August 19, 2025 – West Bend, Wi – It has been a long, exhausting process for all of us following the pregnancy of the white tiger Ginger at Shalom Wildlife Sanctuary in West Bend, Wi. Tonight, finally comes word of the birth of four baby tigers.
Shalom owner David Fechter said it happened Tuesday afternoon around 3:15 p.m.
David Fechter’s post is below.
Thank you God for answering everyone’s prayers!!!!
Happy Birthday Ginger. One white cub that will look just like Ginger, one golden cub that will look like King, one dark cub that will look like Charlotte, and one cub that will look like Jona.
First baby born at 3:15pm just as Dr. Rick arrived to give Ginger a check up.
Ginger is very tired and appears to be in good condition. The cubs are about 20% bigger than her last litter.
Four nipples and four babies.
Please continue to pray for Ginger and all four of her babies. Anything can happen in the next 24-48 hours. Right now everything is looking very good.
Dear God thank you so much for these beautiful gifts to our world.
Out of the four new cubs, one is a rare white tiger cub. “They’re on the verge of extinction, and there are only about 200 white tigers in the world,” Fechter said. “The last two times she had cubs, one was white. We were hoping for another to keep that gene alive.”
Fechter said the cubs will have their eyes open in about a week.
But with the excitement comes uncertainty. “Anything can happen after birth — she could abandon them, she could eat them, we don’t know,” Fechter said. “That’s the scary part. With human babies, you have a whole team taking care of them. With tigers, it’s up to her. You just hope for a happy, successful moment.”
This will likely be Ginger’s last litter, as tigers typically breed only until about age 12, according to Fechter. “If all goes well, the cubs will stay with her for two years,” he said.
August 12, 2025 – West Bend, Wi – At noon on Tuesday, August 12, 2025, David Fechter from Shalom Wildlife Sanctuary said, “It looks like Ginger is about to give birth.”
The image above is Ginger on ‘baby watch’ as a rare white tiger’s pregnancy has captured the attention of neighbors around Washington County, WI, as well as the world.
“You can feel the pressure, you can feel the excitement,” he said. “You post something and an hour later, 50,000 people have viewed it. TV stations are posting it, Facebook is blowing up. There’s no doubt — there’s a great amount of interest.”
The expectant mother, a 10-year-old tigress, has given birth before, but Fechter said this time feels more intense. “The last time she had cubs, I spent more time with them in their first four months than I did with my own children,” he said.
As of Tuesday morning, Fechter believed the moment had arrived. “She was having contractions every five minutes when I checked on her,” he said. “She wanted me to leave the den — it was time for her to be alone. A tiger’s birth is a very private thing.”
While the average litter is three to five cubs, Fechter said Ginger is unusually large, and he wouldn’t be surprised if there are more. “It’s hard telling — could be three, could be seven,” he said. “But she can only nurse four at a time, so if there are more, that means I may have to pull cubs and bottle feed.
There’s also a rare hope for the birth of a white tiger cub. “They’re on the verge of extinction, and there are only about 200 white tigers in the world,” Fechter said. “The last two times she had cubs, one was white. We’re hoping for another to keep that gene alive.”
But with the excitement comes uncertainty. “Anything can happen after birth — she could abandon them, she could eat them, we don’t know,” Fechter said. “That’s the scary part. With human babies, you have a whole team taking care of them. With tigers, it’s up to her. You just hope for a happy, successful moment.”
This will likely be Ginger’s last litter, as tigers typically breed only until about age 12, according to Fechter. “If all goes well, the cubs will stay with her for two years,” he said.
Fechter said the outpouring of public interest has been both thrilling and humbling. “We just want people to be engaged in something totally amazing,” he said. “It’s unbelievable that it’s actually happening right here.”
