Shocked at the price of kittens!

shjo558

(Just typing my thoughts, not really a question as such!)

I would love a kitten but can't have one just now due to having an older mog, rabbit and 2 massive aqauriums. The rabbit loves our cat and I fear any new feline may take advantage of bunny naievity!

However, I love looking around our local animal welfare website and gumtree at kittens as I do plan on getting one when the time is right. They are all so cute:o.

I thought moggy kittens would be maybe £20-£30 as people would want to cover their costs but also want them to move on to their forever home, however most folks are looking for £70 - £100 for a moggy kitten. Our local animal welfare centres seem to be around £40-£50.

I've never had a kitten before as our old mog was an adult when we got him from our local rescue centre and I'm really surprised at the price people are asking.

hostertlady

i have NEVER EVER paid for a kitten in my life.......
and wouldnt..
some pet places put notices up offering kittens free to good homes.. or the vets know ..

Humphrey10

It's sensible tbh, if they are sold cheaply people will impulse buy them, if they are more expensive then people will think for longer about can they afford a pet, do they have the time to look after it etc.

Edit: sorry didn't read your post fully, I thought you were saying they were £70-£100 from a rescue centre!
Are people really trying to charge £100 for random kittens?

shjo558

I certainly wouldn't mind paying something as it isn't free to raise them. Also have no problem paying a donation of say £50 to a local animal welfare charity.

But this one here is £70 (very cute, you have been warned)

Edit - here's £100 one (it's pure white so maybe more unusual?)

chez22

The pet shops in this area are selling kittens for between £50 and £100. Whilst I agree that people paying this amount means they are more likely to provide for the kitten and be able to afford everything it needs, unfortunately the flipside is that people see kittens as 'easy money'. I work in cat rescue and unfortunately see the evidence of this every day

Please, if anyone is thinking of getting a new pet don't buy from pet shops, they are encouraging irresponsible breeding and the rescue centres are full to bursting with unwanted pets. A pet from a rescue centre will have been thoroughly vetted, deflead, dewormed, microchipped and vaccinated. Cats will also have been neutered if old enough or many centres will provide vouchers to reduce the cost.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Pay perfectly good money for a cat? :eek: :eek: :eek:

Never!

seafarers_wife

we paid £100 for our moggy as we couldnt find a kitten anywhere for love nor money. we asked the vet and friends to keep an ear out but even the rescue centres round here didnt want to know and didnt return phonecalls or emails.

saying that i would never ever buy a kitten again like that, as the woman we bought our cat off is an irresponsable bleep. she lied to us about the age of our first cat and it died after 2 days, and she lied about the age of the next one, she told us our first cat was 7 weeks old, it was under 5 weeks we found out after it had died (found it out by comaring size to the next cat), she told us it was eating solids, we should have actually been up every few hours through the night feeding it so the poor thing died through god only knows what. and she wanted to see if was dead so we werent pulling a fast one when we called to say it had died! she did give it back to us to bury though after we had provided it had died!

the next cat we got off her (didnt pay for that one), again she told us it was about 7 weeks but couldnt be sure as she had got it from her uncle who found the litter in the barn, we took it to the vets and the cat was around 5 weeks old! thankfully he survived but because of that experience i would NEVER buy a cat again and would always go to a breeder and buy a pedigree or hound the rescue centres till i got one.

gettingready

I have bought/paid for ALL my cats as no rescue wanted to consider me.
And the dog.

As long as rescues look at people through "check boxes" - there will always be problems with rescues being full but people unable to adopt from there will still go and get their much wanted pets wherever they can.

Frankly I am sick and tired of reading on almost every thread on here posts to the tune" Go to your local rescue, they are bursting..." - yes, I know they are. I also know I have tried and was either never called back (completely ignored) or told I was unsuitable for 7365235695 reasons.

Meanwhile - my now 6 cats and a dog are doing just fine....

End of rant.

Shepherd1

When I first went to see my kitten she was two days old and was told £30 so I paid a deposit. When we went back two weeks later it had gone up to £50 but my daughter had already seen her and was buying stuff for the kitten and given her a name so we didn't have much choice. We picked her up at 8 weeks and she told us that the woman who was taking the other female kitten didn't want her anymore so she would have to go to a rescue centre so we took her too. Best £100 I have spent to be honest they are fantastic x

manda1205

Where do you live? They certainly dont charge that much around here, in Norfolk, you can get your general kitten for about £10-30 on gumtree and the like. Rescues usually want about £20-30 and you get voucher for neutering later on too. We got ours from local farm though, we have loads of farms about that always have lots of kittens and obviously they just want to get rid of them, so they're free(and he was litter trained and very friendly). Do you have any farms near by? Always worth asking about if you do.

aeb_2

I've taken in three pregnant strays. What goes around, comes around so my rule so far has been - keep one, give one, sell one (or more if the litter is bigger)

I've sold the kittens only to cover the cost of extra food, for the mum, worming, fleaing and to get the mother cat spayed. I've charged £30.

Rescues often include a voucher for spaying so they will be a bit higher

ps - £30 does not cover the cost of damage a litter of kittens can do to a house in the few weeks they are there - wallpaper destroyed, curtains shredded, not to mention little accidents on the carpet!