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Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Original poster

Where to buy kittens?!

65 replies

bethabean · 12/10/2021 21:07

Hello!

We are looking to buy a kitten and wondering where people tend to buy them from nowadays? I have googled and gumtree, pets4homes etc. comes up so just wondering if they're the places to go or not!

OP posts:
CoffeeAndKittens · 13/10/2021 11:32

Please contact your local rescue. I foster for one and we are inundated with every kind of cat going, from kitten to senior, indoor and outdoor suitable and in every colour you could want. Please give a rescue a chance for a happy life!

Ivalueloyaltyaboveallelse · 13/10/2021 11:53

@ tabulahrasa thank you.

WelcomeSnack · 13/10/2021 12:02

I recently bought a kitten from a seller on Pets4Homes - she is a very happy, healthy, friendly little cat & we are thrilled with her. We did quite a lot of research before getting her & messaged & spoke to the seller before visiting. She had been wormed, de-flead & had a vet check before we collected her. We were able to see her with her mum & littermates, and I am as confident as I can be that she was raised in a family home & her mum was a family pet. I suppose my point is that I think it is possible to find responsible sellers on these websites but you do need to be cautious. There were sellers that I avoided as the photos / descriptions / contact details did not look right.

I would have preferred to rehome a rescue cat. I have had cats for many years and all have been adult rescue cats in the past, however we registered with 3 local rescues over a year ago & have not matched their criteria for any cats up for adoption so far (we live in a flat & have an an 11 year old DC).

thecatneuterer · 13/10/2021 12:19

@redglobox

I spent months and months trying to adopt kittens (South East). Registered at every rescue within an hour's drive. Nothing. Gave up and bought them on pets4homes.
When was this? From the middle of last year to a few months ago it has been very hard to adopt kittens. Kitten season was late this year, and the huge demand caused by the pandemic, coupled with the shortage of shelter staff to deal with taking in kittens and dealing with adoption, has meant that, for about a year, adopting kittens was very difficult. That is very definitely no longer the case. All those extra kittens bought because people were WFH are now having kittens themselves (as people didn't bother getting them neutered or couldn't find vets to do it) and there is now a huge glut. There are always many more kittens available than homes for them to go to, but right now it's far worse than usual.
CuteGirlsWatchMeEatEther · 13/10/2021 12:21

@Shehasadiamondinthesky

My son volunteered me to adopt one from his neighbour whose cat has just had some jet black jelly babies. I haven't seen any up for adoption recently even on pets4homes which usually has some for hundreds of pounds.
Jet black jelly babies?!
thecatneuterer · 13/10/2021 12:21

@WelcomeSnack We would have homed either kittens or a cat to you. Although there aren't nearly as many indoor cats as their are indoor/outdoor ones granted, but there are some. And we home kittens to flats. And an 11 year old child makes no difference at all to us - it's only very young children who are problematic.

TurnUpTurnip · 13/10/2021 12:25

Another rescue wouldn’t give my sister a cat because she didn’t have a cat flap, (this was even after she had moved to a house) and another because she lived near a main road, I’m not sure what rescues they were but some are very fussy, she got one off gumtree as well in the end.

CuteGirlsWatchMeEatEther · 13/10/2021 12:25

Try a small independent rescue shelter. Cats Protection League don’t ever seem to want to part with their cats.

StellaAndCrow · 13/10/2021 12:54

@AwkwardPaws27

Rescue - I got my lovely boy from the RSPCA, he was £95 which included him being neutered, vaccinated, health checked, deflead, deformed & 4 weeks free insurance. Photo of him now, he was 11 weeks when we got him.
Your cat is VERY cute! What a gorgeous boy - I love his markings and his relaxed pose.
statetrooperstacey · 13/10/2021 12:56

I got my first cat off Facebook and my second of a customer who is permanently overrun with kittens, don’t think they have worked out what’s causing it yet🤔🙄
I also enquired at various local cat rescues at the time, none of who got back to me. My daughter got her kitten through a friend who was fostering a pregnant cat. So maybe she managed to jump the queue!🤷‍♀️
My late dog who died a few months ago was a rescue though , so I’m not completely morally bankrupt.

ichundich · 13/10/2021 13:43

I got our tortie from Gumtree 🤷‍♀️. It came from a lovely home and was her mum's first and only litter. With bog standard domestic shorthairs that cost around £40 (this was 5 years ago) it's unlikely many people breed them for profit / in kitten farms. Don't understand why so many people on MN think it's the crime of the century to let your cat have kittens ever.

Wolfiefan · 13/10/2021 13:44

Rescue.
We got our two tortie terrors from rescue.

Beamur · 13/10/2021 13:47

Rescues would be my first port of call or through someone you know (and trust).
If you want a specific breed, there are usually breed groups, or the GCCF (cat equivalent to the Kennel club). I'd look for a small scale breeder who shows cats as they often just hobby breed to select for showing and sell the kittens they don't keep. I have bought a few kittens this way and they've been healthy and well cared for. Leave mum at 12/13 weeks and are vaccinated and vet checked. I have several cats, moggies and pedigrees (have a soft spot for a particular breed)

NautaOcts · 13/10/2021 13:49

Try rescues first of course.
We did but had no luck, none available at that time.

We then just put the word out amongst friends that we were looking for a kitten or young cat and got our lovely little one from a friend of a friend.

Amrapaali · 13/10/2021 13:51

This link is for you OP- hopefully will be helpful:

Safe Pet Campaign

TurnUpTurnip · 13/10/2021 14:13

@ichundich

I got our tortie from Gumtree 🤷‍♀️. It came from a lovely home and was her mum's first and only litter. With bog standard domestic shorthairs that cost around £40 (this was 5 years ago) it's unlikely many people breed them for profit / in kitten farms. Don't understand why so many people on MN think it's the crime of the century to let your cat have kittens ever.
Hmm sorry yeh I know I said I use gumtree but I have to point out that kittens are not usually £40 now and standard cats are being sold for up to £400 on gumtree I know cos I was looking for one but they are so expensive now
Wolfiefan · 13/10/2021 14:15

@ichundich it’s not about letting a cat have kittens. They don’t want or choose to be parents. It’s about leaving a cat unspayed and risking the health of your cat so you can have cute kittens to sell off.

ichundich · 13/10/2021 14:44

[quote Wolfiefan]@ichundich it’s not about letting a cat have kittens. They don’t want or choose to be parents. It’s about leaving a cat unspayed and risking the health of your cat so you can have cute kittens to sell off.[/quote]
So where do kittens come from? Do they fall out of the sky? Please can you explain the "health hazards" of a species propagating? Isn't this what nature has intended? I'm not talking about two or three litters a year for Christ's sake. Pretty sure my cat had no opinion about whether she "wanted" to be neutered or to be a mother (she is spayed). By your logic animals would never breed, which is complete nonsense.

ichundich · 13/10/2021 14:45

£400 is crazy, but you could argue that it's these ridiculous prices that encourage unethical breeders more than anything.

Madwife123 · 13/10/2021 15:04

£400 for a moggy!!

Where in the country is this? I’ve got Ragdoll kittens that are priced at £400 and not all found homes yet so I find it hard to believe anyone pays these prices!

tabulahrasa · 13/10/2021 15:12

“Please can you explain the "health hazards" of a species propagating? Isn't this what nature has intended? “

There are reasons that pet animals have much longer lifespans than wild ones.

One is neutering.

If there were no cats in rescues, I’d there were no feral cats then sure, someone would need to breed cats if we want pet ones, but as we’re nowhere near that state - then all people are going is letting their pet cat risk their health for no good reason.

TheAntiGardener · 13/10/2021 15:13

Can’t believe there are posters attempting to justify the use of gumtree for buying animals. Not being able to get what you want from a rescue or reputable breeder doesn’t make propping up this trade acceptable.

JorisBonson · 13/10/2021 15:14

@TheAntiGardener

Can’t believe there are posters attempting to justify the use of gumtree for buying animals. Not being able to get what you want from a rescue or reputable breeder doesn’t make propping up this trade acceptable.
This.

There are so many unwanted cats that need homes.

Warmduscher · 13/10/2021 15:16

We adopted ours from Cats Protection - she was a stray who had had a litter of kittens on the flat roof of a shop before being rescued.

Where to buy kittens?!
TheDogsMother · 13/10/2021 15:19

I got sibling kittens aged about 12 weeks from the Cat's Protection. It's not necessarily all older animals.