Breeding

I want to get started breeding cats. Now before you flame me I want you to know I want a good breeding program. I have been showing cats in Pr for 4 years, so Im not just jumping into this. I would like to start off by telling you what I want in my program. I want good, strong, heathy cats that match the CFA standard. I also do not want to have a huge program, only one or two litters a year. I want to have cats that are capible of Granding, and Regional and National Winning, that doesn't mean they will be NW but I want the quality to be there. Now on to all my questions. How often should a cat be bred? Is it bad for her to only breed once a year and be in heat the rest of the time? I have a breeder who I could get excellent cats from, is it reccomended that I get my breeding cats from different catterys or should I get them from the same? I was planning on building my cages with PVC pipe and plastic coated wire, similar to the ones by ultralite, would those be good cages? When I do breed would I have to move the mother to a smaller, dog kennel type cage with a box? Or would a queening box in her regular cage be ok? What do all of you feed? I was going to feed Innova but I can not find their kitten food. What are important things to include in my contract? Thanks for any help.

For setting up a cattery, go to the CFA web site. They have minimum space requirements. A lot of good ideas, and what is expected if you ever want a cattery inspected and be called a CFA certified cattery of excellance.
The end of your note makes me laugh. Where ever did you get the idea that dog kennels are smaller than an enclosure for a cat? A typical pre-fab dog kennel is 6ft.X 12 ft. X 6ft. high. The few I have for my dogs also have an indoor part that is another 6ft.X 4 ft. I don't even keep my dogs in those, except for puppies or heats, because I think it's too small for a permanant home.
If you are going to have so many cats, you need to make enclosures, make sure they are big enough. I looked at some advertized ones on the internet. They wanted >$1000 for a set of 3, and after I read the CFA cattery requirements, realized that those expensive cages did not meet minimum space requirements.
I made an indoor/outdoor tomcat run, because I don't want the spray smell in my house, but the girls can have the run of my house. The tom run is big enough to walk into, and have stuff for the cat to climb on, shelves, chairs, etc.
bluekat
ps. maybe you were talking about plastic airline shipping crates, as dog kennels. I've known people to keep dogs in those shipping containers, in their house, stacked 6 high. Personally I think the owners should be put in the containers, and the dogs & cats turned loose.

When I asked if I should keep them in dog kennels I meant the crate type cages. I wasn't going to keep them in that type of cage permenitly, just for birthing and probably the first week of life, so the mother wouldn't move them around a lot. I am not going to buy my cages, I will make them, so I can coustomize them. I saw a article on showcatsonline.com that showed pics of a lady who built her cattery. The cages were really neat. They were very roomy, lots of shelves, and they also had little strips of panneling about 12 inchs from the botton, so cats couldn't spray into another cage or kittens couldn't climb and fall. They were really nice cages and I want to copy that in my cattery.

MeiGuoHu, I think you're on the right track to becoming a professional breeder! I commend you for your commitment and the serious approach to the subject!!!

I'm not a breeder myself, but I hope some of the breeders on the site will soon reply to your questions. Just wanted to welcome you to the forums and wish you the best of luck!