£50 to £100 for a kitten!

[Lennybenny]

One of my friends posted about some kittens. They were from one of her friends. We are looking so I said yes. Asked how much....£50 for friend of friend....I said sorry, I'm not willing to pay that much and she replies they were selling for £100 in May.
I'm happy to pay for a kitten but that's just too much and it sounds like she's selling them to make money.
How much are you willing to pay?

“it sounds like she's selling them to make money”

Heaven forbid! Make sure you never take your poor kitty to the vets, I don’t think you’d get over the shock

Crikey. My parents are farmers, they've always given their kittens away, but a few years ago had all their cats neutered. They had too many.

They recently had a very cute kitten dumped on them though.

Agreed @SweetBabyCheeses99 and feeding and cat litter and extra food for mother cat aren’t cheap either. My friend had to replace quite a few items the kittens had damaged as well.

During lockdown you couldn’t find a moggie for less than £80 in my area (SE.) My friend had a pedigree kitten that she had paid £350 for but the breeder had put the price up to £500 because demand was so high. I got ours from Romania in the end because the local rescues had long waiting lists.

I paid £250 for my cat last year. Just a normal ginger cat. He is the best cat that ever lived and I'd pay anything for him but still expensive for a cat!

@mumboss1984

We just paid £900 for a kitten but she is a Maine Coon.

I didn't realise Maine coons were that expensive, I paid £300 for mine and thought that was a lot!

Paid £100 for one kitten (He had both vaccinations) and £50 for the second kitten (no vaccinations, but he had to leave the home he was in).

£50-£100 is very standard. Not sure what you'd expect to pay!

Mine didn’t cost anything. He was dumped.

Please don't encourage back street breeders by buying from them, they'll just keep doing it. Please, if you can, go to a rescue, I know some of them have very strict rules, sometimes too strict, but that's because they care so much. I currently foster for one and they are inundated with every kind of coloured cat and kitten with every kind of temperament that you could imagine! I am sure there would be the perfect one for you at your local cats' charity! They also come with their first jabs, they are spayed and de-flea'd and de-wormed!

£50 sounds cheap to me for a pet. A life! That's less than a weekly food shop...

Just as well you aren't looking for a puppy then.

A mongrel westiedoodlecockerjackapoolab will set you back a grand.

8 years ago I paid £50.

I got both mine from the vets years apart they are always advertising cats and kittens they've rescued, as previous poster said they are vaccinated wormed and given flea treatment and all they ask for is 25 pounds donation.
Try the vets or a rescue centre

I've just looked on Gumtree and kittens are anywhere from £150+ for a moggy and £400+ for fake pedigrees.

I hate the way some people are treating their cats as breeding machines for a quick profit these days.

If you can trust the owner of the kitten I would buy the kitten.

@Gingerkittykat trust them how?
Decent owners of moggies get them neutered. People who advertise online aren’t decent.

I paid £30 for my mog a many years ago.
Dd paid £100 for her Mog, and £750 for her Maine Coon kitten.

I got 2 kittens, brother and sister, from Cats Protection in January 2020.
£60 each - neutered/spayed, microchipped, vaccinated, wormed, deflead, vet-checked.
They are the best cats I have ever owned!

I agree I’d go to a rescue or a registered breeder or possibly a good friend. Kittens are meant to be checked over by a vet at least 2 or 3 times and wormed and de- flead and vaccinated and they eat a lot of food. Mother needs to see the vet for care during and after pregnancy. So if you do it properly the costs could well be over £100. Id worry less about the cost and more about whether the kittens have been raised with the best care

If I’m “willing to pay” it would be for a specific breed - and I will have researched breeders extensively to ensure that everything is as it should be (registered breeders, health checks, seeing mum and dad, etc etc)

If I wasn’t “willing to pay”, I would be looking at reputable rescues where I knew that all health checks, neutering etc were done and that they at least give a vague notion of giving a toss where the cats are rehomed to.

What I wouldn’t be doing is buying through friends of friends, or gumtree, or any other way of finding a “cheap” cat. Most of the time, you will be fuelling the shitty breeding practices that are constant everywhere. Sadly, too many people want a cheap cat and are happy to achieve that by whatever means necessary. I hope you won’t be one of those people.

Ours were £60 each from rspca about 6 years ago.

What do you think is a suitable price?

I think that's cheep. People shouldn't just give them away unless they know who they are going to

@Lennybenny - if you’ve got two, how did you acquire them? Can you not go back to the same breeder?

WTF would you want to buy from a friend of a friend. You say that the rescue costs are reasonable (am guessing because they neuter, vaccinate etc), so why wouldn’t you go that route?

Don’t give your money to people like this just to get a cheap cat. Do it responsibly, or don’t do it at all.

I got 2 kittens in April from a shelter and paid £500 for the pair - a slight discount owing to ongoing medical needs

If you are quibbling about £50 - how are you going to manage the ongoing costs of vaccination, micro chipping and medical care?

Plus, if you’ve got two already, then surely you should already know about the most responsible way to be taking on a new cat?

I paid more than £50 for a 5 year old cat from the rescue center it’s not expensive at all. Wouldn’t even cover the food they have been giving it .