6 months old!

On Jan 4, 2010 Panzer will be six months old. He will also be visiting the vet to get fixed. This is an important surgery to get done at six month or males will start to spray. Once that starts your house will smell like cat pee forever. *ATTENTION* If you opt to get this procedure for your cat, remember Savannah's should only be anesthetized with Isoflurane Gas. This is very very very important and our breeder at Rivers Rain confirmed this in an email to me earlier.

Lately he's been eating like a beast and he loves the snow. He eats an entire chicken leg in about 15 minutes, sometimes he even gnaws on the bone to get the marrow. These are raw so it's kinda messy if he drags it around. Anyhow he usually eats about 7 legs a day give or take a couple. The people at the butcher must think we really like chicken legs. Anyhow if he continues to eat more than I do we'll need to buy in bulk and freeze some. The other option is to raise large birds and let them duke it out in a battle royal in the back yard. :\ Ok so I could never do that because I like birds but it has crossed my mind.

You may be thinking that's a lot of chicken. Yes, it is. It's like feeding a hungry teenager with a never ending need for food. He's grown a little in the last week, but not a lot. He's about 18" from ear to foot when he sits down, and his paws are twice the size of our domestic breeds. For some reason he walks with his fingers open so his paws look huge. Not like the other cats, their pads are closer together and not quite as defined. He has big fingers.

So if you want to create a cheap toy for your Savannah using house hold items I have discovered a great new toy. Find a round laundry basket and a ball (or wrapped up paper) and put it upside down with the ball inside. Panzer spends about an hour trying to figure this one out daily, its a great way to focus attention while you do house work.

Soon we will have some new pics for everyone. I'm lazy and tomorrow is NYE so I don't feel like loading them yet. However there are some good ones from the holiday so I'm sure you'll enjoy.

Merry Christmas!

Panzer and all the kitties wish you all a merry christmas! Even though he decided to open the gifts early, hide his stocking and tear apart all the toys within an hour, I'm guessing he's enjoying himself. :)

In case anyone was wondering... He's now about 12 lbs, 13.5" at the shoulder and roughly 18.5" long. The 6 month mark will be here in a week so I'm happy to say he's doing well and getting big. He eats 7 chicken legs a day, most of the time he eats the marrow and soft bone because it's raw. It's good to note that you should never feed an animal cook bones... Always buy extra toys, the first round will be killed by the end of the day.

Panzer & Mom

Toes!

Panzer & Lou

X-Mas Thief

It seems that our furry little friend has become a kleptomaniac. So far he's stolen his own stocking, three of the toys we bought him for xmas, my furry polar bear stuffed animal, and many bulbs from the tree. This morning I woke up to him sitting on top of my bedroom door staring down at me. How does he balance on the edge of the door without falling off? No idea. It was quite freaky.

Today he seemed a little bigger so I decided to weigh him and he's gained about 0.6 lbs. He's taller than all the cats now, and his head is getting bigger. We've noticed that he has really big kitty toes in comparison to the other cats, but he has big paws in general. Being the worry wart we went out to get some calcium powder as a suppliment for crushing bone. He seems to like it with his meat and the effects have been positive so far. This week it's veal and chicken gizzards with a mixture of the Mazuri dry food and some raw chicken legs. Now all of the sudden he eats like a champ gobbling down almost 4 meals a day. He actually eats more than I do! So if any of you reading this post are wondering how we got him to eat again... we didn't he just decided to eat. Granted we have the means to buy him lots of food options and nutrients what ever it is that made him start eating again was based on his own will.

Jumping

Panzer can now officially jump about 5+ feet from a sitting position. On the run he can leap right about 6 foot, but it's hard to measure. This becomes an issue because all your special items you stored up high so they were safe from the kitten two months back are now fair game. He's also becoming more curious and less afraid of new things in the house. He's still about ~11 lbs but it looks like he may have grown a little in the paws and from legs. Recently he kinda looked like a drag racing car because his back legs are so big and his front smaller.

Another interesting note to make is that he's become much more intelligent. He brings the toys to us when he wants to play. He's learned how to get our attention when he wants it and I've seen him try to open the screen door. Last week he hopped in the washer just for fun. As anticipated the xmas tree has been a source of entertainment. To new Savannah owners I would suggest getting a fake tree and plastic bulbs. Forget the tree topper (star, angel, etc)... that's nothing more than a target. Oh and he likes the bath tub, water and bubbles. He just about jumped in the shower with me a couple days back.

Picky eater...

Well once again the Panzer machine has decided that eating is not important. For a while he liked the chicken, then turkey, then cooked turkey, then back to dark meat chicken... I think we've tried so many combination's that the next idea is to just give him a live chicken and wait. Seriously, it changes daily so yo have no idea if he wants raw or cooked meat. Dry food or wet food, when he doesn't want to eat he will ignore anything we put out. You could put all the gravy you want on it and he still ignores his plate. Personally I think it's to do with growth. I've noticed a pattern in his eating habits and growth rate. He'll eat a lot for a few days, sleep a bunch and then grow a lot. When that's not happening he'll be up all the time playing and running around but won't eat at all. Being the 1st of our Savannah's we are doing our best to get him all the nutrients he needs while maintaining his exercise. Just this weekend we decided to change over to a new dry food Mazuri, and a special home blend of wet food so all the cats eat the same. Anyhow here are some fun facts about food...

What we've tried so far:
Raw chicken breast (chunks)
Raw thigh (chunks)
Raw breast & leg meat w/ marrow (ground & chunks)
Entire Thigh and leg
Turkey breast cooked (chunks)
Turkey dark meat (chunks)
Turkey livers (raw and cooked, chopped and whole)
Home made cat food (Turkey breast, turkey livers, chicken thighs, some juice from the boiling)
Royal Canin (Dry)
Bananna - we read they like fruit
Blue Mountain Wild Cat blend (canned patte)
Max Cat (canned patte)
Wellness (canned patte)
Wellness Packets (chunks)
Wysong (dry/wet all natural)
Special gravy with vitamins (Vita-Gravy)

What he likes:
Patte Food - no
Chunked Food - yes
Cooked Poultry - sometimes
Raw Chicken - yes
Fruit - no yet
Our food - yes
The other cats food which is bad for him - yes
Cardboard - yes
Ice Tea - dunks paws in it then licks off tea
Bone marrow w/ meat chunks - yes
Bone meal fresh from butcher - no
Live animals - haven't tried yet
Fish - haven't tried yet

Seriously that is all I can remember but there was more combos. It doesn't matter what we make he just eats what ever, when ever and you can't tell when or what he wants. Man, and I thought deciding what I wanted to eat was tough. It's very scary to think that he needs to eat to grow up strong and healthy so when he's not eating you have to wonder what the issue is. I'm told there isn't any but I still worry he might have ate something bad and his stomach is upset.

The choice here is the Wysong dry/wet food since it's all natural and has no fillers. You just add water and its all set. That with a mix of the raw chicken and I think we'd be in business again. However this week he will only eat the cooked meat so who knows. He attacks and tries to steal ham sandwiches, an entire 3 lb pork loin from the fridge, pizza, ice tea, burgers and anything except CAT FOOD!! He's like a little kid who only wants McDonalds and pizza and that's it. My wife and I enjoy sharing our life with Panzer. Like all good animal care givers we want him to grow up to be the proud grandson of one of the most amazing animal species in the world... the large felines. You can see his Serval roots the older he gets. Like with most cats the older they get the less they act like kittens and the more they act like cats. The Serval, being solitary for the most part will eventually start to come out more and more as he matures. Just today he ran out the back door when I was going out side and he took off after a squirrel. He stopped and let me pick him up, but he had no harness and for a moment I didn't think he was coming back. He still doesn't know his name so you can't call him back. When he's bigger at least he'll be easier to block when trying to slip out of the door.

Turkey day pics :)