Why the kitten costs so much

So, you made up your mind to buy a kitten! A beautiful one. As the one in an advertising on TV, remember, recently showed. Well-bred, with the passport, sorry – with a brood line, on all 12 degrees. And, of course, healthy, with veterinary passport, with marks about the made vaccinations.

You dial an advertising phone number of a breeding cattery, find out the cost of a kitten and.... Well, you are actually not sorry for the money, but it is somehow not clear - what do you pay such money for?

 The pricing question in all areas of human activity always caused, causes and will cause, most likely, puzzled questions, the answers on which were, are and, most likely, will be ambiguous. And the article which you are now reading is one of the numbered attempts to answer those puzzled questions on formation of the price for kittens. This is not a scientific article, an everyday one. 

Let's begin with the fact that you have not gone for a kitten to a pet-shop or on a "poultry market", have not bought it in underground transition (that in itself is very competent decision). You have addressed to a breeding cattery. You have addressed to professionals, people who know what, how and when and how many it is necessary to buy, give, and make for enjoying the beauty, charm, caress and devotion of your favourite. It is possible to hear often that cats that live outside are seldom ill, live long.

Probably it is so. Probably, but:

- Don’t forget that it is possible to speak so only about the cats that are 1 year old and senior, only these cats have already passed severe natural selection; and if a kitten is of the age less than two months (such kittens are sold on "poultry market " and in the underground) it is not known, whether it lives about one year; 

• buying a kitten "on the outside party" you will never know if it is "of pure blood" what kind of character and habits it can have;

 • you would not receive the inquiry on the health of your kitten, and, especially, a veterinary passport, data on the vaccinations being made too. 

 People, who are engaged in breeding (pay attention, breeding, instead of multiplication) still name "manufacturers”. In my opinion it is correct. The breeding cattery is some kind of manufactory. It is a manufactory with its manufacture, with its laboratories, with its economy and the accounts department. It is a manufactory with its rules of work which are called "the international standard on a breed". Each manufactory owner is obliged to know the standard on the breed, only then it is possible to speak about the breeding but not about the multiplication. If you do not know the standard you do not know the lacks of your own kittens, you do not know what and how you need to improve in them. Even the most perfect cat has lacks and, therefore, always there is a field for selection work. The careful planning of the copulations, the laborious selection of breeders, an attentive studying of brood lines, merits and demerits, selection of genetic lines - all this very much remind the researches in manufactory laboratories. 

 If you think that I have forgotten about the main aim of this article you are mistaken. Very briefly I tried to inform you one of the components of the kitten’s price – the level of professionalism and the popularity of the breeding cattery. And don’t be surprised with the component which, at first sight, cannot be felt, and, especially, estimated. Market economy laws operate everywhere where there are concepts of the price, cost, expenses, etc. You are not surprised at the price of the Bosch firm production that is at the other equal parameters on ~ 20-40 % above the similar production of other firms. It is a result of a long, faultless and highly professional work of the Bosch firm.

The following component of the price is very closely connected with the first one; it is even possible to tell that it follows from the first component – the level of professionalism of the breeder. It is a breeding quality. The level of the breeding quality depends on a phenotype and a genotype.

 The phenotype reflects the conformity of an animal to the international standard of the breed. If to speak about pricing (namely we speak today about it) then all the animals can be approximately divided into three types: 

• a show class - the animals that are most fully corresponding to requirements of the standard of the breed;

• a breed-class (from the English - breed - to plant, breed) – she-cats (only she-cats!) that have some very insignificant lacks of their type which will not allow to receive the highest estimations at exhibitions, but are capable to give birth to a fine posterity;

• a pet-class (from the English - pet - the favourite) - "a cat on a pillow", simply the favourite of the family. As a rule, he-cats who cannot be referred to a show class are referred to a pet-class and that`s why will not make successful exhibition career since judges always very strictly estimate cats - manufacturers.

So depending on what class this or that kitten concerns, its price is formed. Thus an important value has the honesty and decency of the breeder, because it is he/she who defines a class of the animal. And it is directly connected with the level of professionalism and popularity of the breeding cattery! The circle has become isolated. If the breeder possesses a low level of professionalism and as a result defines a class of a kitten incorrectly or deceives the buyers, overestimating a class of a kitten (overestimating thereby the price), the buyers shortly will not go to him/her, the earth fills with hearings.

At the same time, it is necessary to point out that when I spoke about the conditional division of animals into three classes, I thereby wished to tell about the possible unpremeditated mistakes in defining the class of an animal. But these mistakes are, as a rule, rare and by no means not regular.

The genotype speaks about the whole blood of a broodline of a kitten, about the ancestors this kitten has had, what fresh bloods and in what generation have been poured in. The question of a genotype is a complicated question and its consideration in our article does not correspond to its target orientation. The main thing that is necessary to point out - "the question price" depends on a genotype of a kitten, that`s why it wouldn`t be superfluous to look attentively at a broodline of a kitten at purchase though it wouldn`t say much to the beginning breeder.

It is necessary to point out separately the cost of a rare color. A rare and furthermore, a new color is a result of a long and laborious work. It is an accurate calculation and, simultaneously, a matter of luck. It is a good luck and an embodiment of a professional knowledge. To achieve the rare color stands high.

The following component of the price depends directly on what has been said above – the acquisition of the manufacturers for the breeding cattery.

I hope that our reflexions about the breeding quality which we have given above, will allow not to speak much about the influence of the cost of the manufacturers on the cost of the kittens. They don`t cost little. And as the native market of manufacturers does not always satisfy the skilled breeders for whatever reasons, it is necessary to buy a manufacturer abroad that, naturally, considerably increases expenses on their purchase (tickets, the visa, hotel etc.)

The raising of the breeders (as well as the raising of kittens) is the following component of the price. For the kitten to grow healthy and strong the right diet is necessary. It is possible to provide this diet with two ways: professional forages or natural. 

Professional forage. The dry and preserved forages are necessary for the good growth of our pupil. The forages of a super-premium class (Hils, Jams, Jakonuba) are very expensive. For example: 1 kg of a dry forage of Kitekat costs 50 roubles, 1 kg of a dry forage of Hills costs 255 roubles, 1 kg of a dry forage of Jams - 275 roubles.

 Exhibitions. Only there it is possible to receive an objective estimation of what you have bought and have grown up. Only there it is possible to estimate the breeding quality of your pupils. Exhibitions are the titles, ranks. It is an important line in a broodline of your pupil. Exhibitions are the next expenses, the next component of the price of a kitten. The cost of the veterinary inquiry, the examination cost at an exhibition, the cost of a veterinary control is included in there. If the exhibition takes place in another city add the cost of the train or plane tickets on here, the hotel cost.

 Health is one of the principal causes why you address for a kitten to a breeding cattery, instead of going to a "poultry market". Also it is the following component of the price of a kitten. I include many components in the concept of Health. First, it is vaccination. The kitten passes the first course of vaccination (twice) in 8 - 12 weeks and not earlier than. Adult cats should get vaccination once a year. Secondly, the regular veterinary service and inspections. Not only usual procedures are included here (for example, anthelmintic actions), but also emergencies (for example, a Cesarean section at travail), an ultrasonic researches (ultrasonic) of kidneys and heart, blood analyses on a virus leukemia (FeLV), an immunodeficiency (FIV) are not rare in a good breeding cattery. Who faced similar procedures in our human life, can estimate, how much it costs. Health demands means. 

In the separate line it is necessary to say about the cattery`s equipment. In a good breeding cattery there are many things - from a mouse and scratching post to "a residential compound"... Even if there is a cat-manufacturer in the breeding cattery, in selection interests it is quite often necessary to carry the cats on copulation to other catteries. The cost of copulation is another component of the price of a kitten.

It is impossible to ignore such line of expenses, as advertising. The well-known breeding cattery doesn’t become known at once. It is then, after a lapse of time, the hearings about a good breeding cattery (as well as about a bad one) are spread by themselves. To say it right they are not spread by themselves but by people are spread. By those people who have already faced this breeding cattery. And it is a considerable number of buyers. But all the same a great number of buyers are "the victims of advertising". Alas, all of us are the children of our epoch, and presently advertising is a trade engine. Not a cheap engine, to tell the truth. 

 It is an ungrateful business - to answer the puzzled questions. I have tried to list very briefly the basic components which influence on the price of a kitten. And, of course, you have paid attention that no sum, price, costs, etc. are specified in this article. It was made deliberately since it would be incorrect to name concrete figures, speaking about pricing in general. To make it clearly what I am talking about, I will give a simple example. Today in Moscow the price for gasoline differs on 8-12 % in radius only 30 km. At a cost of 16 roubles/litres (conditionally) it is only 1.28 - 1.92 roubles. And what if it is 100 litres? That`s why it is necessary to speak about the concrete price of a kitten, assorting the concrete conditions of pricing. And the pricing principle, in my opinion, is everywhere identical.


The magazine "Cat-info" № 1, 2006,

Kurchevskaja E.V. © www.katrins.ru