A tobiano horse	A medium-white hedgehog, Damsel

Its common in all domestically bred animals for breeders to come up with trendy names to describe new, or sometimes even old color mutations in their animals. In chinchillas for example there are several different ways to refer to a spotted chinchilla. There's panda mosaic, mosaic, reverse mosaic, and basecolor white, etc...

It's all very unnecessary and can lead to confusion among clients about what they're getting. I prefer to use correct terminology that properly describes what color and animal is without resorting to trendy verbage to help sell my hedgehogs.

The newest and most widespread 'fad term' for a pinto hedgehog is 'Tobiano'. This term was first coined by Vickie Jester of Hedgehogsbyvickie to refer to pinto hedgehogs with a high percentage of white. Now, just to preface, I have two hedgehogs from Vickie who I absolutely adore. I think her animals are of the highest quality and she's a very knowledgable individual from everything that I can tell. However, I still do not approve of the use of the term tobiano to refer to markings or color in hedgehogs.

The reason for this is very simple. It doesn't help the layperson to identify what color or pattern of hedgehog they may be getting. Tobiano is a very specific coat pattern in horses not hedgehogs. There are several different types of pinto patterns in horses. Tobiano refers to the single dominant gene that causes a horse to have white running up from his feet up over his back. For information regarding horse coat colors and pattern please visit www.equinecolor.com.

I strongly urge everyone involved with hedgehogs to refer to their high-white pinto hedgehogs as just that, high-white pintos. It's much more descriptive and MUCH more correct. Until pinto patterns in hedgehogs start from their feet and cross over their backs their is no reason to refer to pinto hedgehogs as tobiano.