The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Pets & Working Animals => Cats => Topic started by: sabrina on October 19, 2009, 03:39:44 pm
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do not know if it is the same where others live but in Aberdeenshire the lasted trend seems to be selling moggie kittens for anything up to £60. I am looking for a male tabby but would rather give my money to the Cats Protection than these people who have started breeding every day cats just for the dosh. I am seeing the same people with adverts in Scot-adds so they are doing it for the money. I have also looked on-line for this area and its the same there. We have three cats, all been done and the only reason we need another is because only one of them is young and keeping up with the mice, Cleo will be 15 in January and Paws is 19 so they like to take life easy. Jaks is 3 and does her best but she needs help and a playmate. I thought better get a kitten that will learn to keep away from the hens. One of my neighbours took on a Bengal cat from a rescue centre and it had a field day with the chickens. :cat:
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Sabrina it may worth visiting some of your local vets surgerys as often at my vets they have adverts displayed with cats and dogs on offer. These don't tend to be posted by the money grabbers.
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I asked my vet about this a while ago as I'd seen a kitten for sale in a pet shop. Because most cats are neutered young these days - due to a campaign by the RSPCA, demand is exceeding supply so moggy kittens now have a premium value. £50 to £60 is normal nowadays in most parts of the country I'm told.
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Kittens are in short supply here too. People seem happy to pay big money for them. I give my kittens away to people I know, but have been known to put a £25 price tag on if anyone asks who I don't know. I am not in it to make money, but do not want my kittens going somewhere not nice, and think if they pay, they are more likely to look after them (well, thats what I hope!) but most of mine are with people I know, and I can see them when I visit too.
I cannot see that people are making much out of the kittens, if they have fed them, wormed and deflead them etc. although £60 is a lot of money. I have people willing to pay that for my white kittens (one of which is sitting on my knee as I type!)
My priority is a good home, and if thats where they are going, then they are free!
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Its a tricky one isn't it.
I have had litters and done a similar thing to Roxy.
I suppose that if people realise that they can sell kittens for £50 they will also realise that they will have to be sold in cared for condition. Not the scruffy scraggy wormy flea ridden kittens from straw barns that you used to see.
The other criteria i hacve had is that they won't go to be house cats without access to the outside and that leads onto the other problem that a price tag creates. If cat owners are too worried about a financial investment they may not let their cats roam in case they get nicked or get lost.
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There is a farmer near us, who regularly has a sign on his gate saying kittens for sale, and he reckons he could sell them twice over. His poor farm cats have kittens all the time, and he sells them for £25 each. Never seen the cats and kittens, but have a suspicion they are not de flead or wormed and are definitely farm cats.
The cheeky so and so sent a message via another farmer to me, saying he would take any spare kittens off my hands. I bet he would!! Get one of my well fed, wormed kittens for nowt, and sell it for £25 (probably more for the white ones!)
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Scruples - he obviously had none at all!!! Cheeky bXXXer
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Sabrina, many rescue centres have kittens, due to the large numbers of pregnant strays. They'll make you pay, and may home-check, but at least you have the moral high-ground by helping out!
And they're more likely to be vet checked, de-flead, wormed and maybe have reduced price neutering
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I was at the animal sanctuary open day a couple of weeks ago, and I think it was £65 for a moggie and £80 for a posh cat. And they were very strict about rehoming, with home checks and no busy roads etc. So, even though they may have had cats available, they were not cheap - but there was a sign saying no kittens at the moment.
Little Blue, I have some real cuties looking for good homes - a big fluffy white kitten with black tail, and black on its head, and its smaller black and white sister. I will have to post a pic so you can see for yourself .....
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Oh, dont tell me, dont tell me (but please post pic!) Still no sign of my wanderer, the big felix cat so maybe a kitten... (*Stop it!*)
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Don't give up hope, Ruth!! A horsey friend of mine had one of her stable cats disappear six months ago. She was heartbroken as the female cat had been with her since a kitten. Not long ago, she gave up hope, got another kitten. And guess what? She was at the stables tonight when who strolled out of the hay, fussing round her? Looks fine, well fed, but wherever has she been for 6 months, and why has she returned. Must have had a shock to find a new cat installed though!!
Will take pics if kittens stay still. White one is very big and sturdy looking, and its black and white sister is only half the size - well I think its female. One of the big cats caught a mole today, and must have brought it back for the kittens :o they had eaten its head and decided it was not very nice!!!
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I'd giev a lot for my CAndy to walk through the catflap. She disappeared 6 months ago too. :'(
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Oh, Doganjo, do hope your cat returns home too!!
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Roxy, I nearly rang you this morning for a kittten as our little cat was out all day and all night, which is not like him at all. We were v worried as he is everybody's friend yet never goes far from home. He appeared dry and warm, and smelling of foam - must have been shut in the factory behind us!
Still no sign of Claude
Jay is considering the idea of one of your kittens, so if you struggle to find homes....
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Oh, Doganjo, do hope your cat returns home too!!
I keep hoping she found a better home to live in but my place is right between a by-pass and a goods railway line. :'(
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Ruth, you are more than welcome to one of my kittens - no pressure, but if you decide to have one I would be so pleased. Just want them to go to nice homes. Photo thingy not working, so will take some pics and pop in the post to you. Got one enormous fluffy white one, with black stripy tail and black mark on head, its sibling, who is about half the size, but black and white. And also a tiny terror who I have fallen in love with as I have got that one in the house. Thats white, with black tail and black mark on head, and a couple of spots of black on body, but from a different, later litter than the other two.
Although farm cats, they are all friendly and used to me picking them up, and litter trained.
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Sound lovely, we just have to think carefully because of Sheba, she is not a cat-lover!
I will consult the O/H again....
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Our Ted is not a cat lover either ......but even the little cats have got the measure of him, and the other dogs!!!