My morning doesn't start with coffee!
Ongoing responsibilities of being a cat breeder. Breeding is a 24/7 job.
It is time-consuming and involves:
• Caring for adult cats and kittens including feeding, cleaning litter trays, cleaning the cattery, litter box training, playtime, love, and attention.
• Watching over the queen to ensure the care of her kittens.
• Socializing the kittens so they are used to people.
• Regular veterinary visits for health check-ups, vaccinations, and desexing.
When the queen is pregnant, she will need extra attention, premium quality food, and veterinary check-ups. Breeders need to be present when the queen is ready to deliver her kittens and step in if there is an emergency. Sometimes things go wrong and the breeder may need to hand feed the kittens until they are weaned. This involves bottle feeding every 2-3 hours, around the clock for 6 weeks.
Care. Breeding cats takes hours of care a day for routine feedings, cleaning, and socialization. When you are sick or go away on holiday, you’ll need to invest in trusted care for your cattery and your cats. If caring for kittens is needed during this time, extra vetting of your sitter and suitable credentials for kitten care will be required.
Finding homes for the kittens. This can be a bittersweet time. It is fantastic when you can find the perfect loving home for the kittens you have brought into the world. It can also be time-consuming and frustrating. Devoting your weekends to waiting around for people to come and see kittens, only for them to not show up. It is big responsibility to interview all prospective buyers to ensure the kitten is going to the right home.
Cost. Good breeders do a lot of work caring for their breeding cats and their litters, pay out a lot in food, litter and vet bills, research on blood lines, medical and genetic testing to ensure that the cats are suitable to breed, and you likely would not even break even, let alone make a profit.
Veterinary care is expensive. Queen may need emergency c-section, which costs few thousand.
The rewards of being a cat breeder. While it can be challenging at times, there are many wonderful rewards to cat breeding. By safely and responsibly breeding cats, you play an active role in “the welfare of all cats” and “the promotion and improvement of recognized breeds of cats,” as stated in CFA’s mission. Whichever breed of cat your choose to breed, you’re playing your part in maintaining the standard of your chosen breed and educating new owners about care. Plus, you’ll make many friends in the cat fancy community.
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