11/29/2025
This post written by another breeder hit home with me 💯. I just had to share it.
WHAT A CATTERY OWNER NEVER SAYS OUT LOUD
🤔 A breeder keeps silent about many things…
When people look at beautiful photos of cats, they never think about how much work and effort stands behind all of it.
They see cute kittens and believe they were simply born this perfect and chubby.
So what exactly do we stay silent about?
☝ Every birth is a lottery.
Yes, we calculate and prepare for everything, but… you learn all your life. Anything can go off script. Each birth feels like the first one, no matter how many you’ve already been through.
😒 The scariest thing for us is death. Any death.
A cat can die during labor — we always know there’s a risk.
Kittens die too — newborns, older ones — it happens, and it’s always painful and terrifying.
A mother cat may refuse to feed her kittens, kittens may have defects and need to be removed.
Sometimes you must feed them from a bottle every 2 hours — not for a couple of days, but until they start eating on their own: 3 weeks to 1 month.
👍 Sometimes mating with a good stud costs a lot of money. And yes — we pay for it.
Especially if you have to travel abroad. But we always know WHY we do it.
Kittens can get sick — from simple diarrhea to infections — and all of it takes huge effort, nerves, and money.
☝ Complementary feeding is great, but imagine feeding every 3 hours, day and night.
You stay at home and smile, waiting for the babies to finally grow up so you get some freedom…
🤦♀ Everyone loves counting our finances:
“Four or five kittens multiplied by the price — wow, so simple!”
Sure. But nobody thinks about the money invested: tests, titles, mating, labor, endless supplies for raising kittens — from pads to milk formula and litter, plus meat, food, vaccinations, and much more.
People assume kittens grow on their own, without investment.
Kittens waiting for new families eat too.
And don’t forget expensive advertising, photo sessions, etc.
Only after all of that you can calculate profit.
😴 And there are the sleepless nights…
Sleeping by the alarm, waking every hour, or not sleeping at all.
Day after day. Regular hard work without holidays, weekends, or sick leave.
🤫 And who do you think raises these babies?
Exactly — the breeder, together with the mother cat.
And the main thing — the tons of p**p 💩💩💩 we clean from enclosures, plus endless disinfection, because one bit of infection brought in on a shoe can wipe out an entire litter.
😬 A breeder never says how annoying clueless people are — the ones who can’t imagine our work and still ask: “Why is it so expensive???”
😵💫 And we are always scared about where each kitten will go.
Personally, my rule is: it’s better to strain myself searching and selecting families carefully than to give away quickly and later find the cat abandoned.
I choose people for a long time and often refuse if I don’t like the person. You must trust your instincts.
🫥 And we stay silent about how we get tired… emotionally.
From the responsibility and constant pressure.
And God bless if you have someone you can rely on to share even a part of the load.
🤐 Everyone reaches a moment when you think: “That’s it. I’m done. I’m quitting breeding. I can’t anymore.”
Usually after severe stress — losing animals, kittens, elderly cats.
A day or two passes, and you realize it’s incurable. We might want to quit, but we can’t and don’t want to.
We’re like addicts — hopeless. (You understand the humor, I hope.)
🙏 And a true breeder never says out loud that a part of them dies with every cat they lose.
This pain…
We knowingly sign this contract with ourselves — we are given a certain number of years together, and we pray for more.
We pretend these years are eternity, but when we lose them… we die too, over and over again.
Every breeder has their own breaking point. There always comes a moment when you simply have no strength left for another loss.
🥰 Of course, there are many positives and joys — and you see those all the time — but never forget that every coin has two sides.
And the more experience a breeder has, the harder the path behind them.
Author: Olga Kalinina
