Hybrid Cats

Pet hybrid cats can be entirely domestic cat hybrids or wild cat/domestic cat hybrids:

Domestic Cat Hybrids

Natural Hybrids

These are cats that have evolved over a period of time in a specific area. These breeds are the natural breeds such as the Abyssian and the Norwegian Forest Cat. The natural breeds evolved over a long time and were "discovered" rather that specifically bred.

Man-made Cat Hybrids refers to the controlled mating of a cat of one breed with a cat of another breed to create a new breed. Sometimes three or more different breeds may be involved. These are produced by human controlled matings. In this way new cat breeds are produced from two well known cat breeds.

Wild Cat/Domestic Cat Hybrids are the result of mating a domestic cat to an exotic cat. Examples are:

The Bengal cat is a cross between the small, wild Asian Leopard Cat, (Felis Bengalensis) with a domestic cat such as the Abyssinan, American Shorthair, Burmese, or Egyptian Mau.

The Safari cat a cross between  the South American Geoffroy cat and a domestic cat, usually a Bengal, Egyptian Mau or an Ocicat.

The Chausie cat is a cross between a domestic and the Jungle Cat. The domestic breed usually used is the Abyssinian because they have the same look and active habits as the Jungle Cat, but are smaller. Chausie cats, due to the various sizes of their parents, can weigh between 15 and 30 pounds (when full grown, depending on gender).

The Savannah cat is the result of crossing an African Serval cat to a domestic cat. Since with any hybrid cross resulting from the breeding of a wild cat to a domestic cat, the males are almost always sterile until the 4th-5th generation, there are a variety of domestic intact male cats used in breeding programs to create the early generation Savannahs. Some toms that are being used in the early generations include Oriental Shorthairs, Egyptian Maus, Serengetis, Bengals, and others.