08/19/2026
I saw this reel and laughed because sometimes I really think this is how people imagine breeding works. 😂 Like you just squeeze out a perfect little Sphynx kitten, it grows for 13 or 14 weeks, gets vaccinated, gets fixed, jumps into a carrier looking cute, and goes home. Done. If only it was that simple.
I wanted to write this for everybody really. People who already have one of our babies, people who are thinking about getting a Sphynx in the future, and people who are thinking maybe they want to become breeders too. Because I think a lot of people only see the end result. They see a beautiful healthy kitten, cute pictures, clean skin, big ears, funny personality, and they do not really see everything that happened before that kitten got there.
Breeding starts way before there are kittens. You need the right setup in your home, separate spaces when needed, a safe place for moms and newborns, space for growing kittens, recovery after surgeries, quarantine if necessary, and all of it still has to feel like a home, not a hospital. Then there are the breeding cats. You do not just put two pretty cats together because you like the color. You look at pedigree, lines, health history, temperament, structure, genetics, blood type, testing, HCM scans, all of it. And even after all that, there is still no guarantee that a kitten you buy with breeding rights will actually grow up to be a good breeding cat.
That is one thing future breeders really need to understand. You can spend thousands of dollars on a beautiful kitten, wait a year or more, do all the testing, fall in love with that cat, plan your whole program around it, and then nature says no. A male can grow up and be too rough with females when breeding. A female can be beautiful and healthy but never get pregnant. She can go into heat way too early, spray everywhere, scream constantly, or on the opposite side barely go into heat at all. Then you start spending money on reproductive specialists trying to figure out why. Some females get pregnant easily but have terrible deliveries. Some do not make enough milk. Some make no milk. Some look at their babies and basically say, “Good luck, those are yours now.” 😂 And sometimes the most responsible decision is to spay or neuter a cat you paid a lot of money for and really love because that cat is just not right for breeding. That money is gone. There is no refund from Mother Nature.
Then comes pregnancy and delivery, and that can go from completely normal to terrifying very fast. Sometimes one leg is sticking out and nothing else is moving. Sometimes a head gets stuck. Sometimes a kitten is sitting in the birth canal and you know you do not have an hour to think about it. Sometimes you only have minutes to react. Sometimes labor stops and you know there are still kittens inside. Sometimes a mom suddenly starts bleeding or gets weak. Sometimes there is time to get to the emergency vet and sometimes there really is not. These are the parts nobody sees when we later post the cute little pile of newborn babies.
And once the kittens are born, that is not the end of the hard part either. Not every kitten comes out strong and starts nursing like nothing happened. Sometimes you are rubbing one trying to get it breathing. Sometimes you are clearing the airway. Sometimes you are warming a kitten that cannot hold body temperature. Sometimes you are bottle feeding or tube feeding every couple of hours, day and night. Sometimes you are weighing constantly because a few grams can tell you a baby is starting to struggle before anything else looks wrong. Sometimes you are dealing with diarrhea, dehydration, infection, a fading kitten, or one baby that just cannot compete with the stronger ones. And sometimes, no matter what you do, you still lose one. That part never gets easy.
When things are going well, then comes all the regular work. Cleaning, laundry, bedding, litter boxes, food, water, nails, ears, watching p**p, watching weight, changing food, socializing, teaching kittens to tolerate baths and nail trims, watching their little personalities come out. Then vet appointments, vaccines, deworming, microchips, wellness checks, paperwork, registrations, and for our kittens, spay or neuter before they leave. Then we watch recovery, make sure they are eating, make sure incisions look good, and try to stop a Sphynx kitten from doing gymnastics the same day after surgery. 😂
And then they go home. This is something buyers and future buyers need to understand too. The breeder gives your kitten the beginning. We do not control the next 15 or 20 years. These are live animals. They are not machines and they are not made in a factory. A good breeder should absolutely do proper testing, provide veterinary care, disclose what they know, stand behind the health guarantee in the contract, and do everything possible to send a healthy kitten home. But if something develops years later, that does not automatically mean the breeder did something wrong when that cat was 3 months old.
Kittens are babies. They can get an irritated eye from digging in litter, have an upset stomach, diarrhea, a little respiratory bug, scratch themselves, have a vaccine reaction, all kinds of little things. What matters is that it gets noticed and taken care of. The world is also full of bacteria and viruses. Cats naturally live with all kinds of microorganisms, and some things can sit quietly without symptoms for a long time. Cats can be exposed later at the vet, around other cats, boarding, travel, even through the environment. So if something shows up years later, nobody can always say exactly where or when it came from.
Stress is a big one too. Moving to a new home is stress. Leaving mom and siblings is stress. Flying is stress. Driving is stress. New food, new litter, new people, new pets, construction, visitors, all of it can be stress. And every cat is different. One cat can fly across the country, meet three dogs, and five minutes later be looking for dinner. Another cat gets upset because you moved its blanket. 😂 That is why I always tell people to give a new kitten time to settle in. Give them a quiet safe room, let them learn where food and litter are, let them bond with you, and let their stress level come down before throwing them in with every other animal in the house.
This is also why I always tell people to get pet insurance while the kitten is young and healthy. Not because I expect something bad to happen. Because nobody can predict the next 15 years, and vet care is expensive. Diet matters. Weight matters. Stress matters. Dental care matters. Regular vet care matters. Genetics matter. And sometimes luck matters too.
And one more thing future breeders need to know: breeding is also customer service. Most families are absolutely wonderful. A lot of them stay in touch for years, send pictures, become friends, and that is one of the best parts. But anybody who ever worked with customers knows that sometimes you get somebody with expectations that no breeder could ever meet. Somebody may expect a lifetime guarantee against every possible health problem. Somebody may blame you for something that happens years later. Somebody may remember one tiny issue from kittenhood that was completely resolved and keep bringing it up years later like it explains everything. Somebody may expect you to be available 24/7 for every little thing for the rest of that cat's life.
That is why the contract matters so much. Buyers really need to read it before signing it, not after something goes wrong. Ask questions. Understand what is guaranteed and what is not. Understand what the breeder is responsible for and what becomes the owner's responsibility after the kitten goes home.
And breeders are people too. We have feelings. We are not some big company with a customer service department sitting in another building. These cats live in our homes. We raise the babies in our homes. We lose sleep over them. We cry when we lose one. We worry when a kitten is sick. We spend years building a program and put a huge amount of money back into it. So yes, when someone is unfair or automatically assumes the worst, it hurts. You still have to stay professional, keep records, follow the contract, and sometimes even get legal advice if a situation gets ugly.
Because even if breeding starts as a passion, once you are selling kittens it is also a business. There are taxes, contracts, records, insurance, vet bills, testing, supplies, food, litter, emergencies, medications, equipment, transportation, registrations, all of it. People sometimes look at a kitten price and think, wow, breeders must make so much money. Then one emergency C-section, one reproductive specialist, one sick litter, or one breeding cat you have to spay or neuter after investing thousands into them can wipe out that idea very quickly.
So when you look at your beautiful little Sphynx sitting on your lap, just remember there was a whole lot that happened before that kitten got there. There were breeding decisions, testing, HCM scans, sleepless nights, deliveries, cleaning, feeding, worrying, vet appointments, surgeries, paperwork, and a lot of learning behind that little face.
And once they go home, we hand that responsibility over to you. We give them their beginning. You give them their life.
For anybody thinking about becoming a breeder, I am not trying to scare you away. Good breeders are important. I just think you should know what you are really signing up for. It is not just cute babies and Facebook pictures. It is a lot of learning, a lot of money, a lot of responsibility, some heartbreak, some hard decisions, and a whole lot of work.
After almost 8 years of breeding Sphynx, I am still learning. I do not think that part ever stops.
So yes, that little kitten in the reel makes it look easy. 😂 Just pop one out of a tube and there you go.
In real life, there is a whole story behind every beautiful kitten. ❤️
