Ive had alot of people ask me, including family members, why I dont I make money breeding, or why Im always in debt And people thinking they will make a living breeding

So I wrote this for them, do you think its OK and gets the point across? Have I missed anything?

*****

Why do I want to breed? Have I the time, patience and understanding? Can I afford it?
Have I researched the subject thoroughly? Have I discussed this with the experts (other breeders)? How will my human family feel about the idea, will they agree?
Will I be able to sell my kittens? (Perhaps there are already many established breeders in the area). Do I just fancy a litter? Do I just want a bit of my cat forever/mini version of the cat? Want the family to experience birth with a cat, to show them how life starts? Think its nature/do not believe in neutering? Want to make money?

Breeding takes time, money, hard work, yes breeding is classed s a 'hobby' hobbies cost money, you certainly do NOT make money breeding, well, not when its done properly!!

Costs of breeding. * = extra but mostly not covered by budget, as people don’t seem to think of is as extra… it is!

Before breeding
Researching lines, breed standard, making friends with breeders, visiting shows, *buying a show neuter to get a feel for breed/standard *books about breeding/showing/genetics, petrol (gets in everywhere that one!) *spending time knowing how to help mum give birth, revive a kitten etc *animal care courses Plus normal everyday care for cats owned, they don’t live on air!

This is Based on a cat having one litter and this is for one litter!
Not including the breeders time, spent with kittens/mum (which is 24/7) raising them to be the most purrfect kittens ever! Then new owner visiting their babies, can be anywhere from 1 to 6 hours! (not joking!) Nor the lack of sleep they get either!
Talking to neighbours, always have good neighbours due to the noise of calling/kittens, a lot don’t like it!

Before the litter
* Registered quality breeding girl on active for breeding/show
* importing a queen from abroad
*vet fee to make sure she is healthy
*Boosters
*worming
*Show fees
*Show supplies, litter tray/grooming items/drapes/bowls/bed/actual crate hotel fees/petrol!
*Petrol
Birthing pen
Crates
Extra cleaning items made special safe for cats
Health tests for breed example HCM/PKD/FIV/FELV
Stud fees
Petrol to stud (maybe hours away - & may take more than 1 time
*Courier fee to stud if stud is many many hours away & * boarding a cat at the studs.
*may lose your stud fee if girl doesn’t get in kitten and will have to pay & go through it all again.
Feeding mum as much as 4 times during pregnancy, QUALITY food.
Vet check up/problems * may need scan if problems or medication
Birthing items. example bedding/sheets/special paper collars. Scales / hand rearing powder etc
*breeder program, example pedigrees.

After litter
*time off work, sometimes into the weeks.
Birth
*pure heartache of losing a kitten or having one put to sleep-cannot be prepared for.
*c section around £550- 1,000 depends on how bad/medication
(I was quoted £700 without medication)
*Vet visit kitten maybe stuck £350 overnight stay & oxy injections
* hand rearing kittens mum has no milk / mum dies / kittens may also die
*post mortems f or kittens / mum
Feeding mum 4 times as much + more! Quality food.
*Extra vitamins for mum
*Lighting costs example lights on 24/7 nearly for mum & kittens / nightlights
*heating costs -example keep kittens warm depends on weather.
*electric costs example 2+ loads of 95% washes per day of kitten items. For 12weeks.
Weaning babies onto QUALITY food from 4weeks of age, for 8weeks or more, depends how soon they go to new homes after 12weeks of age, some may not find new homes right away.
Litter for kittens from age of 4 weeks everyday + again as above.
Extra Toys Bowls & Extra litter trays, cat trees, beds, grooming
* vet visits / medication example a kitten/mum falls ill.
*website
* camera pics for new owners & videos
Advertising fees
* registration fees to club memberships
*courses
Mobile & landline phone bills replying to responses about the adverts &*example sending too many picture messages to new owners!
*petrol from/to vets
8 extra carry cases to fit kittens in & mum.
Worming
2 x vaccinations
Microchip
Neutering kittens before they leave
Kitten packs example food/toys/info
* Printer ink pedigrees / contracts
* paper for contracts & photo paper for pedigrees
* Solicitor costs to write contract / some people may write it themselves
Registration costs
* Stamps to send paperwork, to new owners
* keeping a kitten back,
* watching kittens leave, good but sad at the same time
*replacing carpets, sofas, cat trees, toys, painting walls, any items kittens may have damaged/broke

After kittens go
*texts/phone calls/petrol if you are invited to visit them (makes my year!)
* 24/7 advice for new & seasoned owners
* show fees you may decide to show a kitten from that litter but not keep them
* taking a kitten back if they cant look after it, health testing kitten & re-homing kitten


*Stud boys, after all of that above, you may keep a stud boy, he will need extra special care as once he becomes of age he will scream/call for girls, spray/wee/poop over the house, and most likely fight boy & girl cats in the home. So he needs his own safe home, this can be a well prepared room in the house, or more than likely a house outside, heating lighting, toys, cat posts, food, litter, all again for him outside, extra attention, the house itself, the run so he can run about and maybe a harness so you can walk him everyday!
You may also buy him a new neutered friend to keep him company as he will be lonely alone, Studs are NOT for first time breeders, you should wait a long time and know the stress and time it takes to take care of a boy, and no less than 3-5queens per year to keep him happy!

Time - have a social life? lol you dont anymore!! No holidays/skipping days out etc! I missed my sisters 40th, engagment party & nearly the wedding! missed the reception due to kittens though! part and parcel just what happens, kittens more important!


********* And a breeder poem
What is a Breeder?
A Breeder (with a Capital "B") is one who thirsts for knowledge & never really knows it all, one who wrestles with decisions of conscience, convince, and commitment.
A Breeder is one who sacrifices personal interests, finances, time, fancy furniture, and deep pile carpeting! She gives up the dream of long luxurious cruises in favour of turning that all important show into this years "vacation"
The Breeder goes without sleep (but never without coffee/cola!) In hours spent planning a breeding or watching anxiously over the birth process, and afterwards, over every little sneeze, wiggle or cry.
The Breeder skips dinner parties because that litter is due or the babies have to be fed at eight. She disregards birth fluids and puts mouth to mouth to save a gasping newborn, literally blowing life into a tiny, helpless creature that may be the culmination of a lifetime of dreams.
A Breeder's lap is a marvellous place where generations of proud and noble champions once snoozed.
A Breeders hands are strong and firm and often soiled, but ever so gentle and sensitive to the thrusts of a kittens's wet nose.
A Breeders back and knees are usually arthritic from stooping, bending, and sitting in the birthing box, but are strong enough to enable the breeder to show the next choice kitten to a championship.
A Breeders shoulders are stooped and often heaped with abuse from competitors, but they're wide enough to support the weight of a thousand defeats and frustrations.
A Breeders arms are always able to wield a mop, support an arm full of kittens, lend a helping hand to a newcomer.
A Breeders ears are wondrous things, sometimes red (From being talked about) or strangely shaped (From being pressed against a phone receiver), Often deaf to criticism, yet always fine-tuned to the whimper of a sick kitten.
A Breeders eyes are blurred from pedigree research and sometimes blind to her own cats's faults, but they are ever so keen to competition's faults and are always searching for the perfect specimen.
A Breeders brain is foggy on faces, but it can recall pedigrees faster than an IBM Computer. It's so full of knowledge that sometimes it blows a fuse; It catalogues thousands of good boning, fine ears, and perfect heads.......And buries it in the soul, the failures and the ones that didn't turn out.
The Breeders heart is often broken, but it beats strongly with hope everlasting........And it's always in the right place!
OH, YES, THERE ARE BREEDERS, AND THERE ARE BREEDERS!!!

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My goodness, it is certainly comprehensive! Yes, I think it would really put a sock in the mouths of some who think it's all about having cute fluffy babies that you sell for vast sums of cash, all the hard work being done by the queen and all the hefty profits pocketed by you.

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My babies
Aber, Ragnar, Kelso (the corgi trio), Daisy (our rescue mystery-mix puppy), Ellie, Henry, Gwennie, Jezebel (the kitty quartet), Blake, Chaucer, Molly and Milton (the kittens), and Bingo the African Grey parrot

Over the Bridge:
Pippin: 1/6/08-17/5/11
Freja: 11/8/10-30/10/10
Kirby: 11/8/10-1/11/10

"Praise liberty/The freedom to obey/It's a song that strangles me/Well, don't cross the line" Billie Joe Armstrong

TB, where did you get the poem from? I'd quite like to use this.

Very comprehensive and a bit scary, must make sure the other half never sees it as I hide a lot of those costs ie phone calls and stamps and washing/drying costs. Though he benefits from a lovely warm heated house 24/7.

As you've said I think people take for granted that the kitten will go at 12/13 weeks, but it is usually longer I find. I've held onto kittens many times for holidays and new kitchen's being fitted, until the weekend, etc. In a large litter a kitten is maybe not ready to go then either. I've held kittens back to let them grow and ended up neutering them and dropping the price considerably as they are 6 months old by then.

Should be a sticky I think.

Think it is a great comprehensive list - I have a friend who has been staying at my house due to her relationship ending and she cannot believe how my day starts at around 6.30a.m with litter trays and cleaning out the stud house and carries on around the kittens and cats until if I am lucky about midnight, although she has spent 3 nights up with me until dawn when a girl was due to have kittens and seemed restless.

Just as a matter of course in the last 7 days I have turned down the following opportunities....

1. Wedding night do - have a girl due the day after so dont want to risk going out.
2. Weekend away in posh hotel with my partner for my birthday - kittens will be 11 weeks old and cant find anyone with sufficient knowledge to stay over in house to feed and care for them 24/7, having pizza at home instead!
3. Potential holiday in June - not going to be a good time, problems finding cattery who will take in my incredibly smelly stud boy.
4. Shopping on Saturday - clashes with cat show so need to go to Asda late Friday night, 76 year old mother been taken not happy with the change.
5. Family visiting - all cancelled for foreseeable future as house hectic enough with litter of six 10 week old kittens rampaging around in living room and dining room, 2 pregnant girls one of whom has taken over the bathroom and cat blankets and sheets hung over every door and radiator trying to keep up with the washing.
6. New rug for living room (chewed) and a couple of replacement rolls of wallpaper (stripped by kittens)- cancelled as electricity bill sky high from kitten heating pads and stud house heating.
7. Trip to cinema - cancelled as a family coming to a see kitten, already rescheduled for same reason from week before.

Sometimes think people dont realise breeding is a way of life and if you are doing it properly your lifestyle has to fit around the breeding and care of the cats and kittens not the other way around.

Tb,

I think you covered everything, very informative, full of information for anyone starting out or considering breeding.

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http://www.funkyfurballs.co.uk

Sounds very familiar, the things we do for our Cats, but lets be honest we would not have it any other way, that accidental tripping over them as you try to feed them in the morning, that pulling your washing off the radiator, the purrs of affection whilst laying on your lap.

You got to love it Who needs a social life anyway ha ha

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http://www.funkyfurballs.co.uk

Very well written, very well explained.

Breeding isn't a job, it isn't a hobby, it is a vocation.
You made that very clear in this post.
thank you for the insight.

REP

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Jiskefet & the mognificent Dutch bunch

My little angels at the rainbow bridge

Well said!

I agree with the not letting the other half know just how much money is involved (i work on a need to know, and he don't need to know ).

I also think that is people look at this it may make them think twice before trying breeding, and also realise why kittens cost what they do.
And thats without the cost on the heartstrings!

Such an informative piece that it deserves a sticky Well done TB

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How we behave toward cats here below determines our status in heaven. - Robert A. Heinlein
http://www.lambchopsiamese.webs.com