So my fiance and i have been excitedly awaiting saturday to pick up our kitten. He went to the vet today with our breeder to get neutered and found that to be impossible because he's a she. Our breeder called us to let us know the news and told us that she would take 200 off the price and she would absorb the difference for the spay to neuter. We were really counting on a boy to make the transition easer for our existing four year old female, but we are very much in love with this kitten(not to mention that she is exceptional beautiful) so we decided to keep her.
Now my question is should we accept the 230 discount? We are so happy with our breeder, head over heals for our kitten, and understand how easy it was for this to happen. Mostly when there were some complications with our kitten being smaller than the others (although since then she has grown remarkably) and she snuck into the male enclosure and had an injury that needed to be tended to. We do not want to be ripping the breeder off, really appreciate any input.
How old was the kitten when he/she got altered? Some kittens are hard to tell but by week 6 it is much more obvious. Some breeders can tell at birth but I usually can tell by 2-3 weeks. There is one now that I cant tell at 3 weeks what it is. She /he is smaller than the others so that is part of it. Most kittens are altered around 11 weeks of age and are 2.5 lbs at that point so it should be fairly obvious. It does cost more to spay than to neuter.
Whether it is fair for a discount or not I cant answer without more details.
Megailee Wrote:How old was the kitten when he/she got altered? Some kittens are hard to tell but by week 6 it is much more obvious. Some breeders can tell at birth but I usually can tell by 2-3 weeks. There is one now that I cant tell at 3 weeks what it is. She /he is smaller than the others so that is part of it. Most kittens are altered around 11 weeks of age and are 2.5 lbs at that point so it should be fairly obvious. It does cost more to spay than to neuter.
Whether it is fair for a discount or not I cant answer without more details.
she was spayed today at the believe 12 weeks, but when we first visited she was only 1 lbs a few weeks ago.
That is small. Rule of thumb is 1 lb per month of life. So that a 12 week old ragdoll kitten should be close to 3 lbs.
I assume your breeder uses some sort of identification so that the kitten you choose is the kitten you are obtaining.
Personality is a major factor in whether kittens/cats will get along. I have found the best combination to be male/ male and female/male. Female /female can work as well depending upon the personality and how introductions are handled.
All sex combinations work and the more important issues are the individual cat's personality. In general, a younger kitten of any sex will accept the dominance of the resident cat without a challenge.
Mis-sexing kittens, even older ones, does happen, including by very experienced breeders. We never "commit" on the sex of a kitten until the vet has checked at the first vet visit and confirmed our determination.
If you feel any lack of ease about the discovery, yet want to proceed, the discount may be a good way to deal with the surprise. If it makes no difference to you and you would have chosen the kitten knowing the sex, then the discount seems unnecessary. You should not feel uncomfortable about accepting a proffered discount.
Both myself and Angel's breeder had this same thing happen lol..
My first litter, I had a beautiful blue lynx mitted "female" who I intended on keeping back. I thought I was good at sexing kittens as I had worked in rescue for years before and had seen many babies born, and sexed many kittens. Anyways, this kitten was originally to be named "Lola" (I think, I cant remember the original name), and it wasnt until the vet visit at 8 weeks that we discovered that "Lola" was a boy!! AND even the vet had a hard time telling lol. He actually had to get his 2 assistants to come in and do a double, then triple check.. and it wasnt until they saw his little pee-pee pop out (they made it come out) and they all exclaimed "Its a boy!!" lol. The ONLY reason we even had it checked out is because the week before, I thought that "Lola's" genitals looked different from "her" sister Emma's, but it wasnt obviously different like the other boys were. Even the vet had a hard time telling. Lola was later named "Lars", and he's a very "feminine" male cat in the sense that he's not the biggest, and he's not very male-cat-typical (he's not really a lapcat like most males are, he's more off by himself like females are)
Angel's breeder thought that Angel herself was a boy, because her color at the time was so light. It wasnt until she was 8 weeks that the vet deemed Angel a female, which is hilarious to me because Angel is a blue/cream bicolor. To be fair, because she's bicolored, and blue/cream, and her color at the time was EXTREMELY light, she DID appear to be just a cream, and not a blue/cream, as her blue is really only on her face and tail.. and when she was young, the blue was so light that it was more like shadowing than actual color.
Anyways, you're not ripping your breeder off as she offered the discount, you didnt ask for it. I didnt offer the same discount, mostly because Lars is male and its cheaper to alter a male than it is to alter a female, instead I offered their deposit back as the only female I had was already spoken for. His owners took all of an hour to decide on if they wanted their deposit back, which they did not, they already loved him
Wow !!!
That must have been a shock
I think I would except the discount and buy the breeder a nice thank you gift - they did offer and it was a mix up.
Thank you all for the input, I have been assembling a thank you basket of cat toys and some nice soaps for our breeder. Just cant wait to pick her up on Wednesday!
This just happened to me! I had a deposit on a boy and found out when he was 7 1/2 weeks old that "he" was actually a she.
In my instance, I really was 100% determined to have a boy. The breeder was very nice and refunded my deposit. I didn't realize how common this was! Best of luck with your decision. Boy or girl - this kitten or another - I hope you get the right one for your home and he / she will be healthy and happy for many many years to come. Good luck!