You must offer references to be considered for receiving a kitten from me for breeding purposes. References may come from other cat or dog breeders, your veterinarian, or other reliable sources. All references will be checked.
If you want to have a litter or two of kittens so your children can witness the beginning of life, do them a favor and rent a movie or read them a book on the subject instead. Delivering kittens is not a relaxing process and may scar your children for life.
Responsible breeders adhere to standards of specific physical attributes outlined in the Persian Standard set by CFA or other registering association. If you do not have any interest in adhering to such standards and are not interested in showing your cats in any respect, then you do not qualify to be a breeder that I will want to help. Be aware that you will not sell kittens for the higher breeder prices if you do not regularly and successfully show your cats.
Breeding cats is a serious responsibility that requires a lot of work and dedication. If you want to breed cats for the purpose of earning an income, look elsewhere. This is a labor of love and rarely offers financial reward. You must take into consideration how much a good quality food such as Iams and cat litter costs. You will spend about $100 per month on litter and food if you have 12 cats. If you have a litter of kittens on the ground that price will go up considerably because kitten food is expensive and kittens use a lot of litter.
Good medical care can cost as much as $500 per year without having any sick cats. These costs involve medical testing and preventative measures. You will need to have a good relationship with your local veterinarian so you can get medical supplies and prescriptions from him/her and be trained to use them properly. Many vets do not approve of breeders of any kind so a relationship must be cultivated over time. Having your vet participate in a yearly cattery inspection that is endorsed by CFA is a good way to dispel any uneasiness about your intentions and the overall care of your cats.
A litter of kittens is not a guarantee of income; not all deliveries go well. Upon occasion, a cesarean section is necessary and the cost of that procedure will cost at least $600 and there is always a chance that the kittens and/or the mother cat will not survive. Even if the delivery goes well and the kittens are all delivered naturally, there is no guarantee the kittens will live. Their lives depend on you and the quality of care you give them, your ability to know when something is wrong, and the wisdom to act accordingly.
You will need a list of information and resources to assist you in setting up your cattery environment.
You will need to learn basic genetic and medical information.
You will need to have an extra room in you home to house a breeding male cat. A breeding male cat left to roam a house daily is likely to spray your furniture, floors, and walls, and ruin your home. You will also need a safe place to deliver and raise kittens, and you will need to have a source of extra income to purchase the items necessary to be a successful breeder.
If you work a job that takes you away from home and cannot take several days off to wait for and deliver kittens, or cannot take the mother cat with you to work during the week of her delivery date, or if you are at all squeamish and cannot assist in delivering kittens by pulling them out of the birth canal, hand-cutting or tearing the umbilical cord and handling the placenta, you do not qualify to be a breeder. Delivering a litter of kittens is a messy, bloody event that can take up to 12 hours to complete and is to be taken seriously.
If one of your cats/kittens has become ill, medications must be given daily as prescribed by the vet. If you have 12 cats that all get sick at the same time, it's not only 12 times more work, but the problem can last 12 times longer.

So if you think you qualify to be a breeder, we can go from there. I will do my best to talk you out of it and if you still want to move forward with your plans, you just might make it. I hope you do because we need more dedicated people to carry on the work those of us already in action started so long ago.

I delivered my first litter of Persian kittens on July 18, 1991 to a beautiful shaded tortie female, CH Midas Evenstar of Sweet Lorien. Boo Cat, as we called her, was also the first cat I showed in CFA. Sweet Lorien was my cattery name when I bred smoke Persians. I have since taken on the cattery name Alchemist for my silver and gold breeding program but have recently started to breed smokes again. In addition to these beautiful cats, I will soon be trying my hand at breeding and showing whites.

I certainly don't know everything, and at times I feel like I know nothing; but surely I know a few things and deserve credit for sticking it out and doing my very best.

A Breeder is someone who thirsts for knowledge and never really knows it all and wrestles with decisions of conscience, convenience, and commitment.
A Breeder is one who sacrifices personal interests, finances, time, friendships, fancy furniture, and deep pile carpeting. She gives up the dreams of a long, luxurious cruise in favor of turning that all important cat show into this years vacation.
A Breeder goes without sleep spending hours planning a breeding or watching anxiously over the birth process, and afterwards, over every little sneeze, wiggle and cry.
A Breeder skips dinner parties because a litter is due or the babies have to be fed every two hours.
A Breeder disregards birth fluids and sticky fur to preform "mouth to mouth" to save a gasping newborn, literally blowing life into a tiny, helpless creature that may be the culmination of a lifetime of dreams.
A Breeder's hands are strong, firm, and often soiled, but ever so gentle and sensitive to the touch of a kitten's tiny nose.
A Breeder's back and knees are usually arthritic from stooping, bending, and sitting next to the birthing box, but are strong enough to enable the breeder to show the next choice kitten to the status of Grand Champion.
A Breeder's shoulders are stooped and often heaped with abuse from competitors, but wide enough to support the weight of a thousand defeats and frustrations.
A Breeder's arms are always able to wield a mop, support an armful of kittens, or lend a helping hand to a newcomer.
A Breeder's ears are wondrous things, sometimes red (from being talked about) or strangely shaped (from being pressed against a phone receiver), often deaf to criticism, yet always fine-tuned to the whimper of a sick kitten.
A Breeder's eyes are blurred from pedigree research and sometimes blind to her own cat's faults, but they are ever so keen to the competition and are always searching for the perfect specimen.
A Breeder's brain is foggy on faces, but it can recall pedigrees faster than a computer. It's so full of knowledge that sometimes it blows a fuse. It catalogs thousands of images of good boning, fine ears, and perfect heads, and buries deep within the soul the failures and the ones that "didn't turn out."
A Breeder does the all important "head count" each night before they go to bed to make sure everyone is safe and accounted for and if someone is missing, stay up all night until they have been found and/or tended to. Breeders repeat this process every morning and cannot go anywhere until everyone has been seen and inspected . . . again.
The Breeder's heart is often broken, but beats strongly with hope everlasting . . . and it's always in the right place.

Vet check and FeLV/FIV testing for every new cat or kitten you bring into your home. However, if all of your adult cats have been tested and found to be negative, you do not have to test their offspring.
Premium food for queen during pregnancy - usually a premium kitten food because of the extra protein.
Possible complications at birth: c-section, uterine inertia, hysteria, milk failure, damaged/malformed kitten/s.
Kitten milk replacer and specially designed glass nursing bottle for weak kittens and hand-rearing.
A Triple Beam Scale for weighing kittens in 1/10's of grams each day. A 1/10 of a gram weight loss can be the beginning of a disaster and the difference between life and death to a tiny newborn kitten.
Being aware of common kitten ailments, e.g. sticky eyes, stomach upsets, and knowing what to do about it.
Purchase and preparation of weaning foods for kittens at 5 - 8 weeks of age.
Extra, premium food for queen during lactation (she will eat as much as 2 or 3 adult cats for more than a month) - usually a premium kitten food.
Extra cat litter (all that extra food has to go somewhere!)
Feeding kittens from weaning to 12 weeks (at 12 weeks old, 4 kittens eat about as much as 4 adult cats).
Even more extra cat litter for kittens (clean boxes twice a day from 5 - 12 weeks).
Extra cleaning - the entire house, not just the litter boxes. Kittens are messy.
Having 5, 6 or more little monsters under your feet & ripping through your home for 2 months or longer.
New toys for kittens.
Advertising; a yearly liner ad in Cat Fancy Magazine runs about $450.
Registration fees for each litter.
Vaccines and syringes for a series of kittens shots - can you give them or will you pay extra for the vet to do it?
Worming at 6, 9 & 12 weeks.
Keeping off-color or small kittens for longer time.
Extra heating costs for kittens in cold weather.
Giving away or selling for less to special friends and relatives.
Not being able to go on vacation for months at at time when you have kittens due and on the ground.
Being available for phone calls, visitors and inquirers.
Time spent handling, socializing & playing with kittens every day.
Sleepless nights and frayed nerves while queen is calling (every month or so between litters).
Annual subscriptions to cat associations & registering bodies, subscriptions to cat magazines.
Books on cat breeding and medical care.
Time off work for birthing and when cats are too sick to be left alone.
Annual vaccinations, testing & health checks for breeding queen & your other cats.
PKD DNA testing as necessary for every kitten in a litter - $60 for each kitten.
Equipment: litter boxes, carriers, cages, bowls, beds, blankets, heat pads, scratching posts, cat trees.

ALL THIS IF YOU OWN JUST ONE BREEDING QUEEN and of course, that queen may have cost you $2,000, might have only one dead kitten in her litter which required a $1,000 c-section, and may never produce again.