10 Steps to Becoming a Respected, Successful Breeder: Page 3 of 3

Learning feline behavior and husbandry before hand and making sure your home/cattery are ready for the breeding program you have in mind is also a crucial condition to success.

Step 9 - Purchasing your first breeding cats

Last, but not least, is of course getting your first breeding cats. After all that you did and have learned by now (if you followed the formula), you will feel very proud and content to actually be in this stage. You are on threshold of the adventure of your lifetime. And yet this is the time to be as patient as possible!

Haste is the worst thing in choosing a breeding cat. It's better to wait a year or two to get the right breeding cat instead of regretting it for the coming years.

Do NOT compromise! Get the best cats that would bring you to your goal. If you are a person with aspirations for excellence every compromise you make will torment you later on.

With all that said, all we have left is to wish you success. The breeding and showing hobby in itself would surely have plenty more for you to learn as you go.

I personally believe that a breeder of any breed that would follow these steps would be on the right track to happiness and lots of respect in their breeding career.

Do not forget two rules though:

1. Always treat your cats with utmost love and care. It's all about THEM! Not about your winning trophies.
2. Be a good competitor. Know how to win in respect and how to loose in respect.

Good luck!

Step 10 - Spay/Neuter

Hey! Wasn’t that article over? Haven't we set off to a road of successful breeding yet? Well, I guess we have, if you
have followed all the steps from 1 to 9. And yet I did promise a 10-step formula.

The reason is that your conduct while being a breeder, even if you have a nice firm breeding program which is managed correctly, has a lot to do with the respect you will get from your colleagues. By now, you know that the perfect Persian isn’t born every day (if it really exists) and that if you ever breed one you consider perfect, you will probably keep it to enhance your program or sell it to a select individual who will use it right to keep promoting the breed. But we must remember that in the process of breeding that perfect one you will probably produce many pets that are either far from the standard or are just not "it" according to your goal.

These babies will probably be wonderful companions and may even inspire someone in the future to start a breeding program just like yours. And yet we don’t want the breed as a whole to move back from the point you have reached. This is what makes the spay/neuter process so important.

Many different people are out there and some couldn’t care less about the quality or welfare of cats and/or the breed. Some are after the illusion of making money out of cats (which can be made only on the expense of the cats) and others are just lacking the knowledge to start a breeding program.

The least thing a responsible breeder can do to prevent breeding that deteriorates the breed and devalues it is make pet clients sign a spay/neuter contract. Many prefer to spay/neuter themselves so the clients are not tempted to do the wrong thing.

Adopting a spay/neuter policy for your pet quality kittens is one of the more honored policies of them all, since breeders then know you are not throwing their life's work and yours down the drain.

And again, good luck!