'tarnish' can be on the paws, nose, face, and even across the coat. it is rare not to see this in a early generation Silver Savannah because the serval ancestor being a bst (golden - non silver) put together with one silver parent. In order to really create the almost pure silver coloring in a savannah you will see it mainly when breeders are pairing silver to silver throughout the gene pool to dilute the presence of gold all together. We are trying to perfect the silver coat in the f2 and f3 generations by using the brightest f1 and f2 silver queens with pure silver black spotted lower generation studs.
The Silver Savannah is a fairly newer coat "color" that is being recognized more and more by breeders and pet owners. There are still a lot of people who don't even know the silver Savannah even exists because the golden Savannah is the more traditional look that people are accustomed to.
We were so fascinated by this incredibly beautiful and bright color Savannah that we decided to specialize and perfect this coat color so that the silver savannah can be more recognized!
There are BST Savannahs that are often mistaken for silver by the untrained eye because of their darker cool toned fur. Don't be fooled by sellers advertising a silver savannah that is not actually silver! Our F1 Savannah Queen "Artemis" is very cool toned and dark BST with deep black spotting and smudgy black nose. Some people mistake her for silver in the low light because her golden tones almost disappear.
Breeding silver to silver or silver to cool toned bst will create a brighter more intense silver coat color in the later generations, although it is still possible achieve little to no tarnish with a BST x silver pairing.
TYPES OF SILVER SAVANNAH COATS
SILVER SILVER SHADED SILVER & TARNISH SMOKE
SILVER
The most desirable coat of the Silver Savannahs. the Silver Savannah's have a bright (almost neon) undercoat. Some of these silvers will have beautiful cool toned silver shades throughout their coat. Some of these silvers will have bright almost white silver shades throughout their coat. These silvers either have dark gray, light gray, or black spots. with the flash of your camera, the silver savannah's coat will glow, shine and glitter.
SILVER SHADED
The silver shaded Savannah is not a technical term used by Savannah breeders or used in any terms or color codes. This is simply just a silver Savannah but can also be confused by the untrained eye to be a "snow." It is a bright almost all white savannah with light gray and silver shading. the silver shaded will have gray, silver, and/or black spots. The contrast of the markings in the Silver shaded Savannah will be accentuated as he/she ages.
SILVER & TARNISH
MOST SILVER SAVANNAHS HAVE A FULL SILVER AND WHITE COAT (WITH BLACK SPOTTING) BUT ALSO HAVE WHAT BREEDERS WILL CALL 'TARNISH.' (SOME GOLD TONES IN AREAS LIKE THE FEET AND/OR NOSE BRIDGE). YOU CAN SEE THIS IN ALL GENERATIONS OF SILVERS BUT ESPECIALLY IN THE EARLY GENERATIONS LIKE THE F1 SAVANNAH BECAUSE YOU ARE PAIRING A GOLDEN SERVAL WITH A SILVER SAVANNAH. ONCE YOU START BREEDING SILVERS TO SILVERS THROUGHOUT THE GENE POOL YOU WILL OBTAIN AN ALMOST ALL SOLID SILVER AND WHITE COAT WITH BLACK AND SILVER SPOTTING. SOME PEOPLE LOVE SOME GOLDEN TONES ON THEIR SILVER SAVANNAH BECAUSE IT IS SUCH AN EXOTIC AND UNIQUE LOOK!
SMOKE
The silver smoke Savannah is very rare! This is a combination of a coat that is both silver and melanistic (black). the melanistic gene creates a Savannah that has an all black coat and the silver gene whitens the background of the coat. This creates a 'smoke like' effect in the fur pattern with swirls of different shades of silver and black.