I've never really contacted breeders before as my pets have always just sort of fallen into my hands. How long should I wait for a reply from breeders before I question their reliability? I know breeders must have their hands full more often than not so I don't expect replies in under 24 hours, but I also don't know that I trust a breeder who gets back to me a month or two after my initial contact.

Just how long should I wait to hear? I contacted two breeders last week: one directly by email and one I filled out their contact form. Both were full of information on me as well as asking for a spot on the waiting list. Do breeders typically acknowledge that they received your message and you have a spot or don't have a spot on the list? I guess I'd just like to know before I wait for the anticipated spring litters and never hear from the breeders and then miss out on a chance to contact other breeders planning litters around the same time.

I posted in my introduction but the two I've contacted are Wild Traxx and Belrouge. I'm currently favoring Belrouge. If anyone has experience with either, please share! I'm going to begin researching FL breeders tomorrow, but I don't want to contact too many breeders at once, so I'd just like to know what a good amount of time to allow for a reply is before moving on. Obviously I want the breeders to have a chance to answer, but I don't want to give them too much time and then find out I should have backed away after x amount of time elapsed.

I can only share my experiences, so that would be that all the breeders I contacted via email/their website got back to me within 3 - 4 days at the most. A couple were within 24 hours.

I think you should pick up the telephone and call them. Seriously. I had the same problem actually, I emailed several breeders, and it took forever to get a response, and then when I'd settled on two, communication via email was very slow and "iffy". What I discovered were that neither were very computer literate and just didn't spend much time on the computer. I think a lot of them are retirees, so not really, as a generation, really "computer-people".

_________________
The little monsters 3

I think Brian is on the right track here, regarding a lot of breeders being older people who might not be so reliant on computers.

Though a lot of bengal breeders seem to have websites, and this doesn't seem to be the case with other breeds. I wonder if this is because bengals do attract a younger crowd? I like to search the web and look at breeders (both of dogs and cats) just to see what is out there, and for a lot of breeders the most you will find is a brief description on the breed club website and a contact phone number.

At any rate, telephoning will always get you the quickest answer. If part of your requirements for a breeder is that they are good with email (you might not like chatting on the phone, I don't really) then I would suggest email several breeders and just interact with the ones that get back to you fairly quickly. You can be picky in this way if there are lots of breeders to choose from in your area

I breed (not bengals mind) and I have a website plus my contact details on both cat clubs. I am probably in a minority in that we update the website very often, weekly when we have kittens. Even breeders with a website are notoriously slow to update the details which is frustrating when searching for a kitten. Brian is spot on with the reasons why though, a lot of breeders just aren't very computer literate. They may have a website, but a lot of the time this is outsourced to a family relative or professional.

I tend to prefer people contact me by email usually. This is down to me and some health problems as I slur my words at times due to my MS. I like to be able to control when I talk to people. I try to reply to emails within a day or so unless I am away when it can be longer. There have been times when it's been a bit longer than I would like as, with the best intentions, I forget easily. I have reminders around the place for various things and when emails disappear from my view pane they tend to disappear from my memory. I like to consider my responses sometimes so I do not forget to ask things so I do not always reply straight away.

I would allow up to a week personally, in case they only check their emails weekly or have been away. You could always phone them after a week if you want, or before. I wouldn't necessarily discount a breeder because they were a little slow to respond by email. However, some breeders are very slow to respond and are unreliable so you have to be able to judge at some point what band they fall under.

I have been on both sides as was a buyer of 4 pedigree cats before breeding my own. I found it excruciatingly frustrating by some breeders lack of response at all. Some respected breeders in the UK as well. When I was searching for another Bengal 2 of the really established breeders responded to my first email very quickly and my second one fell on deaf ears, never had a response at all and on of them I emailed several times and then gave up ( glad now as I learned some things that I did not know then). On the other side, I have so many emails that just say, Have you got any kittens? Or, How much are they? I also spend a long time replying just for them to ignore, never reply again. It wastes a lot of my time.

Also: I am a member of a breeder group which has been going a fair few years. There are often discussions about kitten sales and the established breeders often express that they would much rather talk to someone as they hate emails, so informal! Not sure I agree but you can see how emails may be missed as I suspect those that prefer calls only check their emails every now and then.

_________________
Lollo

Thanks everyone! Your responses have been very helpful. I'll give it a few more days and then decide if I want to call or try other breeders. I'm not a fan of phone talking but I think I can suffer through it if it means securing my spot for a well bred kitten. I guess the viewpoint I was looking at was that emails are easier for breeders to work with because they can always just bring up a message again to go over it, but they can't necessarily bring up an old phone conversation and re-listen to it. I just figured they'd rather have an email with all the information right there in case they weren't able to write it down while we were on the phone or missed something. It's helpful to hear the different point of views so now I'll definitely be keeping those in mind.

So I haven't heard back from any of the breeders I've contacted but I have gotten in contact with one who also happens to be Safari's (SAFARI MOM) breeder. Completely coincidental. I was looking through her reference page and saw the name safari and a quick search on here showed that it was the same breeder! I've emailed her as well as spoken with her on the phone and I'm really comfortable with getting a kitten from her. Now it's on to bigger concerns.

I'm still torn over male vs female. Does it really matter which one I go with? I'm really tempted to just wait and see what the queen of my choice has in her spring litter and choose from the available ones. I just feel like I should know if I want a male or female before then! I'm pretty sure my mind is set on a male but I wouldn't mind a girl either. I'll be happy with either one as long as there's no spraying. For neutered males that still spray, is it normally because they were fixed late or stress? Or is there sometimes really no reason for it?

I'm also concerned about travel. If I drive, it's a 10 hour trip which will undoubtedly be stressful on a kitten. But is it more or less stressful than a much shorter plane trip? With driving, I'd definitely stop every now and then to give the kitten some one on one attention but that'll also just make the trip last longer.

I was really trying to stay open in my options and not narrow myself down to one specific queen but I really like the kittens that Sadie produces. Her first litter was absolutely beautiful and I'm waiting to see how the most recent litter develops but I think they're going to be gorgeous too.

Really has nothing to do with the thread title but I figured I'd just keep posting in my own thread instead of constantly starting new ones :S

A plane trip would be max 2 hours? Cats cope pretty well with flying. I had 2 cats that flew a couple of times (3 hours) and they were fine. Pretty sure it was me who was more stressed out.

I'll definitely still consider it then. I want to make the transition as easy as possible and 2 hours in the plane seems much easier than 10 hours in the car, but then again, flying in cargo alone seems likes a much worse alternative than having human contact the whole time. I think it's just my fear of flying a kitten that's interfering with my judgement. Thank you! I'll definitely talk it over with my breeder and see what she sees as best.