What are our views on re-homing/retiring studs/queens??
As a pet lover my views on this have changed as a few yrs ago i thought-nice-for a queen use her for kitts then pet her off ,same view for stud.
However being involved with breeding i now appreciate why.I myself haven't had to execute this side of things as yet but the time will come. I know it seems heartless and harsh to some people but believe me it's not. When a queen or stud has done all he/she can do for your cattery ,you cannot just leave them uneutered /spayed and not mate them-this would be cruel on many levels,and to have them neutered/spayed and keep them with your entire queens/studs would be cruel as they would get picked on and be miserable so on a personal and professional level you have to put the cats needs first and retire them-and it is done in a way that you do for your kittens,and as breeder it's a must that you keep moving forward as it were for health etc.I have witnessed this executed 1st hand and this particular lady now is as happy as she ever was and couldn't have picked a better new mum if she'd tried I suppose it's one of the hardest decisions you make and deal with when breeding but a necessary one i feel

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Dogs have owners, Cats have slaves

Burnthwaites Siamese

I've never done it, but I can certainly see why people do. There is quite simply a limit to how many cats it is possible to keep.

That said, I don't think I could part with any of mine.

I haven't had to do it yet - but I know I will have to rehome our Aby and one of our Bengals this year. The Aby cannot cope in a multi-cat household, and the Bengal is almost five, which is really the oldest I would keep a Bengal for breeding. If I kept the Bengal here she would cream all of the other cats, so would need to be kept separate, which is no life for her.

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Beautiful Bengal Kittens from Dollycats
Beautiful Savannah Kittens from Teardrops Savannahs

Me either - didnt rehomed yet; not my first ones anyway....Might be very difficult decision to part. But retired and neutered cat will be much better off in the house with less pets than in the breeder's household as as much as we are all love, cuddle them and pet them - we cant comparass those two.

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"Do not meddle in the affairs of cats, for they are subtle and will pee on your computer." --Bruce Graham
There are no rules, rules are only for people who fit inside a box, if you want to think out of the box there is no hope... Life has no Box. (Tony Howells)

They certainly would. I have just spayed my first girl at the age of only one and a half. I'm hoping and praying she will be able to cope with my other queens because I would be really sad to see her go.

We have 12 queens in our conservatory, which is probably the busiest room in the house. For the most part they get on fine - but I have a pen that enables them all to rub along much better. If I had my five year old queen in here she would just go berserk, trying to kill all the other cats!

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Beautiful Bengal Kittens from Dollycats
Beautiful Savannah Kittens from Teardrops Savannahs

All my cats were 'rescue' cats, apart from my female, but I can understand about the rehoming side, and how much life is still left in a retired breeding cat. My oldest cat came to me at 6 and he's now 19, so I've had 13 years from him so far, infact he's sat on my knee asleep now.
I've know several cat breeders who passed on their retired cats and they rehomed them in a very similar way to their kittens, and yes they had a hard time when they let one of their favourite ones go, but it was kinder to let them be rehomed than to keep miserable cats who had to be separated because of the other breeding cats.

Hmm. Other people were being very anti-rehoming on other threads - why no contributions to this one?

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Beautiful Bengal Kittens from Dollycats
Beautiful Savannah Kittens from Teardrops Savannahs

Well as i said i haven't any personal experience on this matter-not 1st hand anyway-but i know that it takes true courage and comes from pure love to a: make the decision and b:carry it out-it is one of the hardest issues to push your own needs and wants aside and put your animals as ever first-i'd be far more comfortable and happier missing my love with the best memories and allowing someone else to experience what being a slave to my darlin' is like,than satisfying my own feelings and keeping my animal miserable and knowing that as much i'd want to i couldn't give them the quality of life they deserved and needed-so for those of you who have executed this tough decision,i have nothing but the up most respect and with people such as Katherna and the many others on these forums who have adopted retired cats then it eases our heartache slightly

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Dogs have owners, Cats have slaves

Burnthwaites Siamese

I think it would be nice if you do retire a girl to prehaps let her go to her new home with one of her babies from her last litter. They are then going on a new adventure together then.

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x meow x

Thats simple as soon as someone steps out of line now thread gets closed and moderated