If your cat is a relatively high – priced breed, such as a Ragdoll or a Sphynx, and you can have a litter of 5 kittens (cats are not as fertile as dogs, and it’s quite common to have only 1 or 2 kittens after mating), if you sell each kitten for 1500 to 2000 yuan, you can not only recover the cost but also make a small profit.
However, if you breed pure – blue British Shorthairs, assuming you have a litter of 5 kittens, the market price on Xianyu is generally between 500 and 800 yuan. You also have to be responsible for the cost of nutritional supplements, cat food, cat litter, and milk powder for the kittens in the future, as well as the breeding fee. Basically, there is no possibility of making money, unless you really want to accompany your cat through its so – called birthing experience and are willing to even lose money to let it give birth.
Because the market for blue British Shorthairs is already saturated, it’s not easy to sell them. Even if a knowledgeable pet store takes a fancy to your cat, they won’t offer you a high price. People who want to buy a good cat will choose a good cattery because of the health guarantee (guaranteeing responsibility for genetic diseases for more than a month after sale. Once there is a problem with the cat, they will compensate according to the price or exchange the cat. And the compensation involves a lot of interests, requiring the buyer to present medical certificates and relevant materials for genetic and other diseases).
Unless you plan to ignore your cat after it gives birth, not provide it with nutritional supplements, and ignore the extra costs, and feed the kittens the cheapest cat food on the market. Even in this case, the profit you can get from each blue British Shorthair is still very low. Personally, I don’t think it’s necessary.
Let me tell you with my own example. My cat is a blue – and – white British Shorthair, and I mated it with a cream – and – white one. The breeding fee was 1000 yuan (mated with a pedigree male cat). During the pregnancy, the cost of canned food and nutritional supplements for two months was at least 500 yuan more. Plus, the preparations before giving birth, such as X – rays and B – ultrasounds. Since it was her first pregnancy, I was extra careful. These costs added up to about 500 yuan. In total, I had already spent 2000 yuan.
After she gave birth, she had 9 kittens. Sounds like a lot, right?
But she couldn’t produce enough milk to feed them all. The kittens were much lighter in weight than ordinary kittens at birth. Generally, normal kittens are about 100 grams at birth, while mine were only about 50 grams.
Feeding them milk powder cost me more than 400 yuan. Then when they were weaned at one month old (my kittens were weaned very quickly, at one month old), they ate a bag of cat food and used a lot of cat litter, which cost about 1000 yuan (the cat food I bought is not expensive, 20 yuan per jin. The main reason is that the cat litter consumption after they were one – month – old was astonishing. Calculated for 10 cats, a bag of cat litter would be used up in at most 5 days).
Finally, I sold 6 kittens for about 7000 yuan. Because half of them had uneven color – splitting and were not valuable. The three blue – and – white kittens with good color – splitting were generally sold for about 1700 yuan each. Because they were from private households, the price couldn’t be raised too high.
The last two with the worst color – splitting were given away, and one that I raised until it was nearly 6 months old was sold for 1000 yuan. I can only say that I didn’t lose money (including the cost of bathing, deworming, vaccination, cat food, and cat litter).
Secondly, if you breed blue – and – white British Shorthairs, you have to consider the color – splitting problem. As I mentioned above, if the color – splitting is uneven and ugly, the price may be even lower than that of pure – blue British Shorthairs. And if the kittens can’t be sold when they are 2 to 3 months old, the longer you keep them, the lower their price will be.
Thirdly, if your cat is a female, you can find a male British Shorthair with a quite perfect appearance. Because the male cat has the greatest influence on the appearance of the kittens. However, the breeding fee is not cheap. I once saw a kitten whose father was a double – pedigree British Shorthair with a very good appearance, and the mother cat was rather ugly. But when the kitten grew up, it perfectly inherited the father’s appearance and didn’t look like the mother at all.
It seems to me that the female cat mainly determines the coat – color genes of the kittens. So, if your cat is a male, the kittens it sires are likely not to be very valuable. If it’s a female, you can take a risk, but I don’t recommend it.
Thirdly, it’s not easy for a female cat to give birth. And it may not give birth in the delivery room you prepared for it. There’s a high chance that it will give birth on your bed or sofa, which will make you very upset if it gets them dirty. Also, if it gives birth to few kittens, you’ll be disappointed. If it gives birth to many, you have to be with them all the time, help feed the kittens, and ensure that the kittens don’t die prematurely. Otherwise, the death of a kitten is the biggest loss.
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