Vizslak
Well-Known Member
Its a subject raised many times on here, amongst breeders and also to people considering breeding 'just one litter' etc.
Out of interest for myself and for you guys I decided that this litter I would keep an as near to complete as possible record of the cost involved with breeding and raising the pups.
The list is already extensive and I havnt subtotalled it up yet but thought I would get these first costs listed and then add to it again in a few weeks and again when the puppies have left to save me typing for hours doing it all at once! The pups were 2 weeks old yesterday, there are a lot of costs to come yet!
I havnt added things like extra electricity and vast amounts of washing, although valid extra costs it would be a nightmare to work out. Nor have I counted purchasing and feeding/keeping the bitch as MOST of us would ordinarily incur those costs regardless of whether having a litter or not.
I hope you find it interesting, I also hope that at some point in the future good old google will lead someone to this thread and put them off breeding a needless litter! Some costs listed aren't 'essential' but they do tend to be the cheaper costs! Also be aware that as I have bred litters before a lot of items were already here and didnt need purchasing this time. Anyway here goes!
Hip scoring bitch at 12 months - around £100, I forget exact figure, + Sending plates to BVA £47 (my breed only require hip scoring, other breeds requiring more testing will obviously incur further cost)
Pre mating swabs- £75
Fuel to take bitch to stud- £60
Stud fee- £800
Re registering my kennel name- £70 (same cost as a new registration)
Changing bitches name to include my kennel name- £15 (non essential obviously!)
Donation to breed club welfare in order for the club to hold detail of my upcoming litter- £15
Scan at 28days- £35 (cheap for a vets and no consult fee included as had other dogs in at same time for vaccinations)
Vet bed for whelping box x2- £30
Whelping box -£0 (my friend made it for me, if buying one you can expect around £100 to make one the materials cost around £30)
Lino for the bottom of whelping box- £30
Tin of lactol- £15 (feeding bottles and other supplies already here)
Heat pad- £22 (proper bargain off ebay brand new, usually around £35-40)
Whelping collars- £2 (non essential but in breed that look all alike it makes identifying at a glance and being 100% sure who is who when tracking weights etc much easier)
Arden grange puppy/junior 15kg food- £35 (breeders rate, second sack likely to be needed, bitch been on this food since 2 weeks prior to whelping)
Second scan- £20 (local scanner, wouldnt usually rescan but bitch so small there was concern for a singleton litter, if that was case wanted vet alerted to be on hand for c sec etc. So this was a peace of mind scan!)
THEN THE PUPPIES ARRIVED! No vets fees incurred during whelping although an inexperienced person at whelping may well have tripped to or called a vet between puppies 2 and 3 and probably had oxytocin administered, she slowed right up and it required every trick in the book to get things moving again, was on the verge of calling for oxytocin as we drew close to 3hrs between pups. May also be of note that puppy number 4 burst sack before exiting and required swift help to remove, in inexperienced hands he could well have been a 'loss'. 5 healthy pups one puppy unviable, did not require euthanasia.
Dew claw removal @ 2 days and wormer for when 2 weeks- £57.26
Emergency trip at 2am (just me not the pups!) into RSPCA bristol hospital to buy electrolytes off them as my vet had run out (pups with the runs) £10 + £5 donation for being lovely and opening up for me at 2am!
Miss reds eye, infection under closed eye, emergency trip to vet on sunday, anti bs, anti b ointment, eye flushed and drained -£136.19 (a relatively common occurance days before eyes open, first time experienced it in one of my own. Can count this type of fee as a standard cost to be expected incurred sometime in first weeks, it was actually quite a cheap problem on this occasion)
So there we have the vague costs so far, could add a fair bit of fuel to and from vets etc to that!
Will update again in a few weeks.
Out of interest for myself and for you guys I decided that this litter I would keep an as near to complete as possible record of the cost involved with breeding and raising the pups.
The list is already extensive and I havnt subtotalled it up yet but thought I would get these first costs listed and then add to it again in a few weeks and again when the puppies have left to save me typing for hours doing it all at once! The pups were 2 weeks old yesterday, there are a lot of costs to come yet!
I havnt added things like extra electricity and vast amounts of washing, although valid extra costs it would be a nightmare to work out. Nor have I counted purchasing and feeding/keeping the bitch as MOST of us would ordinarily incur those costs regardless of whether having a litter or not.
I hope you find it interesting, I also hope that at some point in the future good old google will lead someone to this thread and put them off breeding a needless litter! Some costs listed aren't 'essential' but they do tend to be the cheaper costs! Also be aware that as I have bred litters before a lot of items were already here and didnt need purchasing this time. Anyway here goes!
Hip scoring bitch at 12 months - around £100, I forget exact figure, + Sending plates to BVA £47 (my breed only require hip scoring, other breeds requiring more testing will obviously incur further cost)
Pre mating swabs- £75
Fuel to take bitch to stud- £60
Stud fee- £800
Re registering my kennel name- £70 (same cost as a new registration)
Changing bitches name to include my kennel name- £15 (non essential obviously!)
Donation to breed club welfare in order for the club to hold detail of my upcoming litter- £15
Scan at 28days- £35 (cheap for a vets and no consult fee included as had other dogs in at same time for vaccinations)
Vet bed for whelping box x2- £30
Whelping box -£0 (my friend made it for me, if buying one you can expect around £100 to make one the materials cost around £30)
Lino for the bottom of whelping box- £30
Tin of lactol- £15 (feeding bottles and other supplies already here)
Heat pad- £22 (proper bargain off ebay brand new, usually around £35-40)
Whelping collars- £2 (non essential but in breed that look all alike it makes identifying at a glance and being 100% sure who is who when tracking weights etc much easier)
Arden grange puppy/junior 15kg food- £35 (breeders rate, second sack likely to be needed, bitch been on this food since 2 weeks prior to whelping)
Second scan- £20 (local scanner, wouldnt usually rescan but bitch so small there was concern for a singleton litter, if that was case wanted vet alerted to be on hand for c sec etc. So this was a peace of mind scan!)
THEN THE PUPPIES ARRIVED! No vets fees incurred during whelping although an inexperienced person at whelping may well have tripped to or called a vet between puppies 2 and 3 and probably had oxytocin administered, she slowed right up and it required every trick in the book to get things moving again, was on the verge of calling for oxytocin as we drew close to 3hrs between pups. May also be of note that puppy number 4 burst sack before exiting and required swift help to remove, in inexperienced hands he could well have been a 'loss'. 5 healthy pups one puppy unviable, did not require euthanasia.
Dew claw removal @ 2 days and wormer for when 2 weeks- £57.26
Emergency trip at 2am (just me not the pups!) into RSPCA bristol hospital to buy electrolytes off them as my vet had run out (pups with the runs) £10 + £5 donation for being lovely and opening up for me at 2am!
Miss reds eye, infection under closed eye, emergency trip to vet on sunday, anti bs, anti b ointment, eye flushed and drained -£136.19 (a relatively common occurance days before eyes open, first time experienced it in one of my own. Can count this type of fee as a standard cost to be expected incurred sometime in first weeks, it was actually quite a cheap problem on this occasion)
So there we have the vague costs so far, could add a fair bit of fuel to and from vets etc to that!
Will update again in a few weeks.
I agree with you re not including normal food costs for the bitch, but I don't know about Flora but Evie has more than trebled her food intake since pups were born, I've got through a frightening amount of food. Plus I've just ordered second 15kg bag of fish4puppies for little uns.mine are being tattooed next week at £7 per pup plus £20 litter registration fee. And of course mustn't forget the vast amounts of disinfectant needed to mop the floor now they are running round the house .
