stud fee?

garykathy

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what's the average stud fee for himilayans? My daughters teacher
knows I have 3,but I don't do that, I said I could find out.

Thanks
Kathy
 

cathyg

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Stud fees vary greatly - it depends on the quality of the cat one is dealing with. Whether he is a top show winner, a mediocre cat that someone is looking to stud for a few dollars, or somewhere in between.

I'd guess that stud fees can range from $100 or so, right up to around $1,000+. Some breeders aren't looking for actual cash, and would prefer a kitten back instead of a stud fee. It varies greatly from breeder to breeder.

Himalayans as a breed are quite common, and the quality of them runs the gamut from extremely high to downright bottom of the barrel. In my opinion, and I am sure others will disagree with me, all but the highest quality individuals should be spayed/neutered in order to move the breed forward in a positive direction.
 

kaiukats

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Most breeders agree 100% with what Cathy has said. With that in mind I would be VERY wary of someone offering stud service. Most breeders DO NOT no matter what offer their studs to outside queens. A "BYB" will do it with their palms open waiting for that cash.

There are a lot of things that cats can pick up from breeding with eachother, besides FELV/FIV and FIP there is fungus, mites, URIs, fleas, internal parasites, etc.

Cats also breed differently from dogs. When stressed or introduced to a strange enviroment queens will go out of heat. That means that the owner of the stud will have to keep your girl for at least another two weeks until she seasons again. I wouldnt trust my girls in a home of someone I didnt know...no matter how nice they were.

I have only done stud service for very close friends and have gotten stud service from close friends. I know them, their cattery, their cats, and trust them with my cats and know that everyone will be safe and things will go accordingly. When I have done stud service and gotten stud service it was always for a kitten back.

If your daughters teacher absolutely wants to breed her queen suggest her purchasing a stud. She can alter him when she is done breeding him and have another cuddly kitty around the house. I would first try to talk her out of it though!!!!
 

dmcats

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I breed cats and I do not do let my studs breed except with my queens..
 

sethdg77

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I recently purchased a kitten. He’s a gorgeous and show quality Scottish Fold. The Breeder asked if we’d be willing to make him available for stud, once he is of age. What’s the proper asking price?
 

lutece

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I recently purchased a kitten. He’s a gorgeous and show quality Scottish Fold. The Breeder asked if we’d be willing to make him available for stud, once he is of age. What’s the proper asking price?
There is not really a standard asking price for stud fees, it depends on many things.
  • Are you planning to show him and get titles on him (such as Grand Champion)? If you show him and get titles, it makes him more valuable as a stud male.
  • Are you planning to board the female(s) in your house while they are waiting to come into heat, mating with your male, and waiting to see if they became pregnant after the mating? This requires a safe space where you can keep the female(s) and a fair bit of work and expense to care for them safely and properly, but it's fair for you to be compensated for this service.
  • Or would you plan to send the cat back to the breeder's house to breed her female(s), in which case she would be doing all the work? In that case you aren't providing as much of a service for the breeder, so your fee would be lower.
  • In any case, you would want to discuss in advance what health testing your male will require, and what health testing you would require for any females he mates with.
  • You also need to think in advance about drawing up a contract that spells out all the details of your agreement, especially if something goes wrong (for example, the female doesn't get pregnant or loses her litter, or if there is something wrong with the kittens, or they die in the first couple of weeks after birth, or if the female injures your male, or the male injures the female, or if the female or male becomes ill or gets ringworm or parasites, etc.)
  • Since he is a Scottish Fold (I assume folded-ear), you must make sure he is never bred to another folded-ear cat, as this can result in severe deformities in the kittens. Even if he is bred to straight-eared females, it is possible that he would produce kittens that would develop deformities (in fact, research now suggests that all folded-ear cats develop some degree of progressive arthritis as they age, although in many cats this is mild enough to not cause obvious symptoms). It is ultimately your choice whether to breed your male, but you may want to think about whether you are comfortable with the risk of bringing kittens into the world that may develop disabling arthritis early or later in life. See reference: Scottish Fold - Osteochondrodysplasia - UFAW
I personally would not do stud service for anyone except my close breeding partners, and for those people I don't charge a fee, we just trade.
 
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sethdg77

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Thank you so much for your prompt response. We are obviously new to this whole process. We just got our new kitty, because we wanted a loving fur baby in our home. When the breeder approached us about breeding him down the road, we had no idea what would even be a fair asking price, since Scottish Fold Kittens cost a lot. Quite frankly we’d been fine with getting him neutered and avoid him spraying our home. Fortunately, he’s still just a young kitten, so we have a little time to decide.
 

StefanZ

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I recently purchased a kitten. He’s a gorgeous and show quality Scottish Fold. The Breeder asked if we’d be willing to make him available for stud, once he is of age. What’s the proper asking price?
One question if this breeder expects you to stud for free or strongly reduced prices on his females. Its ok but you shoul get a big discount on the kittens price.

OR if he expects you to take normal market prices. Being happy the kittens nice lineages continue!
 

Willowy

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I don't think I could get paid enough to keep a tomcat inside! Maybe if they got one litter from him at an early age and then he could be neutered, I'd be willing. But if you want a cuddly housepet without too many bad habits, get him neutered.
 

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Yeah, I agree with all of the advice above. I would seriously suggest you do what is best for you and your cat, and that probably doesn't involve raging hormones or living with an intact male cat! Once mature behaviors set in, they can be hard to break.
 

sethdg77

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Thank you everyone for your responses. It’s given us a lot to think about. We live in an apartment, and we’d prefer not to have the place sprayed as our little kitty comes to breeding age. We will have to discuss what the breeder is thinking for a stud fee, because for me I’d probably prefer getting him fixed and avoiding the issues a tomcat brings.
 

lutece

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Personally if I were in your position with a pet cat, I would prefer to just neuter him. It can be tricky to keep a stud cat, especially in an apartment. Some breeders don't even keep their own stud cats, because they don't want to deal with tomcat behaviors... In order to earn a stud fee for you, he would have to actually get the female(s) pregnant and produce live kittens, and it can sometimes take a while before a male is mature enough to do that... if he doesn't produce kittens before you end up neutering him, you would have gone to the trouble of keeping him whole without any compensation for it.
 
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StefanZ

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Re spraying and or pissing outside litterbox.
This varies, partly in the breed, partly in the individual.
So for example, Bengals have some reputation of being early and profusely sprayers. While russian blue are rather late sprayers - and also, to be friendly with their wifes, courting them properly before mating. Friends afterwards.

Some toms begins to spray as soon as they become sexually mature, ie at say 6 month, that is, if they arent neutered before.

Some, alike our residents Russian Blue, begin to spray / pee first when physically fully mature, at roughly 18 months age.
In this scenario you could get almost a whole year of a nice cat without spraying behavior. Whom neither is suffering much from being whole. tex the renown loud meowing, being restless and seeking after a female.
Our contemporary working stud discovered he gets relax laying down and resting at Dads legs, when Dad is laying down.... Thus many resting hours for said Dad... :) Why, its pleasant in some degree. :)
But he is OK now, as we have this remedy for his suffering, he has calmed down...
But he was on "neutering warning" a while, before he calmed down again / discovered this relaxation routine.
And yes, this said RB is our home boy, living a normal family cat pet life with us. A bottle with enzymatic cleaner is a necessity, if anything would happen.

And some few studs never begin to spray nor pee... Although working studs So there its just to keep their litterboxes clean and tidy.
 

StefanZ

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This with holding a healthy and sound stud for giving stud service, I personally see as OK and even a good idea - even if he isnt of top notch quality showwise.
- This is, as long as you can quarantee the queens breeder is a serious breeder.


Its because we in Sweden have in much a different system than what is common in USA. Our catteries are usually small. Say two family girls whom are are also queens once a year. Almost nobody holds an own stud for them.

This system demands there are also "free swords" studs whom secure stud services...

Contacts are made in several ways. Each breeder can contact accessible studs, listed in our breeds newspaper. Our RB club has a contact person for stud services. This person has an enormous knowledge of almost all RB in Sweden, lineages, and so on... so she can almost always tip about suitable stud or give advice.... The stud owners can also ask her about the females.
I presume its similiar in most other breeds...
There are also pedigrees online, so its possible to see what lineages every cat has and if they arent too closely related.

And of course, experienced individual breeders have much knowledge and are networking...
So they can advice new breeders, and in some degree cooperate for working up lineages and types... Especielly as new breeders had often bought their kitten the future queen from them.

The philosophy in Sweden is, its good to spread the genes, to use many studs and many queens. To not produce the same genetical individual repeated many times, but make sure they are different, with very low inbreeding procent.

ONE of the ideas is; small family breeders with perhaps one female, want to make the best possible mating every time, they have a good female and try to find the best possible mating every time.

While experienced breeders, whom work in long term, and arent pushed to get the best possible result in every litter, they are happy to use good studs, but not necessarily of top show quality.... And its they whose work gives long term results...

To summarize: There is some need to have accessible as studs good males, healthy, good, etc, but as long as they are of good lineage, they themselves dont need to be of top show quality...
The same may be said about females - but as there are more females, we dont need to use such whom are borderline.... But if she is healthy although looks so so, and the alternative is to use someone with a known disease? Im happy I dont need to myself take these decisions. :)
 

lutece

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This with holding a healthy and sound stud for giving stud service, I personally see as OK and even a good idea - even if he isnt of top notch quality showwise.
Note that we're talking about a Scottish Fold in this case. My understanding is that this breed is not recognized in FIFe or GCCF because of abundant evidence that folded-ear cats, even when heterozygous, aren't completely "healthy and sound." Of course, that's a separate issue from whether it makes sense to keep a pet cat as a whole cat for a while... just a comment on your choice of phrase, "healthy and sound."
 
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