Why have I not heard of Toyger until now!

stormy · Mar 8, 2007

Yesterday I seen an article in a newspaper magazine about Toygers, they are absolutely beautiful kitties. And found out they've been around for a few years, but honestly I've never heard of the breed until now.

Here's a link I found

http://www.toygers.org/

persi & alley · Mar 8, 2007

I think the reason you (or I) had not heard of this breed is because it is with the TICA, not the CFA. I used to have an AKA book and I had every breed in that book memorized but other lesser known associations have breeds I have never heard of. For example, Persi is a CFA registered Persian but the CFA does not recognize the Himalayan as a breed, but as a color of Persian. I still call him a Himmy but I named him Persi, short for Persian. And I wonder, is a Calico recognized as a breed by any organization or is that just a reference to color?

missymotus · Mar 8, 2007

There was a Toyger on the cover of Cats & Kittens magazine several months ago. There's a debate about them in the IMO section.

kai bengals · Mar 8, 2007

Toygers are a new breed, not yet accepted by any registry, although they have gained "advanced new breed" status with TICA, but they are not yet allowed to compete.
The founder of this new breed is the daughter of Jean Mill, who started the bengal breed back in the late 60's, early 70's.

Toygers have a long tough road ahead of them to get to the point where they look like what the breed standard calls for. It'll be interesting to see what these cats look like in 10 years.

goldenkitty45 · Mar 8, 2007

In CFA, the Himalayans were a separate breed until I think the 80's (not sure when they changed over). Because the himi/persian standard is the exact same thing, they just combined them into one breed. Many people still refer to them as himis (I do)

Nial, what wild breed of cat are they working with in the Toygers?

kai bengals · Mar 8, 2007

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Nial, what wild breed of cat are they working with in the Toygers?

None, they are developing the breed from the bengal.

goldenkitty45 · Mar 8, 2007

How in the HECK are they getting tiger stripes out of Bengals? Guess I need to do a bit of reading.

kai bengals · Mar 8, 2007

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

How in the HECK are they getting tiger stripes out of Bengals? Guess I need to do a bit of reading.

Vertical alignment of spots, rib barring, then some line breeding, etc, etc. That's really simplifying it, but, basically that's it.

goldenkitty45 · Mar 8, 2007

Of course you can always have a "tiger" from the deep red mackeral tabbys in the normal cat

stormy · Mar 8, 2007

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I wonder if the breed will actually look like how they project they will in a few years? I really like how rounded the ears will be.

kai bengals · Mar 9, 2007

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Of course you can always have a "tiger" from the deep red mackeral tabbys in the normal cat

Right, and I believe that is exactly the type of cat they are using to cross breed with bengals.
They need to use the bengals, to retain alot of the wild looking features. The gait being one of them. Bengals walk like leopards, with the rolling shoulders.

lnbandcats · Mar 9, 2007

Toygers! Ha! I was going to post a thread about them. This morning on Good Morning America, they were talking about the hottest new breed of cat - the Toyger - I did get to see one of them jump out of his "playpen" and Diane Sawyer picked him up. It looked like a big cat. Unfortunately, the segment was going to air after 7:30am this morning, and I had to leave for work. I was curious if anyone got to see the segment and could shed some light on the breed. When someone talks about "the hottest new breed" it always sends a red flag up - you know people will want this breed just because it is unique. That usually doesn't bode well for the animal.

kai bengals · Mar 9, 2007

There's a thread in IMO to debate the Toyger, if you're interested.
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=116680

jiazzi · Mar 9, 2007

I saw that segment on Good Morning America. I've never heard of the "toyger" until today but here's what I got from the show:

It will take at least ten years to breed the toyger to look like a spitting image of a miniature tiger. While they were explaining this, they were showing a toyger that really did resemble a miniature tiger.

The toyger is not bred from a tiger but from the Asian leopard cat...(No mention of bengals in the segment).

It has a hunting posture.

They talked about how the toyger can cost anywhere from $800 - $4,000. Diane Sawyer couldn't believe it and said something about a trend towards designer pets. Then the breeder said something to the effect of 'Designer prices for designer people.'

They showed two adorable little kittens who so small that they both fit into a handler's cupped hands. Awwwwwwww.... and they were making small little mewing sounds.

hopehacker · Mar 9, 2007

Right now, I think Toyger look like striped Bengal. I wonder if they'll try to go more towards the colour of a tiger. They're more orange, then wouldn't it be cool if they could get little white Toygers? I would LOVE one of those, if they ever get the breed perfected.

goldenkitty45 · Mar 9, 2007

Keep in mind the white tigers have chocolate/brown stripes - not black. I think it would be difficult enough getting the orange color - which is not the same color as red tabbys

kai bengals · Mar 9, 2007

Originally Posted by jiazzi

I saw that segment on Good Morning America. I've never heard of the "toyger" until today but here's what I got from the show:

It will take at least ten years to breed the toyger to look like a spitting image of a miniature tiger. While they were explaining this, they were showing a toyger that really did resemble a miniature tiger.

The toyger is not bred from a tiger but from the Asian leopard cat...(No mention of bengals in the segment).

It has a hunting posture.

They talked about how the toyger can cost anywhere from $800 - $4,000. Diane Sawyer couldn't believe it and said something about a trend towards designer pets. Then the breeder said something to the effect of 'Designer prices for designer people.'

They showed two adorable little kittens who so small that they both fit into a handler's cupped hands. Awwwwwwww.... and they were making small little mewing sounds.

This just proves once again, that you can't believe everything you see on TV.

The first "Toyger" was created using a bengal and a domestic tabby, then subsequent line breeding began producing the striping effect they were looking for. Any Asian Leopard Cat influence comes from the bengal cat, since bengals were created using the Asian Leopard Cat.

ALC's are heavily spotted, all the way down their legs and tails, introducing those genes at full strength would be counter productive to what they are trying to achieve with the Toyger.

hopehacker · Mar 9, 2007

They are really making a BIG deal of these Toygers, lately. I just saw that they're also going to have a piece on the Toyger cat on the 4pm news here in Los Angeles. The news womans said,"They look like they should be in the Wild, but they're not. They're the latest craze in house cats. Meet the Toyger."

I wonder why all of this sudden publicity? Because Toyger's don't yet meet the standard that they want, I wonder why they're putting them all over the media, now. I don't know why they don't talk about Bengals, instead.

kai bengals · Mar 9, 2007

Originally Posted by HopeHacker

They are really making a BIG deal of these Toygers, lately. I just saw that they're also going to have a piece on the Toyger cat on the 4pm news here in Los Angeles. The news womans said,"They look like they should be in the Wild, but they're not. They're the latest craze in house cats. Meet the Toyger."

I wonder why all of this sudden publicity? Because Toyger's don't yet meet the standard that they want, I wonder why they're putting them all over the media, now. I don't know why they don't talk about Bengals, instead.

Good question, I wonder if these early unveilings are going to help or hinder efforts to get these breed up to speed in terms of conformation?

Well, you know how the media is, once they get wind of a news worthy story, they all jump all over it, until the 15 mins of fame is over.

Bengals are so well known to the general public, that they really aren't a big draw for the media anymore. They do get a big crowd at the cat shows though!

telynn · Mar 9, 2007

ABCNews web site has pictures.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/popup?id=2938115

They are pretty cute.

Why have I not heard of Toyger until now!

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