Since the 1990s breeders became concerned with the decrease in the gene pool diversity so eventually in 1998 after extensive research with several geneticists a proposed out-crossing program was approved by the Havana Brown Breed Council of FIFe. This program allowed the breeding of a registered standard Havana Brown with an unregistered domestic shorthair cat (black or blue only) or an Oriental Shorthair ( any color except pointed, cinnamon, or fawn) and later on in 1999 was permitted the breeding with Chocolate-point or Seal-point Siamese cats also. The offspring of these breedings known as an F1 generation are then bred with a Havana Brown cat and their litter produces kittens considered Havana Brown kittens if they meet the color standard of the breed.
Even with the implemented out-crossing program, the numbers of the Havana and Havana Brown cats (as it’s recognized by FIFe) is a rare cat breed believed to have less than 1000 individuals left in the whole World.