Don’t Get Scammed!

Followers and non-followers alike, visit this Scammers and Scam Catteries Facebook Group (facebook.com/groups/237354529155728/) before you buy a purebred kitten (any breed!) It’s a valuable resource! The scams are rampant right now. This is a place where people name the scammers.

The MOST IMPORTANT thing is that you get a kitten from a trusted breeder. If it’s not me, that’s ok! Of course, I would love to provide a kitten for all of you, but that’s not realistic. If it’s not me, I want it to be someone you can trust, not a scammer or backyard breeder.

There are many red flags to look for before making your purchase.

Always check registries for the catteries you are looking at, or, better yet, look for catteries to consider on TICA, CFA, FIFE, etc (depending on where you are in the world) to find a cattery.

Disclaimer: Researching catteries on these organization sites in and of itself is not a fail safe, but it’s a good place to start. While most fake catteries don’t register, (because it costs money and effort) some do, and they will slip through the cracks and aren’t caught as illegitimate catteries until a number of people who have been scammed report them. So here are some tips:

Check these organizations for the cattery name in question. If they are registered and you want to know if they are legit, reach out to them. Legit catteries will be happy to chat. That being said, be patient. Some of us get overwhelmed with the work involved with the cattery, and many have other jobs as well. It may take a day or two to get back to you.

Nowadays, a lot of people look to Facebook to find their new kitten. Facebook is great, don’t get me wrong, I use it, many of us breeders do. I talk to a lot of prospective buyers via messenger. BUT, there are some things to look for…

• Look at the cattery location. If it’s not listed, why is that? If you reach out to the cattery on Facebook Messenger and ask where they are located, but the cattery owner asks where you are located before they tell you where they are located, I guarantee, they will tell you their location and it will be about 2 hours from your home. Not so close that you would ask to swing by, but not so far that it would discourage you from buying a kitten.
• Avoid ALL Facebook groups called “Ragdolls (or other breed) for rehoming and adoption.” There are probably 15 of them with varying titles that sound like that. They are all scams OR have hundreds of thousands of scammers in them. First of all, Facebook does not like pet sales, so these pages get shut down and new ones pop up all of the time. 
  • If you would like a list of ragdoll groups that are good groups, I can provide one. That doesn’t mean there won’t be scammers in those groups, but admins are much, much better about weeding out the illigitimate catteries.
• Look at the person or cattery name. Many Facebook groups don’t allow “pages” to join. You can only join as an individual or post/comment as an individual. For example, I can’t post or comment using my Ragdoll Reverie Facebook page, I have to use my personal one. This is normal, however, look at the NAME of someone posting available kittens in one of these groups. Is it suspicious? I am leery of saying too much because I don’t want scammers to know what many of us have caught on to, but one thing I’ve noticed is the individual names are almost always two first names. Instead of Christy Kramer, it will often be something like Margaret Mary or Casey Jane. I see this ALL the time. The name “Angel” is used a lot, too. I think this is done for psychological purposes.
• If you talk to the cattery via messenger and voice concerns about being scammed (or even if you don’t) and they say, “I’m a God fearing woman” or “I’m a Christian.” RED FLAG. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a Christian. I love Jesus. But I don’t need to try to convince you I’m real by telling you “trust me, I’m Christian.” They are not, so they have no qualms about pretending they are.
• Look at language. This is getting harder and harder with AI. But oftentimes they will refer to kittens as pups. You may think, “oh, English is their second language and they just used the wrong term,” but actually, that’s a sign they don’t even live in an English speaking country while they are telling you they live 2 hours from you. This in and of itself doesn’t equal scam (I bought three of my 5 ragdolls overseas) but I only buy from European countries and after extensive research, conversations, live videos, etc.
  

If you are being offered a kitten, do a Google Reverse Image Search to see how many other people are using that photo. I’ve had people steal my kitten photos and use them on their pages trying to scam people. I put watermarks on my photos, but they are getting better at removing them.

 A legit cattery

• is happy to provide LIVE video calls with the kitten in the room with them or will allow visits (some don’t allow visits for various reasons (health risks, time required, having strangers to their home, they have kids, etc). But a MINIMUM of a live video chat is a must if you have any concerns.
• will inform you about a required deposit, but will not be pushy for one immediately (there are cases, for example if a kitten is ready to go, the owner will need a deposit, but they won’t keep nagging you for it.) Look for desperation!
  • Needing a deposit at some point is not out of the ordinary. I use the deposit to go toward the spay and neuters (even though it doesn’t cover the full amount). So, I do require a deposit, but I will never beg you for it or constantly bring it up or make you feel like you’ll lose the kitten if you don’t give it to me this instant.
    • Legit catteries don’t need to beg you to place a hold (deposit) on a kitten the instant you chat. I have a waitlist, as do many legit catteries. If you feel like the cattery owner is desperate for that deposit, they are not legit.
• wants to know you at least slightly before even offering a kitten and asking for a deposit. I have a questionnaire on my website that any interested person that I don’t know personally must complete in order to visit my home or even join my waitlist. I love these kittens and want to make sure they will go to safe, happy, loving homes!! Not to mention, no one will be allowed at my home without supplying basic identifying information.
• can’t afford to sell “cheap” kittens.
  • Never, ever believe a cattery who is trying to sell you a Ragdoll or Maine Coon or any other popular breed for cheap. Cheap purebreds don’t exist. At best, they are a backyard breeder, at worst, it’s a scam.
  • If you see a purebred cat (depending on breed) from a cattery for $100-$1500 it’s more likely to be a scam. Less likely to be a scam at $1500 ( for example, catteries that don’t spay/neuter, but rather, require you to provide proof you’ve had them fixed in order to receive your cat’s registration, will charge less). It costs a lot to care for these cats correctly. I’m one of the less expensive Ragdoll breeders out there. And location matters. Midwest is almost always cheaper than LA or NY, but will never be $700.
    • The cost of running a cattery does not allow for a huge profit. You have start up costs of the cats, the room build, litter boxes, toys, bowls, brushes, etc., and that number climbs every day as I buy more wet food, dry food, pee pads, litter, toys, cleaning products, etc.  Then there is the fact that some things you’d think would be useable over and over and over still get worn out much faster than someone who has one or two cats, so I need to rebuy later like cat trees, scratchers, etc.  I also pay for pet insurance for my breeding cats, which is a monthly cost. Of course those start up costs include the initial cost for my breeding cats (when you buy a cat for breeding, you have to pay for breeding rights, which can be double the cost of a pet cat.) I literally can not afford to charge less than $1800 for our cats. I’m not going to lie and say that I don’t make a little bit. But who would do it for free? However, if I lowered the cost and converted the profit into an hourly rate, it would be laughable. There is a lot of love, attention, cleaning, overnight stays in the nursery with a laboring queen, heck, I sleep in the nursery starting 2 days before their due date and continue until I’m confident the kittens are doing well. And I don’t get much sleep sleeping on the floor. 😂
    • The only way you might pay less is if you are buying a retired breeder, a cat that had to be returned to the breeder for various reasons, or possibly if someone dies or gets seriously ill and the family doesn’t want/isn’t able to care for the cat and sells it…usually not a kitten, or, it could even be a stolen purebred (without papers, b/c it’s hard to steal both the kitten and the papers).
• usually has a website, but 9 times out of 10, that legit website doesn’t have a section of kittens for sale where you can click a button and buy your kitten. I’ve had so many people come to me after being scammed by a website with kitten pictures, a price, and a “place on hold” button with a paylink. They felt confident because it was “so professional looking.”
  • IF the cattery with a paylink actually even has kittens to sell, is this the kitten you’ll actually be getting? What do you know about it? Is it socialized well? You must see it in action – LIVE – with the owner. Do not accept a picture showing the hand-written date on a piece of paper as “proof” it’s real. AI is too good.
  • Many catteries with paylinks are actually brokers. They don’t have the kittens in their possession. They simply are salesmen and women for backyard breeders. So, while you may actually get a kitten, it may not be healthy, may have been raised in a cage, etc.
  • I will add, however, that a cattery having a website with paylinks, doesn’t necessarily make them a scammer. It could be that they want a place where people they’ve built a rapport with can make their deposit or final payment via credit card. Legit catteries doing this will highlight the fact that those payment links are only to be used after they’ve spoken with you. Most of the time, you will get a contract before making any payment, so they don’t want you to simply go on their site and buy a kitten without talking to you and going over some very important details first. The key is research!
  • will NEVER ask you to pay them using Amazon gift cards, Google Play gift cards or any other gift card!
• is happy to provide copies of health reports, registrations, and pedigrees of the kitten’s parents once you’ve developed a rapport – they may provide portions of it or watermarked versions just because scammers do steal our stuff and change the name on the registrations, etc.
• will be forthcoming about their process. Once someone fills out my questionnaire, I send a follow up (usually within a week) explaining the process, introducing our cats, how often we breed, who we plan to breed next, what our philosophy is, etc. Most will ask you questions about your history with pets, why you would like that breed, how the buyer found them, etc.

I think this is all I’ll say at this point. There are many other things to look for, but hopefully this helps someone.

A backyard breeder breeds cats outside of established breeding standards by one of the main organizations (TICA is the most well-known in the US). They typically do not follow best practices for breeding, care, and sales. Their main goal is profit, so very little goes into their cattery.

Backyard breeders

• skip having health screenings done on the parents of the kitten you’re looking at.
• sell kittens before they are old enough.
  • The rule of thumb is at least 12 weeks for ragdolls. Some go even 14 weeks. I went 15 weeks once because I just didn’t feel like the kitten was litterbox trained well enough and wanted to give them more time. Yes, it costs me more money to keep it that long, but I am happy to spend money to ensure the new family is going to have an easy transition!
• don’t socialize their cats.
  • It is true that ragdolls are very social and love to be with their people, but any cat, ragdoll or not, that is not socialized is still going to be scared and run. Of course, each kitten has it’s own personality, so there still could be a shy kitten that hides at the beginning, but they warm up quickly if they are used to being with people. 
• will not offer any health guarantees.
  • We, and many legit catteries, offer a guarantee on the common ragdoll genetic diseases of HCM, PKD, and PRA. Our breeding cats are all tested for these diseases. We are confident our kittens are healthy.
    • Having a clear screening on a parent doesn’t 100% guarantee a kitten won’t have HCM someday. There is such a thing as spontaneous mutation. Or, a 2 yr old parent could be cleared of HCM that hasn’t developed the disease yet, therefore, not showing any signs of it. There is no 100% way to  know if a cat will ever get the disease, but all you can do is make sure they are healthy when you breed them.
• use quick sale tactics
• sell more than one breed or even species. There may be one or two that have two breeds that are fine, but the majority are backyard breeders.
• aren’t a “puppy (kitten) mill” in the sense that you’d think of them having 50 kittens in their home or a kennel in the back yard.
  • They could simply just over breed, not register/have pedigrees on parents, not do health tests, but still love and treat their kittens well. The problem with this is that it encourages people to breed for profit rather than for temperament, health, and established standards. 
• don’t wait long between matings, unless there is a good reason, for example, our female, Bunnie, didn’t go through the proper hormonal process because she had a singleton and abandoned her, so it was recommended that we breed her again before the normal recommended time.
• breed their pairs for more than a few years. Boys can go much longer than girls. You really don’t want to breed a female for more than about 4-5 yrs.
• don’t spay/neuter their kittens (some legit breeders require the owner to do it in order to receive the pedigree, as their way of being responsible. The problem is that not everyone cares about the papers and just don’t go get it done.)
• will not ask questions about your or “approve” you for one of their kittens. They treat it more as a pet store.
• does not keep in contact with you after you have taken your kitten home.