But an unlikely saviour came their way, in the form of a four-legged surrogate mother, a white labrador named Xiao Meng who has become a surrogate mother to the pair.
One of the adorable tiger cubs
The cubs, born last week at Nanchang Zoo in China, were rejected by their mother due to her inexperience and their future looked uncertain.
The labrador happily shared her milk with the rejected cubs
But staff at the zoo were delighted when Xiao Meng, who recently gave birth to a puppy, looked after the cubs as if they were her own - feeding them and protectively keeping them warm.