Meet the designer cats with wild blood

Bengals, Savannahs, and Toygers, explained.

By breeding house cats with wild animals, humans developed hybrid cats that look like little leopards. Bengal cats are a breed that was developed by breeding domestic cats with asian leopard cats. The first American bengal breeder is a woman named Jean Mill, but her work has continued through other breeders. We met one of those breeders, Anthony Hutcherson, when we went to film the cats at the Westminster Dog Show. Besides bengals, we also saw another hybrid breed: savannahs. Instead of asian leopard cats, savannahs were developed by breeding house cats with servals. Unlike the other two breeds, the last breed we met, toygers, are not hybrid cats. Breeder Judy Sugden created the breed by carefully breeding domestic cats with qualities that resemble wild tigers. To learn more about the cats and the breeders that made possible, watch the video above.

[akiakiii]

From where I'm from, you don't choose a cat. The cat chooses you.

[zinksly]

Imagine doing all this for your cat to run away

[venemoussyrin]

guys, dont spend 20k on a cat, adopt a black one and tell people is a mini panther :)

[orawolfgram]

From a genealogy or biological hereditary standpoint, this is so fascinating. But as a cat owner, this is ethically upsetting.

[Ari_]

My two rosetted bengals are both purebred rescues, which is quite rare to find. They had been dumped in a plastic bag and left in a rubbish bin, all because Luna had a 'too short' tail, and Kuro had a missing leg. I love my Luna and my Kuro, and I'm so thankful for the amazing person who found them.

[dejonaeedwards]

I'm uncomfortable with this much human interference, they always find a way to mess it up, look at what they did to dogs.

[iamsandhu]

Never judge a cat by its breed, it's just a marketing agenda created by humans, Each and every cat is unique and can love you infinite

[pablofromguatemala]

can science hurry up and make a minature bear species

[biancahimawan]

Old widowed grandma while knitting on a rocking chair: I'm obsessed with cats

These cat breeders: hold my bengal

[zeeahko]

i want a cat. any cat. doesn't have to be a tiny lion or anything. i just want a cat

[boygirlrot]

i feel like these cat and dog shows are so loud and must be really overwhelming for the animals

[liamlab]

That Woman that was breeding them basically said, "I know there's an overpopulation of cats right now but I don't care, I want this cat." Honestly as cool as these cats are they'll probably end up being more prone to problems. It's not worth the damage just to have a cat that looks like like a tiger.😔

[CATMANTOO]

As Bengal owner I strongly advise people not to get these designer wild cats. It's not fair to them to be confined and restricted away from their wild nature. They're just TOO MUCH CAT for most people. Once the novelty wears off, then you're stuck with a very energetic cat you can't deal with. very-very few people can provide an adequate home for these cats. NEVER GET AN ANIMAL BASED ON LOOKS! they never say what they do with all the cats that don't make the grade?

[artmis]

this just makes me want to adopt a ton of shelter cats

[alanservin]

The question is are we getting a lion version

[laurakarma]

I found my silver marbled bengal kitten at an L.A. county shelter. Look in shelters before buying! The mother was also in the shelter with 5 other kittens.

[Guttabee]

None of these cats are as cool as any of my 5 cats I found living under my house...

[belledupre]

as a shelter volunteer, we need to adopt every cat in need before breeding them. there are so, so many cats that already need homes

[fitfrek]

Imagine if humans were treated like these designer cats

[jeany]

It’s funny that we went overboard with dog breeding. I have a Weenie Dog and I’ve done lots of research of how to care for her. Then I came to a stop..a video that showed how we corrupted the dogs heritage...(I think). The German Shepherd is shorter and is fatter than it was. My dogs breed has a longer body and if not hold correctly, its spine can be cracked(or broke ). The pugs face is more spatted in, and you can barley see the muzzle (that’s why they have breathing problems).

But my point is that I hope they don’t go *TOO* overboard like we did to the dogs. Hopefully they do it carefully like they said. :)