09/10/2026
I borrowed this from another brâ¨ď¸der. She's spot on!
âDoes anyone know where I can find a cheap Maine C**n brâ¨eder?â I see some version of this question all the time, and it got me thinking that thereâs a whole side of brâ¨eding most people probably never have a reason to think about.
When you see the prâ¨ce of a Maine C**n kitten, you see the kitten sitting in front of you. What you donât see are the years, expenses, time, preparation, and sometimes really difficult days that happened before that kitten ever existed.
Responsible brâ¨eding is expensive and time consuming. Iâm home with my cats and kittens. Iâm monitoring pregnancies, births, nursing moms, weight gain, development, health, temperament, and socialization. Iâm cleaning constantly. There are veterinary expenses, health testing, genetic testing, medications and treatments when needed, quality food, litter, cleaning supplies, equipment, new cats when you retire current queens or studs, registration expenses, taxes, and countless other câ¨sts people never see.
And then there are the emergencies.
A responsible brâ¨eder needs to have money set aside for emergencies. When something goes terribly wrong at 2 a.m., thereâs no waiting until payday, no waiting for another kitten to find a home, and no time to start building an emergency fund.
Your cat needs help. You say, âSave her.â
Emergency C-sections and other serious complications can câ¨st thousands of dollars, sometimes with virtually no warning. A brâ¨eding program needs enough financial stability to continue caring for its cats when there arenât kittens bringing in income AND enough resources to handle the day something goes terribly wrong.
And then thereâs the brâ¨ederâs TIME.
There are the obvious hours people might think about: monitoring labor, checking newborns throughout the night, supplementing large litters around the clock, weighing babies, watching moms, cleaning constantly, socializing kittens and monitoring their development. Giving parasite preventative etcâŚ
But thereâs another huge part of the brâ¨ederâs time that people probably never think about: maintaining an online presence. A website doesnât maintain itself, and neither does social media. Thereâs updating the website, creating posts and reels, taking photos and videos, editing them, answering inquiries across multiple platforms, responding to comments and messages, and staying consistently active so the algorithm will actually show your content and potential families can find you.
And families understandably want pictures, videos, and updates of their kittens along the way. I love providing those, but they require time too. When you add up photographing kittens, filming them, editing content, posting, updating a website, communicating with families and inquiries, and simply keeping a cattery visible online, it becomes a significant part of the job that most people probably never consider.
Iâm also a sole proprietor. This is a legitimate business, and I pay taxes on the income from every kitten I sâ¨ll. Once you account for veterinary care, health testing, supplies, food, litter, medications, taxes, emergencies, and the enormous amount of time involved, responsible brâ¨eding is not inexpensive.
And none of this means a higher prâ¨ce automatically makes someone a good brâ¨eder. It absolutely does not. Families should still research, ask questions, verify health testing, and understand exactly what theyâre pâ¨ying for.
I just think thereâs a lot more behind that prâ¨ce than most people ever have a reason to consider. Because you arenât simply pâ¨ying for a kitten.
Youâre pâ¨ying for what happened before that kitten ever reached your arms: responsible brâ¨eding decisions, properly cared-for parents, veterinary care, health testing, socialization, sanitation, nutrition, emergency preparedness, countless hours of work, and a brâ¨eder who has the resources to do the right thing when something goes wrong.
There is a tremendous difference between brâ¨eding cats and brâ¨eding cats responsibly.
