I met a guy, starting to breed cats, who wants Bangels, Folds, & Munchkins. Fortunately I don't have any of those. He wanted to see my cat set up, & how I house my toms. I'm got walk-in indoor/outdoor runs. I think they are nice for cats, & told him sure he could see them. I also let him see my kittens in the house, & queening arrangement.
I had an amazeing conversation with this man. His idea of a cat house, is a 16 X 8 shed. Designed for easy cleaning, with outside runs. Doesn't sound too bad until he explained his outside runs as being plastic coated wire, 18 in. OFF the ground !!!!! I told him he needed to have some sort of surface over the wire, so the cats wouldn't have to walk on the wire. Then he told me, that the cats would "do their job" on the wire, which would be hosed off every day. He has 4 in. of pee gravel under his wire.
It gets worse. Not only are the cats going to be walking on wire, they will have NO Litter Boxes !!!!!!! and he is going to have 10 queens with one tom in each pen !!!!!!!!
I asked him where he was going to keep the mother's when they all had their babies at the same time. I got a "blank look" for that question. It seems he has multiple Amish families wanting to "raise cats" for the wholesale market. Apparantly they are building these cat houses.
I did tell him he was going way overboard, and should just start with a couple of cats & see how it goes, and see if he likes it after a couple years. Then he proceeded to tell me he already had 14 black female cats. "barn cats?" I'm not sure what they were, or why he kept them, but he was discussing breeding those with some Ragmuffins he had aquired.
He gave me his address & said I could stop by anytime to see his cats. I think I'll wait until spring, and then vist. I'm having a difficult time trying to imagine what it will look like. 11 adult cats in a 5ft.X 4ft. wire cage. Sitting over the fumes of cat poo that is laying in the pee gravel beneath them.
I had an amazeing conversation with this man. His idea of a cat house, is a 16 X 8 shed. Designed for easy cleaning, with outside runs. Doesn't sound too bad until he explained his outside runs as being plastic coated wire, 18 in. OFF the ground !!!!! I told him he needed to have some sort of surface over the wire, so the cats wouldn't have to walk on the wire. Then he told me, that the cats would "do their job" on the wire, which would be hosed off every day. He has 4 in. of pee gravel under his wire.
It gets worse. Not only are the cats going to be walking on wire, they will have NO Litter Boxes !!!!!!! and he is going to have 10 queens with one tom in each pen !!!!!!!!
I asked him where he was going to keep the mother's when they all had their babies at the same time. I got a "blank look" for that question. It seems he has multiple Amish families wanting to "raise cats" for the wholesale market. Apparantly they are building these cat houses.
I did tell him he was going way overboard, and should just start with a couple of cats & see how it goes, and see if he likes it after a couple years. Then he proceeded to tell me he already had 14 black female cats. "barn cats?" I'm not sure what they were, or why he kept them, but he was discussing breeding those with some Ragmuffins he had aquired.
He gave me his address & said I could stop by anytime to see his cats. I think I'll wait until spring, and then vist. I'm having a difficult time trying to imagine what it will look like. 11 adult cats in a 5ft.X 4ft. wire cage. Sitting over the fumes of cat poo that is laying in the pee gravel beneath them.