Breeding stunning Maine Coon Cats for health, temperament, and joy
The Life of a Maine Coon Breeder & Our Breeder Program
Breeding Maine Coons is wonderful, rewarding, stressful and exhausting...all at the same time. You have to have a true love for the breed and a deep desire to advance it.
It takes a lot of research to pick the right king and queen, time to do all the necessary testing, and preparation as you wait for the kittens to arrive. All of this can take months before your first litter is on the way.
Once the kittens arrive, the litter and queen take a lot of time and care. Assuming all the kittens are healthy and you have a wonderful queen who takes great are of her kittens, as a breeder you still have to help groom the kittens by getting them use to being handled, brushed and having their nails trimmed from an early age. You also weigh them daily to make sure they are all growing like they should and can get ahead of any problems a kitten may have. The queen will have to be carefully monitored to make sure she doesn't develop and infection and is producing plenty of milk to support the littler.
As the kittens grow, you have to know when they are ready for each milestone they will hit. They also need a lot of socialization, which sometimes means taking them on car rides. And then there is the heartache for you and the queen as you have to watch each kitten walk out the door and join their forever family.
None of this is easy, but I wouldn't trade being a breeder for anything!
Breeding is an expensive hobby and requires a tremendous about of money up front. First, you must pay for a kitten with breeding rights. Then you have to watch the kitten grow. If the kitten doesn't grow into a breed/show quality cat, the cat must be spayed/neutered and you are out the money you paid for the kitten and start all over. If the kitten does grow into a breed/show quality cat, you then have to do the necessary genetic and health testing on the cat, to ensure he/she is healthy and will produce healthy kittens. Again, if the cat does not pass any part of the genetic or health testing, he/she must be spayed/neutered and not used for breeding. It can take over a year just to get your breeding program going.
Since our breeding program is established, here is just a small sample of our expenses as breeders...
-Genetic testing on each breeding cat (done once)
-Registering each breeding cat with TICA (done once)
-Renewing our Cattery registration with TICA (done yearly)
-Health testing on each breeding cat (done yearly)
-Vaccines on each breeding cat (done yearly)
-Food
-Supplements
-Litter
-Birthing Supplies
-Kitten Vaccines & Vet Checks (done twice on each litter)
-Registering each litter with TICA
-Microchips
-Kitten Toys
-Go Home Bags for each litter
-Replace/upgrade random supplies (i.e. combs, carriers, litter boxes, cat trees, food bowls)
-Always be ready to honor our contracts weather it be refunds for medical issues or replacing a kitten for free
On top of all this is our time to...
-Clean a minimum of 3 different spaces
-Refilling food/water bowls and giving canned food
-Grooming
-Delivering litters
-Helping mom care for new litters
-Vet visits
-Taking pictures and weighing kittens
-"Advertising" kittens/updating Facebook & our website
-Looking over new Kitten Applications and interviewing potential families
-Sending updates to families while we still have their kitten
-Going through the buying process with families
-Registering every kitten to their new family with TICA
-Microchip kittens
-Sending out contracts
-Scheduling kitten pickup or air travel
-Putting together kitten kits for when kittens leave our cattery
-Keeping in contact with old families and their kitten
All of this requires a tremendous amount of time, money, sleepless nights, worry, tears, and countless hours on our phone or computer.
On top of requiring time and money, breeding takes a massive amount of know-how. It is not as easy as putting a male and female together and then playing with a bunch of cute kittens 9 weeks later!
In order to be a good breeder you need to know the breed standard, what diseases/problems the breed is prone to, cat medicine, the needs of breeding cats, the needs of a pregnant female, how to raise kittens/the needs of kittens, how to recognize problems in your breeding cats and kittens, and business/marketing sense, just to name a few. Really, the knowledge you needs as a breeder is endless! You need to have a ton of knowledge when you begin your breeding journey, but then you must always be willing to learn and continuously be doing more research.
Anyone who shows they have not done research on breeding, is unwilling to do research on breeding, or is unwilling to continue learning about breeding will be automatically disqualified from our Breeder Program.
This is what breeding looks like. Breeding is sitting on the floor at 3am with a needy Queen delivering babies. If you go somewhere, she follows, so you can't leave her birthing area. And helping her while keeping the kittens safe and warm as she delivers them can be a real trick!
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SO YOU WANT TO BREED
If after reading all of this, you still want to embark on the journey of breeding Maine Coons, the first thing you have to ask yourself is "why". If your answer is anything besides "for the love of the breed", then becoming a breeder is not for you.
You will spend thousands of dollars on these cats, their medical bills and getting your cattery and nursery ready, before your first litter is even on the way. Making a ton of money from breeding is not something an ethical breeder will ever achieve.
As shown above, once you finally have a litter, you will be required to put in a lot of your money and time to care and raise the kittens. And it doesn't stop after the litter leaves your home. You always ave to be ready to honor your contract if a medical issue comes up with one of your kittens. You also have to be prepared to take a kitten back at any point in his/her life if a family can no longer keep/care for their kitten.
Finally, you need to make sure that you have the room in your house to dedicate to breeding. You will need a minimum of 3 separate areas in your home: 1 for your male, one for your female(s), and 1 for birthing/raising kittens. If you have more than one female you either have to breed at different times so you only have 1 litter at a time, or have 1 area for birthing and completely separate area for raising kittens, meaning you will then need a minimum of 4 separate areas in your home for cat/kittens.
Becoming a breeder is not for the faint of heart. If you are not able to be completely invested in this journey, you could lose thousands, and that is not something I want to happen to anyone.
If you are thinking that your Maine Coon having just one litter will make them a better cat, I will tell you that it is not worth the risk. Cats do not have the desire to have children that people do. Breeding a male just once and then neutering him will likely just cause more behavioral problems (such as spraying and aggression) that you never would have had. Sometimes these problems will stop after the male is neutered, but you can never be sure. With females, while there is some truth to the thought that having a litter makes the girl more affectionate and loving, it is not a hard and fast rule and not worth the risk.
With females it is especially important that they are spayed if they are not going to be bred. Female cats can develop Pyometra (sometimes refered to as "pyo"), which is a very serious infection in their uterus. It happens when a female goes into heat but does not breed. The more heat cycles a female goes through without breeding, the higher the chance she will develop Pyometra. When a female does get this infection, most commonly the only way to treat it is to do an emergency spay of the female. If not treated properly and quickly, the infection can kill the female. Also, a little known fact is that females can spray as well when they are in heat. If they are in heat and not bread, this can become worse.
What Breeding is NOT...
Breeding is not a way to make money.
Breeding is not a "one time thing".
Breeding is not a fun family experience.
Breeding is not all playing with cute kittens.
Breeding is not a way to get your family and friends a kitten.
What Breeding IS...
Breeding is responsibility.
Breeding is rewarding.
Breeding is hard work.
Breeding is sleepless nights.
Breeding is a money pit.
Breeding is vet appointments and tests.
Breeding is research.
Breeding is know-how.
Breeding is learning.
We have an extensive screening process for those wanting a kitten for breeding purposes. Kittens will only be sold as breeders under 2 specific circumstances...
1. To a reputable breeder with an established cattery.
2. To someone looking to start their cattery who is willing to be mentored by us. Kittens will only be sold to new breeders if they are willing to mentor with us for 12-18 months.
Click here to apply for our Breeder Program, or click here to see the cost of purchasing a kitten with breeding rights..
Kittens will only be sold to breeders wanting to breed quality, purebred Maine Coon Cats. Crossbreeding (breeding to a cat that is not a purebred, papered Maine Coon) is not supported by New Mercies Maine Coon Cattery.
STUD SERVICE
Stud service is a tricky business. There are a lot of different factors that go into it as it can put the king, at great risk for sicknesses, diseases or parasites that the incoming queen could be carrying.This in turn puts the entire cattery at risk, and can turn a healthy cattery into a very sick cattery in a matter of days.
Because of this, New Mercies Maine Coon Cattery currently does not offer stud service. Exceptions may be made under certain circumstances, but some extensive conversations would be necessary, tests would have to be preformed on the queen and a lot of documentations would need to be provided.
Because of the before-mentioned behavioral issues with intact males, and potentially fatal health issues with intact females, all kittens will either be sold as active breeders or with a spay/neuter contract through SpaySecure. Leaving a cat/kitten intact "just because" or "just in case I want to breed him/her later" is not an option with a kitten from New Mercies Maine Coon Cattery.
As we only have 1 King, we cannot sell male and female kittens to breed together. You will only be able to get 1 gender from us as a breeding cat.