The Non-Profit Business of Breeding Cats

By Liz Hansen

 

People see that pedigreed, pet kittens are sold for $800 or more and assume that breeders must be making a profit. It's hard to understand how expensive breeding is without actually trying it. Reputable breeders will NEVER make money, this is a hobby. 

I hope this outline will provide insight to pet owners who question prices & profits of breeders.

I. GETTING STARTED

When one decides they want to breed, they will usually have been the owner and exhibitor of a show alter (pet).  We began breeding after 2+ years of showing, networking and learning about Bengal cats. I’ve found this experience essential to have reputable breeders willing to work with you.  Many people buy and show an alter from a local breeder, develop the desire to breed and that same breeder then becomes their mentor and possibly supplier of the first breeding cat.  Not a necessity, but typically the case.  The same applies to finding a stud (stud service see expense #4).

Expense #1: one year of prior networking (showing minimum $1500 and purchasing at least one spayed/neutered pet kitten to show at $550).

To purchase at least one very good female kitten with breeding rights from an established breeder, the prior networking is essential.  Reputable breeders will not sell a cat with breeding rights to someone new to the world of pedigree cats.  So after time is spent showing an alter, finding a female (queen) who is registered and has an excellent pedigree can still be a task. In addition, the queen needs to be an outstanding example of her breed, absolutely sound and cosmetically much better than pet quality. Outstanding examples of the breed don't grow on trees and so the price of a breeding queen is much higher than a pet quality kitten.

Additionally, most breeders require that this girl be shown to the status of at least a Champion.  To get to this point, the cat will need to be shown at a minimum of a few times as a kitten, so it will be acclimated to the showing experience, and then as an adult.  A local cat show, where hotel accommodations are not needed, will still run approximately $200 per weekend. 

Expense #2: one female kitten with breeding rights & shown to a title $2000 & up. 

Next, every time a breeder buys a new kitten or cat for breeding she must make certain that cat is healthy and won't transmit any diseases, parasites, or genetic defects to the kittens (or to other cats already living in the home). The veterinary testing includes a physical exam, stool exam for parasites, and blood tests (FIV, feline leukemia).  When you start with a kitten, that baby will need its annual vaccinations, at least rabies, in addition to the testing.  Additionally, if the breeder hasn’t done so, I microchip all of my cats. 

Expense #3: Initial, Routine veterinary health screening and, micro-chipping about $125. 

The new breeder must both purchase an excellent stud and build him stud quarters, or he/she must locate a breeder with an excellent stud who is willing to provide stud service. A responsible stud owner will want to protect her stud from possible exposure to disease. Therefore, even though you had a thorough vet exam of your queen when you first bought her, you will probably be asked to repeat at least the blood tests and show the test results to the stud owner prior to each and every breeding.  Also, most stud owners will ask that the queen come to the male’s home for breeding. That means travel, driving or flying, food for the cats, etc…. 

Owning a stud outright not only costs the initial expense of the purchase price, typically a minimum of $1800 (plus the vet care, etc…as with a female), but most breeders want their male cats to be shown to the title of Grand Champion or higher.  To do this takes even more shows, which means more expense.  And if the title wasn’t a requirement, the only way other breeders would want to use your male (which could provide some inflow of money), is if he’s known on the show circuit.  That cost would be two to three times as great as it was for a female.  And most important, the upkeep of a stud male is also much greater than a female. 

Expense #4: stud service and further health testing of queen, at least $700 per breeding. It's MORE expensive and much more work to keep your own stud, so this cost is assuming you can find a good stud to use.

The breeder must pay to register their cattery name with at least one cat association ($50 to TICA), must register their new breeding queen ($15), and must register each litter produced ($10to each association). There will be at least one litter per year and at least one kitten kept and registered per year thereafter.  In TICA, there are also membership dues to belong to a breed group.  This cost is $35/year.

Expense #5: registration fees, at least $155 the first year and at least $65 per year thereafter. 

The breeder must buy two or three textbook type reference books to help her learn what she needs to know about making breeding decisions, veterinary screening, genetic screening, rearing kittens, caring for females in heat, caring for pregnant and lactating females, common feline diseases, feline nutrition, and much more. Visiting the library is not sufficient because the library is unlikely to have books that are up-to-date on feline husbandry - or may not have books on that topic at all.

Expense #6: reference books/classes, about $500 the first year and at least $25 per year thereafter.

The breeder needs special equipment to rear litters of kittens. At a minimum, the breeder needs a heating pad safe for kittens to keep them warm ($40). Hypothermia is the leading cause of death of young kittens. Also needed are clean rags for bedding and disinfectants ($20), feeding tubes and feeding syringes for weak or sick kittens ($5), KMR kitten formula (there is a kitten who needs supplementation or who threatens to need it in almost every litter, $20), cardboard kittening box (cheap), at least two small litter pans for built for kittens ($15), an accurate scale to weigh kittens every day ($15 to $100), first aid and kitten delivery kit (latex gloves, betadine, kaopectate, millions of paper towels, eyedroppers, etc., about $30).

Expense #7: kitten rearing equipment, about $145 to $230 for first litter and at least $30 for every subsequent litter.

The breeder needs to advertise kittens, promote her cattery, promote her breed, and network with other breeders. Advertising of kittens can be done various ways.  Most catteries now have as their primary form of advertisement, a webpage.  These can be professional or not.  A professionally designed site can run upwards of $500.  We also use a bengal forum which cost $20 a month plus $50 every time we place an ad.

Breed promotion and networking is not only to help the breeder advertise long-term, but to altruistically help the breed, to enhance the breeder’s education, and to provide the breeder with contacts that will help him/her achieve breeding goals far into the future. To do these things a breeder must join at least one cat association and at least one breeder's club at a cost of about $50 per year in dues.

Our primary advertising is done in person at cat shows and on our website.

Expense #8: advertising, breed promotion, networking, about $500 per year minimum.

The breeder must have a sales contract and other cattery forms, a cattery brochure with which to answer written inquiries, business cards, and must take photos of breeding cats and all kittens for cattery documentation, advertising, and other purposes. The breeder must make many phone calls, including long distance phone calls, as a courtesy in returning calls received from kitten clients and even those merely curious about the breed. The breeder must also do long-term follow-up on every kitten sold, telephoning new owners regularly to answer questions and nip problems in the bud. All these forms of communication come at a cost that is hard to estimate accurately, but I would say at least of $200 per year. Luckily, with the advent of the worldwide web, email saves time and money towards communication.

Expense #9: forms, phone calls, and other modes of communication, about $200/year.

Reputable breeders can be found exhibiting their cats at (a minimum of) a few cat shows per year.  Showing your cats is a tool used to verify you are producing pedigree cats that meet the breed standard.  Entering one cat into a single show, in TICA, runs at least $60.  In addition, there is almost always travel involved.  Driving 3-4 hours is an average distance to attend a show; therefore 1-2 gallons of gas ($50), hotel for two nights ($120) and food ($50) are the minimum expenses.  Not to mention supplies such as shampoos, cages, combs, etc..

Expense #10:  Showing, supplies and the travel associated with, a min. of $2000/year. 

II. MAINTENANCE OF ADULT CATS

Food, litter, routine veterinary bills, and other basic maintenance costs will vary depending on the quality of the food and litter, the number of toys and special furniture items purchased for the cat(s) and more. It costs more than $500 per year to maintain one healthy adult cat - and it can average as much as $2000 per cat per year, especially as cats age. 

Expense #11:  Routine care for breeding cats (lets say just one queen) and a couple of pets (remember those you purchased as show alters), $500/cat/year x 4cats = $2000

III. THE COSTS PER LITTER

Even once you have the kittening equipment and other overhead expenses taken care of, there are additional costs incurred per litter. They include:

Queen must be vaccinated right before she is bred or in some cases during the pregnancy. That's at least $20.  We also test our cats for FIV & Feline Leukemia prior to every breeding.  Those tests run $35.  In addition, our breeding cats are screened for HCM (Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy). The HCM screening is done annually, at $300.  And today, DNA tests are becoming available for some genetic diseases.  Those run $60 per test. 

Expense #12:  Essential Veterinarian Care/Assessment, $700 per  girl prior to breeding

A Queen will eat up to twice as much as usual during her pregnancy and up to three times as much as usual while she is nursing the kittens. She needs special premium quality food that is approved for pregnancy and lactation. That is two 6-ounce cans per day for 9 weeks of pregnancy and 3 cans per day for at least 8 weeks of lactation. Each can costs about 50 cents for premium food, so that is 63 days X $1.00 + 56 days X $1.50 = $147.00. 

Expense #13:  Feeding the queen, $147 per litter

Kittens can die within hours if they don't get enough to eat because of a feeding problem. So you need to keep emergency formula, feeding tubes, and feeding syringes on hand. The formula needs to be purchased fresh nearly every time you have a litter, so that's $20 per litter.

Expense #14:  Formula, $20

The kittens will begin to eat solid food at age 4-6 weeks and will be eating almost entirely solid food at age 8 weeks. At age 8 weeks, each kitten eats about two 3-ounce cans per day of premium food rated for growing kittens and will eat perhaps 1/8 cup of dry premium kitten food each day. What they don't eat, they spill soil, scatter, or play with until it must be discarded. The kittens will stay with the breeder usually until age 12 weeks - and sometimes for much longer. So that's a minimum of 3 cans X 4 weeks X 55 cents per can = $46. Then the dry food adds up to 1/8 cup X 5 kittens X 55 days = 34.4 cups. So that's about three 8-lbs bag of premium kitten food per litter, at $15.00 each.

Expense #15:  Total food for kittens is $46 + $45 = $91. 

The kittens will require three vaccinations, the first when their eyes open, a second at 6 weeks, one at age 9 weeks and a final at 12 weeks. Those cost $10 each if the vet does it or $3 each if the breeder does it. So that's five kittens X 4 vaccinations X $10 per vacc = $200, or alternatively it is $30 if the breeder does his/her own vaccinations.

Expense #16:  For our average litter, of five, vaccinations can run as low as $30 (breeder providing) or as high as $200 (if the vet is providing them). Breeders aim to preserve their breeds but they also wish to avoid adding to the numbers of homeless cats on the streets and in shelters. We require proof of neutering before 7 months before giving the registration papers to the owners.   

Expense #19 A vet visit for a minor problem with a kitten, $35

Occasionally, the queen requires a C-section to deliver her kittens or may require treatment after the birth of the kittens due to diarrhea, intestinal obstruction, mastitis, hemorrhaging, uterine infection, or other complications. The costs associated with treating these problems may run up to $1000 for an emergency off-hours C-section. Also, if C-section is required up to half of the litter may die due to side effects of the anesthesia. Kittens may also be lost due to the effects of complications on the queen's milk production.

Our first litter was taken by C-section and it ran us $400

Expense #20:  Possible C-section, minimum $300

The queen will require at least one precautionary prenatal or prenatal veterinarian examination, $35.00.   In addition to the exam, we perform an ultrasound ($125) and/or X-rays ($75) to determine pregnancy and the number of kittens.

Expense #21:  Prenatal Veterinarian Assessments $110

The litter must be registered and the one kitten who is kept must be individually registered with TICA.

Expense #22:  Registration, $30

You must replenish, repair, replace some of the kittening equipment each litter (see part I), $30.

Expense #23:  Supplies, $30 

Expense #24:  Possible Exam, microchip, health certificate and blood test, $60 x 5 = $300.

If you’re keeping track, these are the costs to get started (including acquiring and caring for alter pet(s) and a single queen for one year) and produced the FIRST litter, in best case scenario where all goes well, a C-section is NOT needed, and the breeder does her own vaccinations = $11658 (and that doesn’t even include cat litter!)

**And, do remember that due to the occasional accident of nature, you may also end up with a kitten with a special health or behavioral problem, to which you must give a lifetime of love and good care or sell at a reduced cost (usually that means for free).

V. ECONOMIES OF SCALE?

Well, you say, maybe if a breeder buys more than one breeding queen and starts raising more litters per year, THEN a profit can be made.  Unfortunately, it turns out that with cats the more breeding cats, the higher the cost climbs.

First of all, there won't be a best-case scenario with all the litters produced by every cat; breeders are usually more in debt from some cats than others. A percentage of the breeding cats purchased will also turn out to be unbreedable, die unexpectedly, develop pyometra or have their reproductive lives cut short.

As the number of cats climbs beyond one or two, it becomes nearly impossible to continue using stud service. Multiple queens can't ALL be shipped long distances on a regular basis. Also, the stud service provider may be unable to offer the stud services needed when the queens are in season. They have cats of their own which need breeding.

So a stud is purchased. That means special stud housing that will cost at least several hundred dollars in materials and several hundred more in equipment (e.g., special cleanable surfaces, cat tree(s) and other niceties for the studhouse). Now the stud must be maintained year-round whether he is siring litters or not.

If multiple queens have been purchased, problems may arise with them all co-existing. In some cases, an unhappy cat can be confined to a room, separate from the stud quarters, or she may just need to be spayed and adopted out to keep the peace.

Usually, breeders find home remodeling a necessity. With multiple breeding cats and several litters of kittens born per year, separate rooms are needed to isolate not only a stud, but young fragile litters. Cleanable, bleachable surfaces are essential for disinfecting because having litters around all the time greatly increases the risk of infectious disease. It becomes extremely difficult to keep carpets clean in a house of multiple cats, especially with young ones underfoot all the time, and is why many breeders choose to replace the carpets with Pergo or tile or similar cleanable surface. Old furniture is also usually replaced with furniture that is easily to clean and doesn’t show wear.

Yes, it is possible to keep a home sanitary and odorless when having multiple healthy and happy breeding cats, but it requires money and time.

With multiple cats and multiple litters there will, despite the best of vaccination and quarantine systems, occasionally be epidemics. These may be minor or they may be serious, but they always mean large vet bills. It's very much like running a day-care center full of young children who succumb to every new virus and bug that's out there.  A common, minor case of upper respiratory running through the house will cost at least $50 in antibiotics for everyone.

Why do breeders bother to breed multiple cats and litters? Because we want to keep the breed going and also hopefully improve the breed. Accomplishments are small when breeding only one cat.

And why is it worth the money?  Because we love our cats more than our money (which is a good thing because after all of those expenses there isn’t much).

This essay is a modified version of Dr. Cris Bird’s essay “Where The Money You Pay for a Kitten Goes”.  Dr. Bird breeds Siamese cats under the name Sarsenstone cattery and has given written permission for the editing of her essay.