If you are thinking about becoming a breeder, please read as much as you can and talk to as many breeders as you can before making that decision. There are many joys that come with breeding but there are also many heartaches and disappointments and if you talk to someone who is truly dedicated to doing the best for their breed and their animals, you'll learn that it isn't about making money. In fact, breeding pedigree cats can be a real financial drain and those years that you break even may be few and far between.
Most people that want to breed cats have this vision of grandpa's farm cat having babies in the barn. The babies were always healthy even though they were rarely vaccinated. Breeding pedigreed cats must be the same and if you could sell the kittens for hundreds of dollars, it would be a great way to make a little extra cash, right? But that isn't how it works.
Start with the purchase of the foundation animals. This will probably cost you thousands of dollars IF you find a breeder that will sell you whole cats. Many breeders won't sell breeding cats to people they don't know. The Devon Rex breed has had many set-backs from the indiscriminate breeding practices of unknowledgeable (or greedy) folks trying to make a few extra bucks. It's not just a matter of breeding two cats with a curly coat together. A breeder needs to have more than a basic understanding of genetics and they need to have thorough knowledge as to what makes good Devon type.
You need a good Vet who will be your partner and easy access to a 24-hour emergency clinic. Your vet needs to be supportive of your breeding program, a good listener and needs to understand that feline cattery medicine is somewhat different from typical feline health care. It helps to have a vet that is open minded and willing to think outside-of-the-box. You need to understand basic feline physiology and healthcare. You need to be more than a basic feline psychiatrist.
Cats aren't herd animals and keeping more than a few cats in a household can lead to stress and stress can lead to disease. A breeder has to walk a fine line between how many cats can live in good health and harmony, yet still have enough cats for genetic diversity. The number of cats a breeder houses is sometimes based on how much time the breeder has to properly maintain those animals.
Cleanliness is very important in the cattery environment. You need to have the time and energy to clean up after all your animals. You need an easy-to-clean facility to house a sexually active whole male cat with the urine spraying that accompanies him otherwise your cattery will smell very objectionable. Consider the scooping of litter, the feeding, the medicating, the trips to the vet, the trips to the shows, the bathing and grooming, the laundry of blankets and beds. Add into that the time required for record keeping, shopping for food/supplies, communication with potential customers, sleepless nights with sick animals or first time queens, litterbox training and the weaning of kittens. There is also time required for socialization of your kittens and the all-important play and exercise of all your cats.
Ideally, you should be in good health. You will need to be able to get up and down off the floor easily, many times a day. You will need to be able to bend and scoop litterboxes or scrub surfaces close to the ground. You should be able to lift a 30# bag of litter or food. If you have respitory problems, you might consider the effect of bleach or litterbox dust on your breathing comfort.
Before you attempt to run a cattery in your home, you need to check into your city laws regarding the housing of multiple cats. You may not be allowed to have more that a few cats due to zoning restrictions. You may need to have licenses for all of your cats. You may also need a cattery business license or annual inspections of your cattery to operate legally. You will need a digital camera to take pictures of your kittens and photo editing software for your computer. You may need to pay someone to design your website. You may need to purchase an Internet domain name and pay someone to maintain your website on a server. If you are going to advertise in one of the cat magazines, you will have monthly advertising costs, even in months where you may not have income.
Now you need to buy kitty trees, feeding dishes, litterboxes, litter, food, vitamins, supplements, medication for routine worming and flea control, beds for sleeping, beds for birthing, cages for housing sick animals, heating pads, birthing equipment, pedigree software, registration fees, show fees, travel expenses, show cages, transportation crates, grooming supplies, x-rays, routine tests, vaccination supplies and all of that is if nothing goes wrong. You should have a slush fund for an emergency c-section or a bacterial infection that runs through your cattery requiring every cat in your household to be on medication. Even the euthanasia/cremation of a dying cat is more than $100 in most cities.
You might help deliver a litter of kittens only to have all of those kittens literally die in your hands. You must be emotionally prepared to sell kittens that you have become attached to. You will make hard decisions to breed or not to breed based on the best interests of the cat or the breed. Are you willing to take back into your cattery any kitty that you brought into this world if the new owner decides that they no longer want that cat? Some of those cats will come back with emotional or social problem from not being properly cared for in their previous home. Sometimes you will have adults that you can't find homes for or kittens with special needs. They must be loved and taken care of for the rest of their lives. When you bring life into the world, you must be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.
There are great highs and lows with cat breeding and if you have done the research and taken the time to really understand what it is all about, then maybe it's a hobby for you too.
