Yes, the Toyger is a real cat breed and a fairly modern one. The underlying goal of the breeders was to create a purebred cat that looks like a miniature or toy tiger. I think it’s in line with some early ideas about some cat breeds when breeders first introduced the wild cat hybrids into people’s homes. The initial concept for the Bengal cat for instance was to bring the wild cat into the home.
There was a certain element of education about conservation in that concept; to highlight the pressures put upon the small wild cat species by humankind.
The idea to create a toy tiger was Judy Sugden’s and she founded the breed (see pic above). She wanted to inspire people about the conservation of the tiger. I don’t think she succeeded in any shape or form but that’s a personal view.
I don’t think she succeeded in improving the conservation of the tiger through the Toyger and neither have the breeders really created a domestic cat which looks and walks and behaves like a tiger. Perhaps I’m being too critical but the big cats walk in a certain way because of their size. You can’t replicate that in a much smaller, domestic cat.
And the muzzle of the tiger is very massive. They have relatively small ears compared to their head size. These aspects of the tiger are not replicated in the Toyger. The Maine Coon has a muzzle more like the tiger’s.
The Toyger was recognised by TICA in the early 2000’s and was accepted as a full championship breed in 2012. There are around 20 breeders in the United States with 15 more in the rest of the world.
I have a full page on the Toyger so I don’t need to go over this breed here and now. If the breed interests you please click on this link.
In very general terms, the Toyger has a very strongly coloured ‘orangey’ coat with strong mackerel tabby markings to try and replicate those almost black tiger stripes. The Toyger is a mackerel tabby cat with a very glossy, refined coat in essence.
Pic of Sugden: By ToygerPaws – http://users.skynet.be/toygerpaws/handsomepage.html, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86993423
