£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?

I paid £200 for our moggie kitten and she wasn't neutered or vaccinated etc when we got her (she was 8 weeks ish).

I think it's the current market price! the owner has to pay for food, litter, and to care for the kittens and train them etc.

I couldn't get a cat from a rescue (as we have kids and live near a road), so I was prepared to pay for a kitten. I confess, i was a bit surprised, but decided it was worth it. And she was! She came from a 'good home' where she was well cared for.

I got my mog for £70 from blue cross 3 years ago and it’s the best money I’ve ever spent.
I’m more worried about the ‘friend of a friend’ . How can you be sure she isn’t breeding this cat for profit?
Unfortunately the market is there and it will continue whilst people pay over the odds for for kittens but I also understand why people do.
If you get your kitten enjoy them . If you decide not to then please consider taking a look at the rescues.

Beo/Sis young adults ( year old)
£80 each from CPL neutered vaccinated microchipped a 4/52 insurance
Both jet black, him very shy , her a bolshy little madam

We're an adult family , quiet road, garden, put a catdoor in the French door and turn a blind eye to the carpet being shredded .

I think they struck lucky when I saw them (they think they're doing us The Honour Of Living Here . It's a this'll do for now )

My guinea-pigs (pre-cat) were all Rescues . They asked £10 except our neutered boar ( we gave £50 for him and £30 for the piglet ) we took pellets too .

@butteriesplease

I paid £200 for our moggie kitten and she wasn't neutered or vaccinated etc when we got her (she was 8 weeks ish).

I think it's the current market price! the owner has to pay for food, litter, and to care for the kittens and train them etc.

I couldn't get a cat from a rescue (as we have kids and live near a road), so I was prepared to pay for a kitten. I confess, i was a bit surprised, but decided it was worth it. And she was! She came from a 'good home' where she was well cared for.

The costs of caring for a kitten for 8 weeks are nowhere near £200. Each one will need small amounts of food and do tiny poos so not even need much litter. I estimate the cost of caring for a kitten could be less than £5 a week. Kittens also don't need training. They will need care of course but it will not be expensive.

The fact someone is charging £200 with no health checks or vaccinations shows they are just wanting to make a profit. If there are 5 kittens in a litter it is a lof of profit from one litter.

I paid £450 for Maine Coon kittens ten years ago. I reckon they're at least three times that now. I've seen moggies being sold for £300.

It is ridiculous but £50 is actually cheap these days.

That sounds a pretty cheap to me.
If you can't (or are unwilling to) afford that, think very carefully before getting any kind of pet, let alone a cat.
My cat has a few chronic conditions which are no longer covered by her insurance; she now costs me £50 per week in food, meds, vet appts and cat litter. We've been shelling out that kind of money for at least the last five years - that's £13k in that time! Glad I've only got one! Pet ownership is an expensive luxury.

Sorry ik this is an old post but kittens really do cost more than £100 when they're born. My cat has just given birth to 5 kittens. She was a stray who came to us pregnant. The cost of their first vaccines alone is between £60-£100 per kitten, then they have to have their boosters, which are £60 again. We're selling our kittens for £100 because we desperately need to make that money back, no profit, it all covers the cost of raising the kittens for the first 14 weeks of their lif. First vet check alone is £60. We're still losing money selling them at £100 as we're only selling 3

Keeping our kittens for 14 weeks as the vet advised it due to mum's anxiety. They will have had first vet visit and first round of vaccines when we give them away. Cannot afford to cover neutering or boosters. Not when their first vet visit is £60 a kitten (there's 5) and £60-100 per kitten for their first vaccines when they come. Charing £100 for each kitten and we're losing money but we figured £100 was fair. So I'll agree that £200 for non health checked kittens at 8 weeks is way too much

Definitely. Our cat was a stray and came to us pregnant. She's just had 5 babies. Won't be selling them online, trying to sell them to people we know first. Covering first vet trip, first vaccines and flea and worming. Selling 3 as we currently have 2 other cats plus mum and cannot afford more than 5 cats in total. We figured £100 was fair, as that's actually still selling at a loss for us. £60 first vet trip and £60-100 first vaccines when the time comes. Mum is being done before we allow her back outside (we are keeping her). We're not going to let this happen to her again as she's under 2 and this is the 3rd litter we know of in the time we've been feeding her. We were never able to convince her to come into the house because of our 2 other cats, but she moved in with this pregnancy because it was winter and she was cold.

Going to have to disagree with you there. Flea treatments are very necessary for kittens as they can die from anaemia caused by fleas. Vaccines are very much needed as they can die from cat flu. Worms can also very much kill a kitten. All of that stuff is incredibly necessary. Vet checks are definitely necessary to make sure they're developing properly. Don't get a cat if you aren't going to give them basic care

Sorry but not all people selling kittens are an animal breeding business

Regardless of whether there's a premium for a pedigree or particular breed, surely all kittens should cost at least £100 minimum?

The breeder would need to buy quality food for the mother cat, then for the kittens as they are weaned. Bedding and cat litter, maybe a bigger cat carrier or pen. Vet checks, vaccinations, flea and worming treatments.

15 years ago we paid around £100 for our RSPCA rescue cat. Then an annual plan for flea/worming and vaccinations. Plus pet insurance and microchip payment. You have to be prepared for all that in order to be a responsible owner. She was what you'd call a 'moggy' , but priceless to us.

£175 each for moggies from a cat rescue
but that includes chipping and neutering so is quite the bargain

If people don't pay, hopefully will stop the backyard breeders. But too cheap and those kittens can end up being dog bait.

I paid £50 in 2012 and he is still going strong! Worth every penny!

Our kittens were all £10 from various local farms.

Quite right. They are the cat owners that failed to get their cats neutered.

Depending on how they got the cat that can be easier said than done. We took in a female stray cat, while we were still building up trust with her to take her to the vets to be done, she escaped and we couldn't get her back in for 4 days. She wound up pregnant. Not always is it a failure to get them done. But a case of not being able to at that point.

Fair enough. But I think you’d agree a rare example vs my point.

Oh definitely a rare one. But that's what my original point was. We were going to sell 3 of the 5 kittens, but we fell in love and couldn't sell any of them.