15/10/2026
This might be an eye opener for some but I fully agree with this one. I'm currently running at a loss, as is so many breeders trying to do the thing right by the breed.
Lynavids Bengals
🐾 The Real Cost of Raising Bengal Kittens 🐾
I was doing a little exercise today, working out the average costs involved in raising a litter of Bengal kittens, and I was genuinely quite surprised when I started putting the figures together!
I thought I’d share it because I found it interesting to see where the money actually goes.
The figures in the chart are not an exact breakdown of our accounts, just an estimate based on our own average costs, using Duchess’s current litter of three kittens as an example.
When you start factoring everything in, it soon adds up. Our breeding cats have annual HCM scans costing approximately £330 each, insurance at around £800 each per year, along with their food, vaccinations, routine veterinary care and extensive health testing.
Then there are all the costs involved in raising the kittens themselves, including veterinary checks, vaccinations, microchipping, neutering, worming, food, litter and everything else they need before leaving us.
And that’s assuming everything goes exactly to plan, with no complications or unexpected veterinary bills!
But what’s really interesting is everything these figures DON’T include.
They don’t account for any of our time. Not the hours spent caring for our cats and kittens, monitoring pregnancies, cleaning, feeding, socialising, communicating with prospective owners, answering enquiries or providing regular updates.
They don’t include the countless hours spent researching health, genetics, nutrition and breeding practices, or the ongoing learning involved in trying to maintain and improve our programme.
They also don’t include advertising, new equipment, replacement equipment, cleaning products, bedding, toys, enrichment and the many other expenses that come with breeding cats in a home environment.
And there’s another enormous expense that isn’t included here at all.
The actual cost of purchasing our breeding cats!
People sometimes think pet Bengal kittens are expensive, but goodness me, they would probably fall off their chairs if they saw what a quality Bengal with full TICA active breeding rights can cost! And that’s before you even begin adding the costs of importing breeding cats from overseas, transport and all the associated expenses.
Those initial investments aren’t reflected in this chart either.
When you’re raising a small litter of just three kittens, the costs per kitten become even more noticeable. And it only takes one complication or unexpected veterinary bill to wipe out any potential profit that could have gone straight back into the breeding programme.
I think sometimes people see the price of a pedigree kitten without necessarily realising what goes on behind the scenes to produce healthy, well-raised kittens from carefully selected, extensively health-tested parents.
For us, breeding has never been about producing as many kittens as possible. We deliberately keep our programme small, with our cats living as part of our family.
This wasn’t something I originally worked out to justify our prices. I was simply curious to see roughly what this particular litter of three costs to raise, based on our average expenses, and I was quite amazed when I started adding everything up.
And even after all that, the true cost of running our breeding programme is considerably higher than what this chart shows.
Just something I found interesting and thought I’d share. 🤍🐾
