The following are new mainstream cat breeds: Lykoi, Khao Manee, Toybob, Maine Coon Polydactyl, Minuet and Minuet Longhair (Napoleon). I’d like to include one, new non-mainstream breed, the Cheetoh.

Lykoi – recognised, accepted and registered by America’s Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA) and The International Cat Association (TICA). This interesting “werewolf cat” was founded in 2011 by Johnny Gobble, Brittany Gobble and Patti Thomas. This cat breed therefore quite definitely qualifies as being a new one. I think of all the so-called new cat breeds this is the best example and one that I would choose if I was interested in adopting a new and unusual breed;
Khaomanee – recognised by both these top cat associations but spelled differently. ‘Khaomanee’ as spelt by TICA and Khao Manee as spelt by the CFA. The Khaomanee is an ancient cat breed thought to originate from between 1768 to 1910. However, it has only been accepted by the CFA on February 7, 2018. In the UK, the GCCF, the number one cat Association in the UK, granted the Khao Manee cat club pre-affiliation on October 26, 2011. This, therefore, I would argue qualifies this rare breed as being a new one;

Toybob – recognised by the CFA but not TICA. Although the Toybob, being native to Russia, and being created in 1983, cannot be classified as a new breed, they are a new breed in terms of how they are accepted by the American cat fancy. February 12, 2019, marks the day that the Toybob became recognised as the 45th breed by the world’s largest registry of pedigree cats, namely the CFA. Once again, this qualifies the Toybob as a new cat breed in my view;

Maine Coon Polydactyl – recognised by TICA but not by the CFA. The Maine Coon polydactyl has been around for hundreds of years but throughout that time there were not even purebred cats and even after they became a purebred cat in America, sometime in the middle to late 18 hundreds, this cat breed was not accepted if polydactylism was present. My research indicates that the Maine Coon polydactyl was accepted by TICA on May 1, 2015. Once again a new breed if the criteria is that it has to be recognised by a mainstream cat association;
RELATED: Can a polydactyl Maine Coon win a CFA cat show?
Minuet and Minuet Longhair – recognised by TICA but not the CFA. The Minuet is actually a Napoleon dwarf cat under a different name. It was created in the 1990s but accepted for the first time by a mainstream cat Association, TICA, for championship in 2016. The dwarf cats are controversial and therefore this was a big step by TICA and as it occurred recently, I think that it is a good reason to include this unusual and rare breed as a new one.
Cheetoh – I am going to break from my criteria on one occasion and choose the Cheetoh as a new cat breed but a non-mainstream breed. This cat is not accepted by CFA and TICA but it is rare and unusual and I think it may interest people. The Cheetoh cat breed was created in 2003 by Carol Drymon of Wild Haven Exotics Cattery. This, once again, qualifies the cat as being a new breed. You can read more about this breed by clicking on this link, which covers the beading detail.

What are the new cat breeds? It depends what you mean by “new”. How do you decide what is new? What are the criteria? As you can see the list above, I decided to pick out the breeds that the premier American cat associations have relatively recently included in their list of accepted and recognised cat breeds bar one 😎.
I don’t think that you can include in a list of new cat breeds those that are very much on the fringes of the cat fancy because they are too hard to find if you want to purchase one. This narrows things down but I think it helps to narrow down the list. In my view there are about 104 cat breeds in total. You don’t want to plough through all of them because it’s confusing.
It is questionable whether the Maine Coon Polydactyl is a new breed because it is an existing breed except for the fact that this large and influential cat association (TICA) accept Maine Coons with more than the usual toes, which is something that the CFA don’t. I think it’s worth including in the list because polydactyly is associated with the Maine Coon historically. And I think it should be accepted and is quite nice to have a polydactyl Maine Coon because you’ve got a part of history and you’re in some ways linked to Ernest Hemingway who lived on the Florida Keys and whose house is well known for a group of cats including what used to be polydactyl Maine Coons.
I should add that when you search online for new cat breeds you find some really strange lists from well-known websites. To be perfectly honest, these lists are, at least partly, inaccurate and I wouldn’t believe them. For example, the petkeen.com website lists the LaPerm is a new cat breed. This is a very well-established breed that has been around since 1986 (for 36 years!); hardly a new breed. You are warned!

Please comment if you want to add to the page. The criteria are subjective. Each will have their own viewpoint.
Below are some more pages on rare cat breeds.