Purebred Vs Rescue

[blackivory]

I have two rescue cats, one is around 5 and the other is eight weeks. I told my good friend today about Gypsy and that I was tossing up between getting a purebred Burmese kitten and a rescue kitten from the Cat Haven. I decided to go to the Cat Haven, as every cent goes back to the cats.

Told my friend that Gypsy was a 1/4 of the price of a Burmese kitten and she pretty much said you pay for what you get

I love going to the Cat Haven and have a kitten pick you. Then you pay a small fee and everything is included. I have to fatten Gypsy up and then she goes back in about three weeks for her big op.

All up I spent just over $200 for her, which included her adoption fee, bag of dry and a travel cage.

I need to add photos but she's black, white and ginger aka a tortoiseshell. Looks like she will have semi long hair too. She has a little pink nose so we need to be careful of the sun but she won't ever get to experience the outdoors I don't think.

Though I may harness train her after she has had her full booster shots.

Anyway I honestly don't think there is any difference to a rescue or purebred cat. Sure, it means you don't know their background or breeding.

 

[suileeka]

Told my friend that Gypsy was a 1/4 of the price of a Burmese kitten and she pretty much said you pay for what you get

That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard with regards to cats. I don't know what the situation is like in Australia, but domestic cat overpopulation here is so incredible, and so many cats are euthanized on a daily basis, that I think it's downright criminal to buy a cat from a breeder. JMO.

 

[blackivory]

We have new laws coming in November 1st. All cats must be registered with the council. Hundreds of cats are killed from over population here too. Which is why I get mine from the Cat Haven.

Yes, I did consider a purebred but couldn't agree to the big price tag. I'd rather spend the $200 I save on my shelter kitten and buy her extra stuff Like the brand new lambswool blanket I just ordered for her.

 

[Mizzely]

Yep, you do get what you pay for.

You rescue a cat for cheap, have the money to ensure it's healthy, to buy good food, and toys and save a life.

You buy a purebred cat, you pay through the teeth for a feline that may have worse health issues down the road than the "mutt", have to still spend money on vet care, etc, and doom another critter.


So, if I could choose a cat that was friendly, cheaper, generally healthier or go into debt to pay for poor breeding.....I think I would have to go with a rescue too. Which I have, twice

 

[blackivory]

Kittens are $150 and that includes a vaccination AND de-sexing done by the shelter vet. The older the cats are, the cheaper they are. I opted to adopt a kitten as it is easier for them to adjust to my older cat and dogs. So far Gypsy is going great with short, strict visits with the other pets.

 

[SandraK]

Good for you for adopting Gypsy - when we had cats there was always at least one tortie in the house though ours usually had little orange noses. Burmese are very pretty cats and while my mum had one (cause she'd always wanted one) we also had several (what they call here) domestic short hair cats as well. And a Siamese that had been dumped in the street (this was in Brazil) - known as Rusty with the worst breath I've ever smelt cat or dog wise. Some of our quirkiest cats were the adopted ones or the ones that found us.

As for getting what you've paid for, getting a thoroughbred dog (can't speak for cats) at least doesn't always guarantee you the perfect dog or lineage. I have a coworker whose golden retriever was diagnosed with hip displacia (at 1 year+); the breeder gave him the option of returning the (young) dog for a puppy but Teemu opted to keep him.

 

[AzaleaMist]

I worked for a vet for over 8 years. I saw many domestic cats from random litters and rescues and many purbreds. I had two cats. One I found and rescued and one I adopted from a shelter. They were the best cats and I miss them like crazy. Some of the purbreds were beautiful sure.... so they have Papers.... so what. A lot of them come with big attitudes and a lot of problems. Give me a domestic long hair or medium hair any day over a fancy show cat.

 

[DQTimnehs]

My favourite breed is Somali, a longer haired version of an Abyssinian. I also like Bengals and oci-cats. But I couldn't see paying $500 + for a cat when I could give one a home from the shelter and save it from being euthanized. Here they no longer euthanize them at the Humane Society and the local pet stores sell cats from the humane societies. But still, there are SO many needing homes, so many "free" cats on Kijiji, it just doesn't make sense that people are even breeding cats.

My ex-bf got an Abyssinian from Petsmart (humane society cat). I picked her. He said "oh why should I take the defective one?" (she was missing part of her ear). I said "I want to see that one" (even though he was the one shopping). I picked her up and she was so snuggly. I handed her to him and she purred and snuggled and he couldn't resist. So that was as close as I'll get to my Somali.

 

[Ziggymon]

What everyone else has said, especially about the purebreds actually having more health problems.

Here, it's not a choice between a rescue and a purebred, BTW - plenty of purebred cats and dogs at the rescues and in the municipal pounds.

 

[blackivory]

This friend has a purebred Burmese. Then went on to complain about her Burmese waking her up at 4am everyday
My two sleep till I'm ready. Though because I have a gorgeous kitten, I tend to wake her up early for cuddles

Just felt miffed by her comment.

 

[SandraK]

You are up waaay too late, girl, you should be snuggling in bed with your kitties or at least lying on the sofa with a blanket and your kitties (though if you're sitting at the computer it's hard to do unless you've got a computer literate kitty). Go to bed!! This was the closest smilie to a tortie ...

 

[PortaPerch]

All the cats we ever had came to us as strays. Kittens may still get dumped in the grove near us, but I bet the coyotes usually get them first nowadays.

 

[Brooke]

I support rescues 100% If I were to get a cat it would be a rescue, but if I were to get a dog.... I would seek out a reputable breeder.
Don't ask me why as I truly don't have an explanation, I just see a cat as a cat; color, coat, adorableness, cute. But for a dog, I would like to know it's lineage and history. I would like to know if the parents have been tested thoroughly for eyes, hips, ears, etc... I don't think of cats any less than a dog, but maybe the main reason I would want a pure bred pup is because I would like for my dog to be a good example of the breed. I can hardly tell the difference in cat breeds, except for the ones with smushed up faces I would also like to be able to pick out certain traits in a dog; prey drive, herding, working, etc...

I have learned my lesson with Dino though, I knew nothing of BYBs before I got him. Now that i'm aware and have fallen a victim for illnesses, I can preach to people and use Dino as an example. I love Dino with all my heart, but I would hate for someone to deal with what I have to.

 

[Meatball]

Ok I am going to risk getting slammed here as it seems being someone who has 2 purebred cats I am considered a horrible person for not rescuing. I hear it from my mom all the time, “Why would you buy a cat when there are so many that need homes?”
I wanted a Persian, they have characteristics I wanted in a cat. I had met enough of them and grew up with enough Domestic cats to know the probability of getting the personality I wanted was much higher in a Persian. Plus I just love them. Both my Persians from different breeders possess pretty much the same calm, gentle, non-existent prey drive personalities.
I personally will probably only ever own Persian cats. Would I get one from a shelter, Yes I would. But if one was not available in a shelter I would not hesitate to buy from a breeder again. You can call me awful or whatever but it doesn’t mean I don’t care about the cats in the shelters. I have sponsored cats in the local shelter to help them get adopted, donated money to local rescues when I can and volunteered my time at adoption clinics. I care very much but that doesn’t mean a purebred cat deserves less of a chance to have a good home because they had the misfortune of being the product of breeding.
I understand where you guys are coming from but jumping on us for having Purebred cats is not fair and doesn’t mean we don’t care.

 

[AmberMuffinz]

I don't hate on people who have purebred animals, that is all up to them and as long as they are taking care of their animals it's fine.

With that said, I volunteer at a almost-no-kill shelter (they don't euthanize for space, in fact they will go to shelters that do and "dog" shop so they can help them with their space issue, it may be the same with cats but I work with the dogs. But they do euthanize when all other options were exhausted - extreme aggression and if it is the kindest thing to do in a medical issue.) During orientation they were talking about how many people want purebred animals but that they may have more health issues down the line since the breeding pool is so selective. They also talked about how they get purebred animals in a good amount of the time - just they don't have their papers unless they were surrendered with them. Just shows that even if you do go out and buy a purebred puppy it doesn't mean they aren't going to end up in the same place. I imagine the same can be said for cats and kittens.

The dogs and cats at the shelter are so ridiculously sweet and awesome I couldn't ever imagine buying a puppy or kitten from a breeder. That is just me though. I would love to have a dog in the future and if I get one it will be adopted from the place I volunteer at now, or at least one that is similar in their views.

 

[DQTimnehs]

Ok I am going to risk getting slammed here as it seems being someone who has 2 purebred cats I am considered a horrible person for not rescuing. I hear it from my mom all the time, “Why would you buy a cat when there are so many that need homes?”
I wanted a Persian, they have characteristics I wanted in a cat. I had met enough of them and grew up with enough Domestic cats to know the probability of getting the personality I wanted was much higher in a Persian. Plus I just love them. Both my Persians from different breeders possess pretty much the same calm, gentle, non-existent prey drive personalities.
I personally will probably only ever own Persian cats. Would I get one from a shelter, Yes I would. But if one was not available in a shelter I would not hesitate to buy from a breeder again. You can call me awful or whatever but it doesn’t mean I don’t care about the cats in the shelters. I have sponsored cats in the local shelter to help them get adopted, donated money to local rescues when I can and volunteered my time at adoption clinics. I care very much but that doesn’t mean a purebred cat deserves less of a chance to have a good home because they had the misfortune of being the product of breeding.
I understand where you guys are coming from but jumping on us for having Purebred cats is not fair and doesn’t mean we don’t care.

I don't think anyone thinks you are awful because you bought from a breeder! Many of us have bought birds from breeders too.

 

[DQTimnehs]

All the cats we ever had came to us as strays. Kittens may still get dumped in the grove near us, but I bet the coyotes usually get them first nowadays.

PortaPerch: I like how you turned your bed frame into a play stand for your bird!

 

[VictoriaVague]

That's crazy, all my cats are non-pedigree rescues and they are all wonderful. Infact, pedigrees are more likely to have health problems, due to over-breeding within a confined gene pool. Also, may pedigree breeds are very highly strung and high maintenance.

 

[Ankou]

While I don't necessarily have an issue with people getting a cat (or dog) from a breeder for a specific reason associated with that breed, it being worth more is just dumb justification. It's like getting a designer purse just so you can brag about it when the other purse is at least as good, only a cat is a living thing and no suffering is caused mass euthanizing all the non-designer purses that fail to be purchased.

I volunteered at a no kill cat shelter in junior high and they had a wide variety of cats. With all the cats needing homes it's unlikely that there aren't going to be a few of the species you're looking for unless it's rare. This one building alone had over 200 (desexed) cats and this is a state with no feral/stray cat problems because of the winters.
Lots of mixes, lots of "domestic shorthairs/longhairs," but also purebred cats as well.

It was a bad situation, after seeing it and learning more about the animal shelter that serves my area from a friend who worked there I, personally, could never buy a kitten from a breeder. The situation for dogs is bad too but I can't hardly comprehend how many cats are killed each year.
Thank you for adopting. To anyone who has.

(And a short off topic: I don't know about cats but in dogs there is no guarantee just being a mutt means better health. If both parents share common problems the mutt offspring have a chance of inheriting them. However the mutt-ier the mutt is, the more generations the animal is removed from purebreds and their inbred health issues, the healthier they will generally be. For example Bear and Pete are/were "2nd generation" mutts and inherited a lot of health issues since rotts and labs share common issues. Shadow is a hard to identify "sled-dog" mutt and has been free of breed related health issues. Domestic shorthairs (basically heinz 47 cats) are generally the healthiest cats in my understanding.)

 

[brilywi]

When we were looking into getting a cat we were actually looking for a siamese because they are listed as one of the more naturally hypo-allergenic cats and sphinx and other related cats didn't appeal to us (also, spending thousands of dollars on a genetically modified cat was out of the question). I didn't actually think we would get a purebred one, but it was surprisingly something my dad was willing to look into because of his allergies to cats. He claims they are really bad allergies but he really hasn't changed since we actually got a cat Anyways my dad was wanting me to look in shelters for any female siamese kittens (he wanted to train the cat from an early age to stay off certain surfaces and know that kitty didn't come with potty issues AND wanted a female because he thought that they would be less apt to mark everywhere) and when we didn't find any I thought he would seriously start looking into a breeder. Luckily we were at the Petco down the block and they sponsor a local cat rescue at the right moment looking at their cats and we found Marbles, a short hair tabby cat, and we snatched her up as fast as we could We paid $100 for her and she had all of her shots, testing, other vet work, and was spayed She's not what we were looking for at all in a cat but as it turned out was everything we wanted After doing some more research on cats, I believe she's part siamese as she's got the right head shape and she's really talkative Anyways we still have Marbles today and she has kept her name, but we usually call her Kitty or Kiki (which is why I've listed her as that in my sig)