Diary of a cat breeder DFW

worried48

Step one - take stock. Right now I reckon the cats are costing on average £180 per week in cat food and litter. That's without vet bills. Now, who have I got, how close can I possibly come to breaking even, and how do I get these numbers down?

I am not a cat hoarder, I do not intend to have this many cats. Things snowballed this year following two bad outbreaks of infectious disease. Over the summer I had two more cat pens built in an effort to reduce numbers in any one place. This of course cost me hundreds of pounds. I have had people use my cats for stud without actually paying and one person had a kitten from me for a future stud again without actually paying (in both cases I am supposed to be getting payment in kind at some point next year). I went to Denmark to collect a cat as a future stud, he went down with FIP and died before I had even had a litter from him. I have two girls supposed to be coming in from the US in Jan or Feb and I will need to pay for them somehow. I gave away a former stud cat to a breeder overseas - probably could have got some money for him.

I am not going to say what breeds they are because if I did anyone who knows me would immediately know who I am. Two breeds are involved, one is popular, the other is not.

Going to go and work out the numbers now - I honestly don't know how many cats I have!

worried48

It's looking like 45 right now (this includes kittens)

Breakdown (if it is 45) is as follows:

Unhomable ancient one eyed stray 1
stud cats 3
future stud cats (one will replace one, the other two are only for temporary stud) 3
entire females (adult) 14 (I thought this number was higher, but it's quite bad enough!)
future queens 4
neuters 3
kittens I actually want to rehome 17 - of which three have medical / surgical problems that mean they cannot be rehomed immediately, and one of the others is booked and paid for awaiting collection. Three of these are presently too young but will be ready to go after Christmas, but then I'm not rehoming any this side of Christmas anyway except the one who is already booked.

Still wondering if I have forgotten any.

Now to try to work out the cost per cat per week ....

worried48

Assuming that kittens aged 5 months or over eat as much as adults, and kittens 3-4 months eat half as much as adults, and kittens under 3 months eat 1/4 as much as adults (this may not be totally accurate but it's about the best guess I can make)

Right now I have the equivalent of about 33 adult cats and the cost of these in food and litter is around £180 a week. It works out at about £5.50 per adult cat per week. Deducting the numbers I actually want to rehome (as opposed to need to rehome) I would be looking at 26 adult cats per week once the kittens are homed. That would be £143 a week instead of £180 but of course it's still very high. Now to look at what actually comes in from the cats ....

worried48

Income from the cats :rotfl:per year

Stud fees (based on the last couple of years) £400

Kitten sales - the profit per kitten is very difficult to work out and of course can fluctuate wildly according to how quickly the kitten sells and whether or not there are any abnormal vet bills. I recall that a couple of years ago I worked out that if a kitten sells at 13 weeks (the minimum we can let them go at ) and has had nothing other than routine treatment (vaccinations are complusory) the cost to raise that kitten was about £80. I am going to call that £100 to allow for inflation and a small amount for a minor vet visit. We are allowed to breed three litters from a queen over a two year period and the average litter size is four so that's an average of 6 kittens per queen per year.

Now the selling price - this varies a lot with one of my breeds fetchign a lot more than the other.

Breed 1: sale price per kitten £400. Queens of this breed 4. Kittens per year 24. Theoretical profit from kitten sales per year £7200

Breed 2: sale price per kitten £250. Queens of this breed 8 and so in theory 48 kittens per year with theoretical profit of £7200 again. But the problem is there is no way I could sell anywhere near 48 kittens of this breed per year at anywhere near that price. This is the breed I have to cut down on.

Breed 3: sale price per kitten £100. Queens of this breed 5. Profit zero. This breed is to be reduced dramatically - I need to keep some of these going for various reasons connected with outcrossing the other two breeds but anything beyond that has to go and that means rehoming some adults.

It does seem that in theory I should be able to break even on the cat breeding

rising_from_the_ashes

Hi worrried welcome to diary land

Wow! That is a lot of cats!

Just wondering what you feed them & use for litter?

I've managed to get my cat costs down to £45 / month for 2 by bulk buying their food (still on good quality) / changing litter types etc.

This includes everything from food, litter, annual boosters, toys, treats, scratching posts (which they go through a lot of!), odd vet trip etc) except insurance.

This would be £5.20 / cat / week - but is quite a difference if your costs only incl food and litter.

worried48

I feed Bozita and Royal Canin. Litter is Tesco Premium lightweight.

worried48

There are five entire females who need to be neutered and four of them need to be rehomed, I can start dealing with that after Christmas. Unfortunately two of them are going to be very difficult to rehome because they are very nervous but at least if they are neutered there will be no accidental litters from them so they can live outside if they want to (there is plenty of shelter out there for them). I will be able to pay off my vet bill on Tuesday which means I can start trying to get back on top of things, get the medical and surgical issues (two kittens with umbilical hernias, one with a chronic wheeze) dealt with so at least two of those can be rehomed (the chronic wheeze is beginning to look as if it might never go, two different types of antibiotic and an anti-mucus drug have been tried already)

Just realised I forgot one cat - so that's 46 (and that one has a chronic medical problem and is probably unhomeable)

tschic

Hi, do you live anywhere near a Batleys? It's a pet food wholesaler who allow cat breeders entry to purchase. The cat litter there would be more reasonable for you. I hate to be judgmental, as everyone's circumstances can change and none of us know what's around the corner, but you really have to reduce your numbers. I understand that you've had major setbacks, and this has an effect on well prepared, well off breeders, never mind the rest of us. I also breed cats, but maybe I've been lucky health wise, coz I know I could also be in the same position if something affected my lot. I don't have the numbers that you have tho - I ensure I don't go above 10 as I know I can't meet their welfare needs if I do. I'd be happy to help you rehome some of your cats - not myself tho as I have enough! Like I said, I'm not judging, just trying to help if I can it could be me needing help someday. Hugs to you xx

worried48

I thought Batleys had now stopped doing wholesale food and litter to breeders?

tschic

No, I still go - you have to spend more than £100 a month - but as you know, that's not a problem! PM if you wish

worried48

I'll look into that then, thanks.