Thread: Opinions And Insight: Maine Coon Breeders

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.