What do you think of Cat Breeders?

paddypaws101

I 'let' my cat breed many years ago, well one litter. It was a selfish act on some counts but I ended up keeping all 3 kittens because I just could not trust other people to give them a life time of care.
My concern with Pedigree cats is the degree of in-breeding. I asked about the characteristics of Maine coon cats in response to another post on here, and googled for info. To see that the breed commonly suffers fro heart and hip problems upset me and reminded me why I had never considered a pure bred cat in the past.
A friend of mine recently bought an expensive kitten and has been devastated to find she has brittle bones due to breeding issues. The poor kitten has already broken her pelvis and one leg...and she is an indoor cat. Quite frankly I do not know if that kitten should be kept alive, but her owner ( an elderly lady) cannot bear to let her go. Heartbreaking.

karenbi

That made me laugh, Niv. I made the point with horses, you with children! I suppose no one would breed the cats if they couldn't make money so there must be a demand. The breed I have is really rare so I have a waiting list before the cat even gets pregnant. If a time came when there was no demand I would simply stop. It worries me in the current climate whether some breeders will be getting less demand for their cats and whether they will re-home their retired cats as ethically as you would hope. I just think about all those poor racing greyhounds....

donnac2558

If you mean breeding ordinary cats then the answer is no you should not be doing it.

But if a special breed Siamese, Burmese, Persian etc. Then its about furthering the breed and showing which is very different.

I own two Burmese one 10 the other 7, I love the breed and their personality. But I like normal cats just as much. If I where ever to get a moggie it would be from a rescue and I wouldn't dream of buying of someone just wanting to make money for it.

The breeder I bought my from, I have had cats from her going back to the mid 80's. She shows and makes sure if anything goes wrong then the cats must be returned to her. Also she only breeds once a year and never ever advertises and never has. You want her details you have to go through the Burmese Cat Club. Infact my first Burmese boy was returned to her at a year old, the neighbours of the owners were abusing him.

karenbi

You kept all three! That's ace- I bet they brought chaos to your household!

Overbreeding is another issue. I have been to a few cat shows and some breeds are so overbred they can hardly function e.g. you can hear some persians and exotic shorthairs snuffling because their faces are so squashed.

The breed I have chosen is only four generations from a cross breed and has no recorded congenital defects. They are normal shaped with no exagerated features.This was really important to me. Because they're rare, though, there aren't that many choices to breed with so I make sure I use imported cats to add new bloodlines. When you look at some pedigrees it's astounding that some cats are mated with their own brothers or grandads. Unsettling..

foreign_correspondent

There are quite a lot of pedigree cats in rescue, and specific breed rescues exist to try and look after unwanted pedigrees...

"Whilst it sounds like you have thought about the new owners responsibilities, what will you do if someone does not neuter their cat? Can you 'repossess' it? If, as you say, there is money to be made from breeding these cats, I am sure some of the new owners will think as you do, that its not such a bad idea...

Also, whilst I applaud you commitment to take back any cats that become unwanted, can you be as sure as you possibly can be, that you will be in a position to do this if a cat becomes unwanted in five, ten or fifteen years time?

You say you will pass on the rehoming fee to the original owner - what about deducting vets bills, if a cat comes back that needs treatment or is ill? Would it not be more attractive to many people who want to rehome one of your cats, to sell it in the ad-mag, and have cash in hand, rather than send it back to you, on the promise of an eventual payment?

sandy71

I have 2 stunning pedigree cats, both are show quality. I got them both from a rescue. I would never dream of going to a breeder.
One because she has health problems so no one else would take her and the other because he was black as a kitten but as he grew he became grey. The owners wanted a black cat so replaced him. :mad:

I must add I didn't go to the rescue looking for pedigrees I just fell in love with them.

karenbi

Re. the neutering I do withhold registration slips (so they couldn't register the kittens as pedigree) until neutered but I admit if someone was unscrupulous they could simply sell the cats without papers. I suppose you could repossess the cat theorically if you still have them registered to you but, to be honest, you just cannot control the actions of others.

Breed clubs do have rehoming pages for pedigrees but these tend to be for retired studs and queens that have been neutered. This is a really responsible way of rehoming your cats (I'd never let mine go, though). The problem with many pedigrees that turn up at shelters is that they aren't registered as pedigrees because they are from backyard breeders. These cats wouldn't be rehomed by a breed club or sold in the sme way as a papered pedigree cat. For example, I rehomed a Bengal for the Cats Protection League last year- she was from a kitten farm, kept in a barn for her breeding life then dumped with them for rehoming.

I suppose the problem is that, as with anything, there are lots of horrible people about and you can only control so much and if someone wanted to they could get round all the safeguards. The only real solution is early neutering but this isn't really acceptable in the UK.

spookylukey

karenbi wrote: »

I suppose in opinion, it's just a different market. People will pay more money for a certain thing, in this case a type of cat. It's the same with horses- someone could pay 100 grand for a horse but if that horse wasn't available they still wouldn't adopt a horse from the RSPCA in its stead.

Although my above argument still doesn't even convince me 100%, I have got two rescue moggies and have rehomed one dog, a cat and a horse for other people in the last 12 months...

I have to say I don't have a very high opinion of people who would only have a pedigree cat, seems a bit snobbish to me and when people say 'oh but they have the most wonderful traits and personalities'. Well do you know what - so do my moggies! They're loving, gentle, athletic, funny, cute, stunningly beautiful, affectionate, talkative... Whether pedigree or moggy they're all cats at the end of the day

If I was ever to have a pedigree cat it would only be a rescue cat, sadly even purpose bred cats end up in rescue.

crank_girl

A friend of mine used to breed cats and I have to say I lost a lot of respect for him because of it. He used to keep the females in the house and kept the male in a run in the back garden on its own. Seemed a really miserable existence. He took great care of them but treated them like assets rather than living, breathing and feeling beings.

paddypaws101

Re early neutering, I am sure I saw a post on here a few days ago from someone who's cat had been speyed at 12 weeks or something similar. I had no idea that was possible ( hence the kittens!!! )