Thread: Opinions And Insight: Maine Coon Breeders

^^

Ok, do me a favor if you will and tell me what you think about the breeder below.

Maine Coon Kittens index

Originally Posted by candes

Wowza, the prices! Ok, I know I got a bit of a favor, but mine was $700 and flown to my city with the passengers. My original local breeder whose litter was one shy for my third male pick, charges $550 without delivery.

I don't consider $700 vs. $800 a big difference--that is within the reasonable range. Many breeders also give discounts for repeat customers as well. $550 though is quite cheap. Last time we looked, the only people selling around that price were not terribly serious breeders (e.g., did no health testing, many litters, etc.) $800 may sound like a lot to many people, but consider that these breeders are doing things like having an echocardiogram done by a vet cardiologist each year for each breeding cat and then not having more than one or at most two litters per year from the females. So several hundred dollars for the echo, plus vet visits during pregnancy and for the babies, the babies first shots, etc. Sometimes they end up with only two or even just one kitten from a breeding. No, they aren't making money off this at $800/kitten and the only way breeders can be selling for around $500 is by doing no health testing or having an unhealthy number of litters per year from each female. Besides, over the cat's lifetime, a $200-$300 difference in initial price is going to amount to very little. If you cannot afford that difference for a cat with better health testing, then you probably shouldn't buy a pure breed cat, as good quality food isn't cheap and vet bills can be quite staggering. We spend more than $100/month just on food for our four MCs, for example.

Hey NC, I think I may have found my solid blue stateside. The cats of the cattery have the more standard look, they're shown, and the cats located in Kentucky.

Do you mind scanning over it and telling me what you think?

Maine Coons Of Ven

I know you all prefer the more American look(that's what I call it because cats from overseas differ greatly in my opinion), but the wild look of the catteries from overseas looks magnificent in my opinion. They very closely resemble Bob Cats.

Originally Posted by BasedBumi

Hey NC, I think I may have found my solid blue stateside. The cats of the cattery have the more standard look, they're shown, and the cats located in Kentucky.

Do you mind scanning over it and telling me what you think?

Maine Coons Of Ven

Looks pretty reasonable from quick look. At least mentions some health testing. I see there is a solid blue kitten from 8/15. Probably worth a phone call (I would call since a number is given).

If you want to see photos of our four (which I think are all cute MCs), here are a number photos: Picasa Web Albums - normancarver - Cats 2010. Check out the photos of Bella on her birthday, outside and by the lake. Breeder liked them a lot as Bella looks so "feral."

Originally Posted by candes

And don't assume that price has anything to do with testing. And it was not polite to suggest this..

I have talked with a pretty large number of breeders over the last several years as we have bought four MCs and there definitely was a connection between price and health testing. I never found a single lower cost cat (<$700) where the breeder was doing echos. Not one! Some claimed to do the HCM gene testing but many had never even heard of that. So unfortunately this is what my experience talking to probably 20 breeders tells me one should expect from $500 vs. $800 breeders. Of course just because people are charging a lot more doesn't necessarily mean they are doing testing either, because most of the high priced breeders are able to charge that price because of their winning lines that are in big demand. I think its great that you found somebody actually doing health testing and selling for <$800, but I think that is going to be very unlikely for most people. My point about the money was that if somebody says they would pay $500 for a kitten but not $700, in the long run that $200 difference is going to be nothing compared to the lifetime expense of the cat. So if you are actually getting something for your money (like yearly echos of the parents) then I don't find the extra cost unreasonable. Buying a kitten should not be like shopping for an appliance on the Internet, where you just search for whoever has it for the absolute cheapest price and buy. I frankly do not see how your breeder can afford to sell kittens for $700 if she is spending several hundred on air fare to deliver each one. So after air fare and other travel costs she made only maybe $400 on the kitten, and it had to have two vet visits and shots, and the mom had probably some vet visits during pregnancy, and the mom had an echo done this year ($200-300 minimum), and food for the kitten for 3 mos and food for the mom, and of course she has had to pay for the inevitable large vet bills for some medical problem with her breeding cats, etc. You got quite a deal, I would say! I know that our main breeder, who charges $800 for her kittens, is losing money on the kittens. Heck, she paid for an echo for one of our MCs when a vet misdiagnosed it as having HCM because she was worried about continuing to breed the mom. She paid for a necropsy to be done on another one of the cats she had bred that had died suddenly at a young age to again rule out HCM. I can pretty much guarantee that people selling kittens for $500 are not taking steps like this to ensure the health of their breeding lines.

Originally Posted by NCarver

Looks pretty reasonable from quick look. At least mentions some health testing. I see there is a solid blue kitten from 8/15. Probably worth a phone call (I would call since a number is given).

If you want to see photos of our four (which I think are all cute MCs), here are a number photos: Picasa Web Albums - normancarver - Cats 2010. Check out the photos of Bella on her birthday, outside and by the lake. Breeder liked them a lot as Bella looks so "feral."

Your cats are gorgeous, some of the best I've seen. Do you breed your own, or did you get them from a cattery?

Originally Posted by BasedBumi

Your cats are gorgeous, some of the best I've seen. Do you breed your own, or did you get them from a cattery?

Gosh, thanks.

Some of it is simply photography with high quality cameras. Most breeders have quite terrible quality photos on their websites so it can often be difficult to tell what their cats really look like.

No we certainly do not do any breeding.

Two of the cats, the brown tabby girl and the silver boy are from Chemicoons: Maine Coon Cats of Chemicoons of Illinois* - This site requires Java
Our torbie girl is originally from Koonbitzky: Coonbitzky Maine Coon Cats of Ohio
Our red male is from McKittycreek: ~McKittycreek Maine Coons~
Koonbitzky and McKittycreek are both long time, well known US breeders. Chemicoons is a more recent breeder but Liz is very serious and professional, and has had great success the last couple of years showing.

Like I said already, just because I don't like the look of MCs with tall ears and wide muzzles, if you do then go for it. I just thought you ought to be aware that some of those breeders are not aiming for standard looking MCs it seems.

Originally Posted by NCarver

Gosh, thanks.

Some of it is simply photography with high quality cameras. Most breeders have quite terrible quality photos on their websites so it can often be difficult to tell what their cats really look like.

No we certainly do not do any breeding.

Two of the cats, the brown tabby girl and the silver boy are from Chemicoons: Maine Coon Cats of Chemicoons of Illinois* - This site requires Java
Our torbie girl is originally from Koonbitzky: Coonbitzky Maine Coon Cats of Ohio
Our red male is from McKittycreek: ~McKittycreek Maine Coons~
Koonbitzky and McKittycreek are both long time, well known US breeders. Chemicoons is a more recent breeder but Liz is very serious and professional, and has had great success the last couple of years showing.

Like I said already, just because I don't like the look of MCs with tall ears and wide muzzles, if you do then go for it. I just thought you ought to be aware that some of those breeders are not aiming for standard looking MCs it seems.

I'll be sure to look into the listed catteries sometime tomorrow. Thanks. =)

But I really do find that the European catteries have a slightly different look to those catteries housed in America. I was looking at MCO guide I believe and a ton of Euro breeders were listed there. Not better or worse, just different.