How to buy a kitten without getting burned.

What a kitten actually costs

Price varies enormously by breed, so the useful question isn't "what's the going rate" but "what does this breed cost from someone doing it properly". Rough US ranges from registered, health-testing catteries:

Swipe the table sideways →

Breeding or show rights cost considerably more than pet placement in every breed, and within a breed, coat and generation move the number a long way.

A price far below the bottom of the range is the single loudest warning sign there is. Health testing alone runs several hundred dollars per breeding cat. Add cardiologist echoes, quality food, vaccinations, registration, and twelve weeks of round-the-clock kitten raising, and nobody selling at a few hundred dollars is doing any of it. That price means one of three things: it's a scam and there is no kitten, it isn't the breed they say it is, or it came from a mill.

How the deposit scam works

This is the most common way buyers lose money, and it follows the same script nearly every time:

1. A polished website appears, with photos lifted from a real breeder's Instagram.
2. Kittens are available immediately — no waitlist, several colours, your pick.
3. They push for a fast deposit to "hold" the kitten, citing other interested buyers.
4. They ask for Zelle, Cash App, Venmo, Apple Pay, wire, or gift cards.
5. After payment, new fees appear: a special crate, insurance, a customs charge.
6. Then they stop replying, and the money is gone for good.

Red flags, in rough order of severity

• They won't do a live video call, or the "call" is a pre-recorded clip.
• They only take irreversible payment — Zelle, wire, Cash App, crypto, gift cards. These have no buyer protection by design, which is precisely why scammers demand them.
• No written contract, or a contract with no health guarantee and no return clause.
• They'll ship at 8 weeks. Reputable breeders place at 12 weeks minimum. No exceptions worth taking.
• They can't name their health testing, or say things like "our line has never had problems" instead of showing you results.
• Prices well below market, or a discount for paying today.
• Every colour available right now — real catteries have a few litters a year, not a catalogue.
• Pressure and urgency. Good breeders are usually screening you. Being asked hard questions about your home is a green flag, not an obstacle.
• Reverse image search finds their photos elsewhere. Always worth thirty seconds.

Questions to ask before you send anything

1. What's your registered cattery name, and which registry? (Then check it yourself with TICA or CFA.)
2. Can you send the genetic test results for both parents? (Which tests depends on the breed — PK-Def and PRA-b for Bengals, SMA and MyBPC3 for Maine Coons, PKD for Ocicats. Each breed page lists what to ask for.)
3. When were the parents last echoed for HCM, and by which cardiologist?
4. At what age do you place kittens, and what vetting is done first?
5. Can I see your contract before I pay a deposit?
6. What's your health guarantee, and what voids it?
7. If I ever can't keep this cat, what happens?
8. Can you put me in touch with two families who bought from you?

A good breeder will answer all eight without hesitating, and will probably be pleased you asked. Hesitation on questions 1, 2, or 5 should end the conversation.

Paying safely — the most important section on this page

Pay by credit card. Nothing else comes close. Chargeback rights are real, they are enforced by your card issuer rather than by the seller's goodwill, and they are the reason a scammer cannot simply keep your money by ignoring your emails.

Zelle, Cash App, Venmo (friends & family), wire transfers, and gift cards are all designed to be irreversible. That is not a side-effect — it is the product. It is also precisely why every scam insists on them, usually with a reason that sounds helpful: avoiding fees, a processor being "down," a discount for paying that way.

A cattery that accepts cards has also cleared a payment processor's own underwriting: a verified business identity, a real bank account, a real name attached to the money. Fake catteries don't get through that.

Every cattery on Kittenry marked "Card accepted" has confirmed they take card payment for deposits and purchases. You can filter the directory to show only those.

A normal deposit is $300–$500, applied to the purchase price, with clearly written terms about what happens if the litter doesn't produce your kitten. Get those terms in writing before you pay, not after.

Buying from a marketplace vs buying from a breeder

A growing number of sites sell kittens the way a shop sells products — you browse named kittens with prices, add one to a cart, and check out. They are not the breeder. They are a reseller standing between you and whoever actually raised the cat, and the difference matters most on the day something goes wrong.

There is nothing inherently dishonest about that model, and some of these companies have thousands of satisfied customers. But the terms are usually written to protect the marketplace, not you, and the risks are specific and predictable. Read for these five things before you pay:

1. “All sales are final.” Common on kitten marketplaces, and worth pausing on — this is a live animal you have never met, being shipped to you. Ask what happens if the kitten arrives unwell, and get the answer in writing.
2. A refund that requires you to send the cat back. Many health guarantees are written this way. In practice almost nobody returns a kitten they have lived with and bonded to, which is precisely why the clause is affordable to offer. A guarantee you would never use is not a guarantee.
3. Non-refundable deposits. Fine in itself — most good breeders take one. The question is whether it is also non-refundable when they cancel, or when the kitten turns out not to be as described. If so, that is a one-sided deal.
4. No physical address. Check the contact page and the terms for a real street address. A Delaware or Wyoming mailbox is a company-formation address, not a place where anyone keeps cats. It tells you where to send legal papers, not where your kitten came from.
5. Shipping stress is a health risk, not a formality. Young kittens moved long distances by air or van are markedly more likely to develop an upper respiratory infection in the days after arrival. Budget for a vet visit in week one no matter who you buy from, and book it before the kitten lands.

You will usually pay more, too. A marketplace has to make its margin somewhere, and it comes out of the gap between what the breeder is paid and what you are charged.

The practical difference is who you are dealing with when there is a problem. Buy from a marketplace and your counterparty is a support queue that did not raise the animal. Buy from the breeder and it is a named person, in a named town, whose reputation in a small community depends on how they handle it — and who can tell you what the kitten's mother is like.

Kittenry is deliberately not a marketplace. We never list a kitten for sale, never take a payment, and never hold a deposit. You contact the breeder and you pay the breeder. That also means we cannot refund you — which is exactly why the card advice above matters.

What Kittenry does and doesn't cover

We confirm registry status directly with TICA or CFA before a cattery is listed, and we re-check annually. We collect health-testing paperwork but we do not authenticate it — we are a directory, not a laboratory, and we cannot tell a genuine panel from a forged one. How kittens are raised and placed is the breeder's own written statement. Even so, the registry check alone removes the entire category of scams above: a fake cattery cannot produce a real registry record.

What we can't do is guarantee your individual transaction. We never hold your deposit, so we can't refund it. Kittens are living animals and even excellent breeding carries risk. Do the video call, read the contract, and pay with a card — with a verified breeder, on top of all that, you've done everything reasonably available to you.

And if something goes wrong with a cattery listed here, tell us at hello@kittenry.com. We investigate every report and we remove breeders who don't hold the standard.