Another question for the breeders! How do you manage your waiting lists (if you have one?) At what point do you create a waiting list? ie. before a litter is born, only once their colours come through etc. When a deposit for a kitten is put down, does that person automatically jump the queue? Are there separate breeder and pet kitten lists? If a breed quality kitten is born, do other breeders have first choice before someone who only wants a pet kitten? haha lots of questions, i'm interested to see how people are managing this as it seems each breeder has a slightly different way of doing it!
I create waiting lists before the cats are ever bred. I fire out a bunch of emails to past kitten owners who had said that they wanted to be notified for future litters, I post on facebook, advertise via kijiji, and post it on my website.
I manage it by writing an actual list of names
Mrs. Jones Seal Point Mitt Pet
Mr. Clancy Flame or Cream Bi Pet
Mes. Smith Blue or Blue/Cream point Breeder
etc
I add or erase as I get notified about it.
You must be super-organised! Thanks for the feedback
The funny thing is that I like order, but my house is a huge organized mess lol
I have my website connected to a bunch of websites including the ragdollcatguide.com website (the one this forum belongs to) and that does lots of advertising for me.
I forgot to add that I also have business cards at my vet's office.
I take deposits after the kittens are born. I dont keep separate breeder vs pet lists usually. If some wants a female blue bicolor and I have one I will let her be adopted by that person. I have placed lots of pets who were show/ breeder quality. I just want a good home for the kittens.
Another breeder question if you don't mind...
When I was looking for a ragdoll I sent a pretty long email to each of the breeders letting them know what we were interested in, what pets we had, what kind of home we can provide, all about my son, how our day to day life works etc,... & Many were just ready to sell me a kitten. They let me know that I sounded to have a great home for a ragdoll & proceeded to tell me prices, procedures, what was available etc,.. A few of them from what I can tell are pretty big breeders, and I actually had one breeder tell me that if an owner is willing to pay this much for a kitten then they would be able to provide a good home....yeaaa.....
Good Dog Breeders are SO MUCH different, they ask many question, they call my vets office, some will check references, and seem SO MUCH more concerned about where their pups go.
So why the difference? My breeder did ask questions but I was expecting a lot more to be honest. One thing I did notice about the "Better" breeders is they weren't RUSHING to sell me a kitten, They had the attitude you know if you aren't ready to make a commitment now then move a long - While some other breeders were all about when will deposit be sent in.
So Breeders what do you do to make sure the kittens you produce go into good homes? What kinds of questions do you ask? What are your requirements? I'm interested.
What do you think about breeders who breed Multiple Breeds?
There is a pretty BIG ragdoll breeder in my town, seem like a nice family but I was pretty blahh with them when I was emailing with them they proceeded to tell me they had nothing available right now but oh yea we also breed two other breeds one being sphynx & they are just like ragdolls without the fur...I really don't like breeders that do that sort of thing - I've ran into it several times with dogs.
So, I chose a breeder who was 4hours away & charged more for her kittens but I like that her kitties live in the home with her & underfoot & that we mesh well too.
I've also placed show/breeder kittens as pets.
Its very rare for me to have people wanting to breed my kittens, and the ones that are of supurb quality are the ones that I want to keep for myself. Unfortunately I havent had many females to keep for myself, so the 2 breeders that are out there, I do use for myself.
I have a 1st on the list 1st pick policy for the most part, but people interested in breeders get to pick from the ones that I think are of breeding quality.
(03-25-2010 07:48 PM)ragdollmom24 Wrote: [ -> ]Another breeder question if you don't mind...
When I was looking for a ragdoll I sent a pretty long email to each of the breeders letting them know what we were interested in, what pets we had, what kind of home we can provide, all about my son, how our day to day life works etc,... & Many were just ready to sell me a kitten. They let me know that I sounded to have a great home for a ragdoll & proceeded to tell me prices, procedures, what was available etc,.. A few of them from what I can tell are pretty big breeders, and I actually had one breeder tell me that if an owner is willing to pay this much for a kitten then they would be able to provide a good home....yeaaa.....
Good Dog Breeders are SO MUCH different, they ask many question, they call my vets office, some will check references, and seem SO MUCH more concerned about where their pups go.
So why the difference? My breeder did ask questions but I was expecting a lot more to be honest. One thing I did notice about the "Better" breeders is they weren't RUSHING to sell me a kitten, They had the attitude you know if you aren't ready to make a commitment now then move a long - While some other breeders were all about when will deposit be sent in.
So Breeders what do you do to make sure the kittens you produce go into good homes? What kinds of questions do you ask? What are your requirements? I'm interested.
What do you think about breeders who breed Multiple Breeds?
There is a pretty BIG ragdoll breeder in my town, seem like a nice family but I was pretty blahh with them when I was emailing with them they proceeded to tell me they had nothing available right now but oh yea we also breed two other breeds one being sphynx & they are just like ragdolls without the fur...I really don't like breeders that do that sort of thing - I've ran into it several times with dogs.
So, I chose a breeder who was 4hours away & charged more for her kittens but I like that her kitties live in the home with her & underfoot & that we mesh well too.
I ask TONS of questions, but to be honest, lots of my kitten owners dont know that I'm interviewing them because I dont list off a ton of questions like you would in an interview. I ask questions that seem to be in passing, but they really arent.
I also do ask for vet references if they have pets already, but if its their 1st pet, I dont bother with a vet reference.
lol organised mess
sounds like my house too! I'm glad your and Gail's first priority is to find good homes for your kittens, even when a show/breed quality is placed as a pet. A bonus for the lucky new parents I think! But then again ALL raggie babies are beautiful
I think pet, show and breeder lists should all go into one. It is not fair if a person who has been waiting months for a specific colour and patterned kitten, when it finally comes along the kitten is breed quality, so it is sold to a person who has been waiting a shorter amount of time just because that person is a breeder and the longer waiting person isn't. That is how I see it, as a pet owner (and previous show neuter owner).
The first priority of breeding is not to produce pet kittens. It is to maintain and improve the breed. That means that breeding the "best" kittens is the first priority and using those kittens in ones own breeding program or placing them in another breeding program takes priority. Showing is a primary technique to have an independent evaluation of the success of the breeding program. That is also a high priority and keeping or placing kittens to be shown also takes priority over placing pet kittens, but is a lesser priority than selecting breeding cats. So, a responsible breeder will have those priorities and pet owners need to understand they may be bumped if a kitten shows those qualities and an owner is available to take advantage of it. We always are clear that pet families are picking from among the available pet kittens, not ALL kittens, although often that is the same.
This is also good for pet owners as a group, because it means the quality of pet kittens will be maintained and improved.