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Is this common practice?

post #1 of 6
1/27/11 at 12:37am
Thread Starter 
I hope this is the right section but I figured it was alright since I'm asking this question to breeders.

I was looking at some breeder's websites (various breeds) and I noticed more than a few of them alter their kittens before they go to their new homes. Is this a common practice within the cat breeding community or just the breeder's personal choice? What is the reasoning behind altering them so young?
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post #2 of 6
1/27/11 at 3:39am
Many breeders alter before adoption, I personally would only adopt from breeders that do this.

It's healthier to spay/neuter before kittens mature, with my breed they often call at 4-5 months and the boys are just as fast to mature. This way there can be no accidental litters.

Kittens also bounce back a lot faster when young, I get mine done at 10-11 weeks and they come home like nothing has happened.
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post #3 of 6
1/27/11 at 3:56am
Missymotus summed it up pretty well. Another thing is that this way the breeder can be sure that their cats/kittens are not used for backyard breeding.
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post #4 of 6
1/27/11 at 4:51am
A little background info (as I'm an ex-breeder now). When I bred my Cornish Rex, it was very uncommon for kittens to mature before 6-8 months. So I sold kittens with a spay/neuter agreement where the owner would do this by the time the kitten was 6-8 months old and withheld papers till I got proof.

I never had a problem doing this and everyone complied.


But today, kittens have matured earlier then 20-30 yrs ago and now they can come in to first heat as early as 4 months old and males are also capable of breeding at 4 months old.

I suspect a lot of breeders had problems over the last 20 yrs with people getting unaltered kittens and breeding them against the contract - whether or not they had papers - mainly for money issues. I noticed a lot of backyard breeders of purebred cats out there. So the breeders now will do spay/neuter before you take them home to prevent their cats from being bred.

Yes you can screen people all you want, and you rely on trust, but apparently people are deceptive. To protect the breeder, they spay/neuter now at 3-4 months old; just before you would get them.

Unless you have a lot of trust with a breeder who knows you well, they won't take that chance any more. And personally I'd rather have them done and pay a bit more to the breeder then to do it myself.
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post #5 of 6
1/28/11 at 6:27pm
I breed Ragdolls and S/N all kittens before going home. Except of course those kittens going to another cattery which for us is pretty rare.

This is common practice with almost all Ragdoll Breeders.
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post #6 of 6
1/29/11 at 8:17am
I do it all the time even in my own cattery just to avoid possible oopps litters and lord knows I've had a couple of those already! LOL!

All mine are neutered before going to a new home. Tis very much the norm now.
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