Very Upset at my Brother

[Linda]

Amazing, so glad you were able to talk sense into him.
I am sure it was no easy task, and bless you for getting all those
puppies homes which you will be able to still see them and keep contact.

Yeah so glad Abby is with you, I hope your brother understood your
reasoning. You really must of put a lot of energy and time into this way
to go.

[Sally]

Oh my gosh, you're incredible!

I'd actually thought about your brother's pups this past weekend when I was away on a girls weekend and one of my friends mentioned how she'd gotten her youngest pup (a pug) from a similar situation.

What a wonderful thing you've accomplished. All the families and especially all the puppies will benefit so much from your caring actions.

Can't wait to see pics of your little Abby

[JeanKC]

The $2400 in expenses caught my eye...

Do you have a breakdown for this? Did it include any testing of the parents, and what vet things were done for the pups? How far along with shots, etc.

Bearing in mind that a legitimate breeder will have more costs involved in a litter, a lot of folks out there looking for a pet-quality puppy are going to see this and wonder why they can't find one for anything CLOSE to $400...

KC

[Nicki]

Donna, you are amazing

Thank you so much for everything you have done for these pups - and thank goodness the Mom is now going to be spayed. It sounds like you have managed to maintain a realtionship with your brother too, which I'm please to hear.

A big thank you too to all the wonderful people who have taken on these pups knowing that they might have problems - you are all stars.

We really hope that your wee Abby will be as healthy as possible - and look forward to seeing some phtoos.

[WoodHaven]

The $2400 in expenses caught my eye...

Do you have a breakdown for this? Did it include any testing of the parents, and what vet things were done for the pups? How far along with shots, etc.

Bearing in mind that a legitimate breeder will have more costs involved in a litter, a lot of folks out there looking for a pet-quality puppy are going to see this and wonder why they can't find one for anything CLOSE to $400...

KC

Cavaliers have an average of 3 pups. So 2400/3 is 800.00 to begin with.

I have put about 3000.00 in the second to last breeding I did and she didn't have pups. Spent an additional 300.00 for a rebreeding and she didn't take. The equipment (whelping nests, heaters, clamps, puppy pens, whelping nest materials, antiseptic, aids for birthing) are very expensive. Of course this bitch comes from a long line of good hearts and clear MRI's. Breeding healthy dogs is very expensive and stressful.
Sandy

[JeanKC]

The litter she posted about had six pups. Again, I understand that a committed breeder will have more costs...that's why I asked the question.

Your response is helpful, and I'd like to see some more breeders chime in. There's a fairly wide range of prices out there.

Not trying to ruffle anyone's feathers, but I'm sure a lot of folks are curious.

KC

[WoodHaven]

The litter she posted about had six pups. Again, I understand that a committed breeder will have more costs...that's why I asked the question.

Your response is helpful, and I'd like to see some more breeders chime in. There's a fairly wide range of prices out there.

Not trying to ruffle anyone's feathers, but I'm sure a lot of folks are curious.

KC

No, I understand that this litter had 6-- but I used two years worth of CKCSC,USA statistics and the average size litter was 3.4 pups. This doesn't include all the matings that didn't have any pups. There are also costs if you have to ship (or drive) your bitch to the male. I have driven to Nebraska a few times to get the best match for my girls. Sandy

[Karlin]

I understood Sandy to be saying the reason people don;t see more pups at $400 or even $800 is because most breeders would average out costs over litters -- eg if the bitch has one pup as sometimes happens, you won't pay thousands for it but the same general range the breeder normally charges. If the average litter is 3-4 pups then you;d get costs based on that general figure and I would guess take a loss sometimes and sometimes have more puppies than expected.

The issue of costs comes up a lot. I can say that in the UK and Ireland registered pups from good breeders are considerably less than in North America. I do not kn ow why that is the case but it would be very unusual to pay more than about $600-$800 for a cavalier from a good breeder in Ireland; the UK generally is in that vicinity as well. I don't know about the big name breeders but Jaspar for example came from a breeder considered to be one of the good quality kennels in Ireland (eg he exports to some of the well known breeders in the US for example and his dogs have featured in many of the well known UK lines) and he cost me euro450 (at the time that would only have been about $450 but now is about $600).

Overall I think the price reflects what the market will bear as well as personal costs -- keep in mind that cavaliers are in the top 7 dog breeds in the UK and Ireland so are one of the most common small breed dogs you see! They are much rarer in the US and the demand is high for puppies. Personally, I would be very happy to support a breeder that I know does all the relevant testing, regardless of cost for puppies.

[Luv2Camp53]

There were 6 puppies, which is a huge litter for Cavaliers, as I understand it. He did no testing on the female and he does not own the male. He sold the puppies for $400.00 each with no health guarantee. He had to pay a $1200.00 "stud fee" . and he had two visits to the vets for his female prior to the whelping. One was a month after he figured she was pregnant, He went in to "make sure". That bill was a little over $100.00. I am not sure exactly what they did. The bills all have procedure numbers, so I guess you need some sort of key to de-code it. Then he went in about a week before she was due to have an x-ray, if I remember correctly, to determine how many puppies there were. That was when he got the big surprise that there were six. That bill was over $250.00. He took Maggie in shortly after she gave birth as she developed a plugged milk duct on one of her nipples. There was one follow-up visit for that and the total bill for that was another $100.00 plus her medications which were $20.00 I think. Then there were two visits to the vet with all the puppies for worming and shots. Anyway, it came to just over $2400.00 for everything. I think it really amazed him at just how much it costs to have a litter of puppies. And if Maggie had only had three puppies, which is the average....well, he figured out pretty quickly that you do not get rich on breeding your Cavalier. Once we actully sat down and did all the math, I was able to convince him that breeding his Maggie was just not a good "cottage industry" to get into. PS. Abby is doing wonderfully. I just love her to death.

[JeanKC]

Thanks for the replie(s). These are the kinds of things buyers don't think about....

KC