Tips for Socializing Your New Savannah

First, you should always quarantine a new pet for two weeks. Even if said pet is 100% healthy when they leave the breeder, you shouldn't take chances that they haven't picked something up during shipping, at the vet's, etc. For all of us, this is difficult, probably the worst part of bringing a new SV home. It is a very important precaution that you should strictly adhere to.

Secondly, if you have other pets they will know what's up before they actually meet face to face. She will smell and hear the new girl right away. If the new girl is quarantined in a bedroom, the other cats will meet her under the door. That is going to segue into a proper introduction later, when quarantine is up. This doesn't mean that your new cat will get along right away with your other cats. They may hate each other at first, there may be a lot of hissing going on, and power struggles also. Or you could have what I had happen to me, which was that my SVs all loved to play "chase the fat tabby", not out of malice, but because she was so predictable and always ran. She ended up under the bed and they just sat and waited for her to bolt again. When they got tired of waiting, they left her alone. None of them ever tried to do anything aggressive to her; on the contrary, they thought she was a lot of fun to just chase. This is pretty common.

I know other SV owners who have never had any problems with bringing a SV into their home. This is usually because their domestic doesn't run so consequently isn't much fun to chase. They usually end up buddies in this case. You just can't tell ahead of time how it will go. My domestic now spends a lot of time in my son's bedroom out of self preservation. She is happier that way.

As for how to introduce them and initially try to get them used to each other, I did what some of the experienced breeders told me to do: I put the SV in a large kennel in the same room with the DSH, and later swapped them out, letting the new girl be on the outside and letting the DSH be in the kennel. I did this for short periods of time at first, and didn't actually let them meet out of the kennel till a few days later. This of course, drags the quarantine period out, as they have already been in separate rooms for two weeks. But it is a good way to do it. Susan Martin
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Links:

http://www.savannahcat.com/
http://www.savannahbreedsection.org/

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About the photo:
Cahabacats Nyala, F3 B (15%); Owner Susan Martin (Sandalwood Savannahs). Queen Nyala is who she feels she is. Regal, intense and elegant all sum up this silver girl. She does not walk away from a running faucet, and is likely to catch the feather toy first, but she is somehow able to pull off being aloof at the same time. Susan Martin, www.sandalwoodsavannahs.com