10 Questions to Ask a Breeder Before Adopting a Kitten

ByMichael Steele

So, you’re thinking of adopting a kitten?  We get it.  After all, we’ve created an entire website dedicated to cats and agree with you that they’re some of the cutest animals and existence.Before you go to a breeder and grab a kitten, there’s a number of things that you need to consider.  By taking the steps below, you’ll not only protect your investment, but you’ll also make sure that bad breeders don’t profit from their activities and will hopefully close down their breeding program.

  1. Genetic and Health Testing with Proof: The absolute most important thing you should get from a breeder is genetic tests and health tests that prove that the kitten you are about to purchase is healthy.  The genetic testing will be able to identify issues that are likely to occur in the future, but may not be present now. While the kittens that a breeder is showing you may be incredibly cute, genetic testing will make sure you won’t have issues in the future that result in outlandish veterinarian bills and the untimely death of your feline friend. The health testing will confirm that the kitten doesn’t already have an underlying health issues that may not be physically present.  While your kitten may look healthy, there’s always a chance that they have some type of internal health issue that needs to be resolved.When a breeder provides you with these tests, make sure that they give you paperwork that proves they are valid and get a copy of this paperwork. In the future, if a veterinarian diagnoses an issue that the breeder said was nonexistent, you’ll have a situation where you can receive a refund or argue it in court if needed.
  2. Health Guarantee:  Any reputable breeder is also going to be willing to give you a health guarantee. This is simply a statement by the breeder letting you know that if the kitten has serious health issues within a certain amount of time, they’ll let you return them to the breeder program. The typical length of time for a health guarantee is a year, but some breeders offer shorter and longer periods. It’s all going to depend on the breeder themselves.
  3. References:  Always check the references that a breeder gives you. We suggest that you get both professional references (other breeders or veterinarians), and references from previous customers. It’s good to contact 3-5 references prior to purchase to make sure they have positive things to say about the individual and the program.
  4. Socialization:  Having a kitten that’s been properly socialized is incredibly important for any new owner. Even if you don’t currently have any pets or children, things may change in the future and if that’s the case, you want to have a pet that doesn’t immediately attack other animals or children. Certain breeds have behavioral tendencies to can be more territorial and by getting a well-socialized cat, you’ll get one that’s less prone to aggressive behaviors and can adapt to their surroundings.
  5. Caging: While there are certain times that keeping a kitten in a cage may make sense, if you notice that a breeder has multiple kittens in multiple cages for extended periods of time it’s a bad sign.  Always ask the breeder if they cage their kittens and if they do, find out why and how often. Again, there are sometimes reasons that a breeder may cage their kittens temporarily, but it shouldn’t be for an extended period of time.
  6. Registered Associations with Proof:  It may seem trivial to outsiders, but associations such as TICA and the CFA verify that breeders meet certain standards with their breeding program. In other words, you can consider this the governing bodies for breeders and they work hard to make sure registered breeders maintain certain criteria. If a breeder tells you that they are part of an association, that’s not enough. Ask them to see paperwork that shows they are registered with the associations and you can also contact the association to verify these claims.
  7. Visitation to the Cattery: Most breeding programs refer to themselves as a “Cattery” and will allow people to visit when looking at a new kitten. This is definitely preferred because you’ll be able to see what the breeding program is like and how the conditions are that the kittens are growing up in. However, there are specific breeders that will not allow visitation because they are worried about their privacy and have had bad experiences. Ideally, you’ll be able to visit, but if you can’t, make sure that you complete additional due diligence to make sure that the breeding program is reputable.
  8. Application to Adopt and Contract:  Every reputable breeder is going to have an application for you to adopt a kitten. Beyond that, they also have a written-out contract that helps you understand how payment will be handled, health policies, adoption conditions, and other important information. If there isn’t an application or a contract, there’s a very good chance that you may be getting scammed. Even if these things are in place, it doesn’t guarantee your purchase, but paperwork is always helpful in verifying information if you need to fight it at a later date.
  9. Diet:  Take the time to understand what your breeder is currently feeding the kittens and what they advise you to feed the kitten in the future. You’ll find that some breeders insist a raw diet is best, while others might recommend a specific type of cat food. Knowing this information will help you understand how to easily bring the kitten into your home and feed them something that they like during a very stressful time in their lives.
  10. Experience and Policies:  Lastly, and just as important as anything else on this list, you want to understand the experience of the breeder and the policies that they abide by in their breeding program. Just because a breeder doesn’t have a lot of experience doesn’t mean that they’re not a good breeder, but they should be mentoring with an experienced breeder.  Questions to ask are things like;
  • How long have you been breeding?
  • At what age do you allow kittens to be adopted?
  • Do you show any of your cats at cat shows?
  • Do you have any awards from cat shows?
  • How many litters do you handle each year?
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I have had two interests since I was very young... the Internet and cats. I grew up with two lovely cats in my family, Midnight and Chloe. But when I started looking for a cat as an adult, I realized how few reliable resources there are for finding ethical breeders. So I combined my Internet skills and cat knowledge to create Cat Kingpin, the #1 resource for cat breeders online. Have a question or suggestion for my list? You can reach me here.