A Day in the Life of a Cat Breeder
Do You Have the Time, Energy, and Dedication?
Many new breeders don't realize how much work it takes to care for cats and kittens and raise them properly. It is a responsibility not to be taken lightly!
Breeders Don’t Have Set Working Hours
After a week of waking every two hours during the night to check on her pregnant queen, her cat goes into labor at 4:00 a.m. The cat’s a Persian, so she will need assistance to deliver the kittens. Unfortunately, this time the mother also requires veterinary assistance, and there are three scary hours of waiting at the vet's office to see if the mother and kittens will survive. All are delivered safely, and mother is now resting well, though she will be groggy and sore for a couple of days after her cesarean. This means the breeder will be up with the kittens every two hours around the clock to tube feed and stimulate bottoms until mom can care for them herself.
Regular/Daily Cattery Chores
Back at home, also known as the cattery, the breeder still has her daily chores, including caring for the four week old kittens in the nursery. She begins cleaning litter boxes at 11:00 a.m., a chore that normally begins at 6:00 a.m. She is already five hours behind schedule and must feed and play with the four week olds before beginning. Cleaning and sanitizing 11 litter boxes, sweeping, and mopping takes about three hours out of each day, five hours on the day of the week when all litter is dumped and the boxes bleached.
By 4:00 p.m., chores are pretty well handled. She’ll groom all her kitties before preparing dinner for her family. She brushes and cleans the eyes of seven adult Persians and five kittens and then has to run back out to the vet’s office to pick up her recovering cat and newborn kittens. She’ll just order pizza when she gets home. Tomorrow, the seven adult Persians will get their weekly baths, but she might hold off a day on that until her recovering queen is feeding her own babies.
It Takes a Village to Raise a Kitten
After dinner, the children go into the nursery to play with (socialize) the kittens, dad cleans up the kitchen, and the dedicated breeder goes in to care for the newborns. A good breeder’s cats are a part one's family first and foremost and breeding cats secondly. Making sure that her cats are well loved is her first priority, and this includes spending time cuddling and playing. This isn’t the hardest part of the job, but it does take time out of each day and must not be neglected!
And in Your Free Time, There’s Paperwork
At 9:00 p.m., the newborns are fed and cared for. The breeder sits down at the computer for a moment to answer three emails from expecting kitten parents. She promises them pictures of the kittens tomorrow sometime. While online, she takes a few minutes to research a question for an article she’s writing for her website, then she makes a few notes in her queen’s records on how this delivery went and how much each kitten weighed at birth, along with colors and sex. At 10:00, she lies down on the couch and sets the alarm clock for the newborns’ 11:00 feeding.
Dedication, Long Hours, and Sometimes… Heart Ache
When she wakes at 11:00 p.m. to check on the kittens, the smallest one has passed away. She quietly slips him away from mommy, wraps him in a little blanket, and takes him into the other room. She goes back in to feed and care for the babies, tucks them in for another couple of hours, and then goes out into the dark of night to bury the little one. She cries for each one she loses and feels responsible for each little life she brings into the world.
She misses any sleep between 11 and 1:00, and then it is back to the newborns. After placing each one back with their resting mother, the breeder pulls a folded towel under her head and just naps on the floor by the kittens' bed for the next couple of hours.
How to Be a Success at Breeding
To succeed at breeding, a breeder has to truly love what she is doing. Anyone who gets into breeding for the wrong reasons will quickly fail, and often at the expense of their cats and the owners of kittens they’ve sold. Before you ever consider breeding, ask yourself if you want to work 14 or more hours a day for no pay. How much time do you have to dedicate to your cats? And what are your reasons for wanting to breed? Breeding is not a decision to be taken lightly, but if you decide to do it, do it to the very best of your abilities!
Related Articles:
- Becoming a Pedigreed Cat Breeder
- Purebred Cat Breeding Ethics
- Basic Cattery Design, Requirements
- How To Choose Breeder Cats
- Preparing Your Cat for Breeding
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