Tell us about your Cattery...

I thought it might be a good idea if some of the breeders in here told us about the design of their cattery. It might give someone just starting out some ideas. It might even give those of us who have been doing it a while some new things to try in our catteries...

I'll post ours later today... feel free to include pictures if you like.

Design of the cattery? My cats live in an ordinary apartment with me. I've got two fertile females and one neuter. My home looks pretty much like anybody elses except from the scratching posts (those really high ones that they can climb in) and the water bowls placed everywhere. Yeah, and of course all the toys all over the floor...

Since we bought our house (about a year and a half ago), we decided to use about 3/4 of the basement as the cattery. So, before the movers moved us in, we used about 300 square feet of it as the Queen/ baby/Office area, about 600 sq feet for the whole male / craft room and another 100 sq feet as a laundry room.

In the Queening/Office room we have our 2 desks with our computers and such, 2 ultralite queening pens, one wall that has upper and lower cabinets with a countertop, and a linen cabinet on one end and a fridge on the other.
2 water fountains placed around along with dry food (we free feed).

The litter boxes are housed in an enclosure that is vented via a small bathroom fan to the outside (as are all the cat boxes in the main part of the house), and various sizes of cat trees, cat pillows etc.

The queening pens have their own cat boxes, covered until the new litters are being box trained and then uncovered ones with clay litter. These are not vented, but this weekend I plan on installing venting fans for those as well.

We also had a seperate heating zone in each area, as well as air conditioning.
The male/ craft room although unfinnished for about another month, has places for each whole male, we have 2, which allows them room to run and jump and is easily cleaned. These are vented as well. Plans include, once the outside deck gets enlarged, outdoor runs for the girls and the boys.

The laundry room has areas for storing all of our cat show things, and a grooming area with a deep sink to bath our cats. The flooring in all rooms is tile, with the exception of the laudry room, which at this moment is unfinnished, but will be the interlocking 1" thick foam flooring.

We originally never wanted to have whole males at all, but, in order not only develop our own lines, and maintain a closed cattery, we had to.

So Sol, do you take your females to their mates, or do you have them come to you?

Often the maleowner want's the female to come to the male (to make sure the male doesn't breed more queens than agreed) but if they want to I can have the male come to my females, that's never happened yet though.

I'm planning on buying my own male soon but I'll probably place him in a "fosterhome", that's quite usual here in Sweden, but it would be nice to have him living at home with me too. I just don't wanna "get stuck" with more cats than I can handle.