Hello everyone. I have a bit of a problem here and I am in search for some opinions on the matter. To sum it up, after many months of being on a waiting list, I was finally able to purchase my kitten from a certain breeder (which will remain nameless at this time). Kitten died within first 3 days. Breeder offered to replace as stated in the contract. I am second on the list, but first for my preference.

I noticed others under me have kittens reserved for them. When I questioned the breeder, they stated first that they didn't realize who the #2 person on the list was. Then I got the excuse that the people were paid up in full. Then there was another issue with the 4th litter, that since the mother cat was leased, they couldn't offer me a replacement from that one since they were top show quality, which I initially mentioned that I was interested in a year ago.

Since all the available kittens are apparently better quality than the one I had (I had no choice in quality at the time because of availability), shouldn't they still offer me the cat as long as I pay the difference? I have never been in this type of situation before. Also, should the breeder offer to pay the vet bill? We're talking hundreds of dollars for testing and the life-saving treatment which failed. Apparently, the kitten was also extremely underweight according to the vet - 1.3 pounds at 11 weeks of age. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

My boy is 10 weeks old and when the breeder took him for his vac's he was weighed at 1.3kg so im guessing 1.3lb is very small for an 11 week kitten. In all honesty the breeder shouldn't have let you have the kitten until she was 12-13 weeks of age so i would check with her registered governing body being it GCCF or TICA, because im sure it is breeding regulation to ensure the kitten is 12-13 weeks of age with full vac's before it leaves the breeder

Two pieces of advice:

1. Get health insurance for your next kitten. You can even buy it prior to your kitten coming home. The first year of kitten ownsership can often be an expensive one, even when you don't have life threatening type problems.
2. At this point I would probably just bail on this breeder and request a refund rather than a kitten. I'm sure this was an awful experience for you, and the breeder clearly isn't doing all they can to "make it right", plus now that you know such serious health problems have been part of prior litters, that would probably scare me off a bit anyway, so bail. I'm sure if you ask here on the forum you can get a recommendation for another breeder to do business with depending on where you live.

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The little monsters 3