According to Dan Laughlin (who was once convicted for stealing white tiger cubs) 80% of white tigers die from birth defects associated with the inbreeding necessary to cause a white coat. This is a fallacious figure. The American Zoological Association SSP claim a 35% tiger cub mortality rate in captivity (bitrth to 12 months old). An analysis of Bengal tigers listed in International studbooks and zoo inventories support this,whith white tigers, heterozygous tigers and orange (non-carrier) tigers having almost the same figure, meaning that white tigers do not have higher cub mortality than their orange brethren.

Cub mortality has many causes. Inexperienced or stressed mothers may injure, neglect or kill their cubs. The mother’s health and diet affect the cubs’ health. The presence of other tigers nearby (e.g. in circuses), or lack of privacy are stress factors. Disease, perhaps contracted while being handled, is another killer - many cubs were handled from a far too young age. Feline infectious enteritis (sometimes called "cholera"), from domestic cats, also affected tigers, although routine vaccination has greatly decreased the incidence of this disease. Inbreeding depression affects the immune system, making animals less resilient, and can cause hidden physiological abnormalities as well as visible abnormalities. Transporting young animals cubs to other facilities or TV studios is another stressor. Handling cubs from an early age made them tamer, so many were taken from their mothers and hand-reared. Mothers may kill or reject their cubs after the cubs have been handled. A big contributor was simply the fact that white tiger cubs were a photogenic novelty, and this led to excessive handling and excessive breeding (breeding the females too often) to quickly increase their numbers and meet demand. The quickest way to increase numbers was to breed white tigers together, regardless of how closely related they were, and that was what happened in the 1970s. One white Bengal tiger died of heat stroke in his travelling box at a railway station in India.

There was a higher level of cub mortality (stillbirths and early deaths) in the 1970’s due to intensive inbreeding among Mohan and Begum’ descendants resulting in inbreeding depression. At that time the cubs were novelties and were often handled or exhibited while very young, stressing them and their mothers. Early on, female offspring were sometimes back-crossed to Mohan to produce white cubs (known in livestock breeding as “fixing” a trait). When this was realised, a programme of outcrossing was pursued and early mortality decreased. At least this was the case in Indian zoos. In the USA, there was a similar situation due to the demand for white tigers as a public attraction (inbreeding continued in privately owned white tigers bred for the pet trade). In the 1980s, outcrossing to the Orissa line and the introduction of new foundation tigers improved cub survival rates. Continuing to bring in new blood, plus better animal husbandry, mimics the natural situation, where tigers have large ranges and a wider choice of mates, and reduces cub mortality to a similar level to that in wild tigers.

According to the Times of India report (8th July 2000) Nandankanan zoo had produced 300 tiger cubs - 177 orange and 123 white - since 1967, but few had survived, possibly because of weakening genes, though it did not back this up with numbers, ages or causes of death. 300 cubs over 33 years = 9.1 cubs per year average. Nandankanan Zoo decreased its early mortality rate by not publicly exhibiting tigers until they reached 12 months old. Based on captive Bengal tigers that reached breeding age (about 4 years old), studbook data shows that their average lifespan is almost 13 years, with white tigers and heterozygous tigers often outliving those lacking the white gene. Wild caught tigers lived slightly longer, based on estimated ages, but they had already won the “survival of the fittest” battle before capture. Both white and orange captive tigers have been recorded as reaching their 20s.

In “Inbreeding in white tigers” (Proc. Indian Acad. Sci.. Vol. 88 B, Part I, Number 5, October 1979, pp. 311-323), A K Roychoudhury and K S Sankhala documented the causes of death of white tiger cubs up until 1979. At the time, demand for white tigers meant there was much inbreeding to produce white cubs. The researchers noted weak eyes and shortened legs (Rewati in Washington DC), neck twisting of some white cubs (Delhi), lack of development of kidneys in Salim in Bristol, arching of the backbone of Arun in Calcutta and stillbirths in Delhi and Washington DC. They also noted apparent poor fertility, presumed to be in white tiger males. Although inbreeding is suspected to contribute to early mortality, all these defects and diseases might be ascribed to environmental rather than genetic causes. This is a summary of their data.

Delhi Zoological Park, New Delhi
The main causes of early mortality in Delhi have been pneumonia, trauma of the abdomen, congestion of the lungs, feline enteritis and negligence of the mother.

Raja x Rani (siblings). 20 white cubs in 7 litters. 13 deaths of which 4 were accidental.
Litter 1: Rukko was mauled by her inexperienced mother.
Litter 2: 2 cubs died within a day due to careless handling and neglect by their mother.
Litter 3; Ravi died due to sunstroke.
The remaining nine deaths were non-accidental: 2 were stillborn, 5 died at an early age. Bahadur, litter 4, died of congested lungs. Jagru, litter 5, died of lumber paralysis.

Raja x Radha (his mother). 9 cubs in 2 litters.
Litter 1: All 5 cubs died of pneumonia within seven months of birth.
Litter 2: 2 cubs died of starvation shortly after birth.

Rani x Dalip (her son) and produced one white female cub who died of Parkimouse syndrome and pneumonia within nine days after birth (I cannot find a description of Parkimouse).

Hari x Ashima (born to Rani and Raja in separate litters), had a single stillborn white male at the time of that article. Current studbook is incorrect about the death-date and paternity of their litters, putting Jim as the sire). Hari x Ashima were also seen to mate on multiple occasions without pregnancy resulting.

Mohan x Sukeshi (his grand-daughter) produced 5 litters of two cubs each. Only 2 survived.
Litter 1: 2 cubs died due to maternal neglect.
Litter 3: Gautam died accidentally.
Litter 5: Virat - aged 8 - died after a prolonged illness.
The remaining four deaths including one stillborn are considered to be non-accidental.

Gautam x Homa (son and daughter of Sukeshi x Mohan) had two white male cubs in one litter but both died of pernicious anaemia shortly after their birth.

Homa x Tippu (son of Rani x Raja), produced four cubs in two litters and all of them died of unknown causes within a few days after their birth. Homa x Tippu were seen to mate on multiple occasions without pregnancy occurring.
When Homa was mated to Moti, a coloured tiger unrelated to the white tigers, she produced four cubs, of which one was stillborn. Another male cub died within 24 hr of his birth due to starvation as the mother was not producing sufficient milk.
Dalip x Sukeshi and Dalip x Homa were seen to mate on several occasions without resulting in pregnancy. Before Virat’s death, he mated with Chameli several times but no pregnancy resulted.
The male white tigers appeared unable to fertilise the female white tigers when the females were in oestrus. Roychoudhury and Sankhala believed that subsequent matings and conceptions proved the males had fertility issues, but overlooked the possibility that oestrus females might have failed to ovulate or were in “false oestrus.” Feline ovulation occurs after mating, hence the females need to mate more than once to ensure fertilisation.

Calcutta Zoological Garden, Calcutta
The majority of deaths in the Calcutta Zoo have been due to feline enteritis but a few died of trypanosomiasis, In addition, Arun had abnormal arching of the backbone.

Radha’s second litter comprised two males, Neeladri and Himadri, and orange female, Malini, tht founded the line of white tigers in Calcutta.
Malini x Neeladri produced 7 litters comprising 14 cubs of which 7 were white.
Litter 3; male cub euthanized due to gangrene.
Litter 4: female cub (Kiranmala) was killed by her brother, Barun.

Chandni (white tigress from Malini x Neeladri first litter litter) was mated to Himadri (her uncle) and she produced 20 white cubs in 6 litters.
Litter 1: all died - not nursed by their mother.
Litter 2: all died - not nursed by their mother.
Litter 3: 3 cubs died -not nursed by their mother.

Ravi x Sashi (son and daughter of Malini and Neeladri) produced 3 white and 10 orange cubs in 3 litters. All died of unknown causes within 5 days after birth.

Arun and Rupa in Calcutta were kept in the same enclosure for some time but they did not produce any offspring.

National Zoological Park, Washington DC, USA

Mohini x Samson (her uncle)
Litter 1: Rajkumar (white), Ramana (orange) and Ramani (orange). All contracted an acute form of feline distemper. Only Ramana survived.
Litter 2: 2 orange cubs, one was stillborn.

Mohini x Ramana (her son)
Litter 1: Male died shortly after birth – he had shortened tendons in his forelegs which prevented “kneading action” hence he could not nurse. Female Rewati survived. She had crossed eyes and short legs.
Litter 2: 5 cubs. 3 were crushed to death while Mohini was giving birth the stillborn 5th cub. The 3 that died were believed to have been too weak to survive even if the accident had not occurred. Surviving cub, Moni, died at 16 months old due to neurological issues (possibly caused during birth or when siblings were crushed).
When Mohini’s daughter Kesari was mated to a normal coloured male, named Poona, she had a litter of six normal coloured cubs of which only one female named Marvin survived. Four of the cubs died from a viral (unspecified) type of pneumonia. The cause of death of the fifth cub was not diagnosed. All of them died within four months of their birth.

Bristol Zoo, Bristol, England

Champak x Chameli (son and daughter of Mohan x Radha) and Mohan produced 3 litters comprising 14 cubs.
Litter 1: 4 cubs all died within 10 days of birth.
Litter 2: one cub died and was eaten by mother.
Litter 3: 2 cubs died in infancy.
Champak, Akbar, Sarala, Shusmita and Seeta all died from loss of appetite and swelling of the abdomen.
Sumati x Akbar produced one white male named Salim, whose kidney was not properly developed. He was put to sleep before he was two years old.
When Chameli was mated to Champak, Shusmita to Akbar and Nirmala to Roop, all of them miscarried twice at about 42 days. Sumati was mated to both Akbar and Roop, she aborted three times.

Circus Tigers

It is almost impossible to work out the mortality rate of white circus tigers because the records are often not available. Robert Baudy, Julius von Uhl and Josip Marcan all bred white tigers starting in the 1960s. Baudy had a ruthless approach to destroying any animal that was not productive or was defective at birth, but there are no publicly available records relating to his tigers.

Von Uhls' tiger cubs were often born while the circus was travelling and were generally removed from the mother for hand-rearing. At a few months of age, the cubs were doing publicity events. He bred a number of litters from Raja and Sheba II (both heterozygotes). Some appear to be singleton litters. In other cases only one cub survived. In many cases they were lost to follow-up. Out of a litter of 6 in May/June 1975, including 3 white cubs, only heterozygote Obie is known to have reached adulthood. Two white and one orange cub were born in June 1976, the 2 white cubs were both deformed and were destroyed in infancy. Of three white cubs born in June 1977, it appears than none survived beyond 6 months (Scarlett O’Hara). Two white cubs (Manju and Bill Atma) were born to Raja and Sheba II while at Henry Doorly Zoo in November 1981, only one survived infancy.

Hawthorn Circus tigers Frosty (white) and Bengali (heterozygous orange) produced 8 known cubs between 1978 and 1982 – 6 white, 2 heterozygous orange –all did within a few weeks. A year after Bengali’s last litter with Frosty, Bengali and Saber II (heterozygote) produced 3 white cubs, one died before one year and 2 survived to breed. It would be easy to suggest that Frosty transmitted genetic defects, but there are many other variables: Bengali was more experienced, the locations where the cubs were born, the skill of the hand-rearers etc.