To Import or Not? That is the Question…

Have you been thinking of finding a Maine Coon of your own? Have you done some searching online? Are you overwhelmed by the amount of kittens that are out there? Maybe you have been contemplating importing a kitten from another country, but you aren’t sure if its the right thing to do. Where do you even start? All of these are questions I asked myself when I started this journey. I hope to answer these questions for you from my own experiences with importing and buying from my own country. Some of my answers may surprise you. I know I was surprised…

So, if you have been following along with my blog, then you know I began looking for my first Maine Coon after my loyal companion Gus passed away. My search began, of course, on-line. On Google, Facebook, and Instagram, and I could not believe the amount of groups, pages, catteries, kittens, and scams that were available. I decided I better educate myself before jumping in head first.

I went to my trusty friend, AMAZON.com, to find books about Maine Coons. I found 3 that I was interested in, and one of them was specifically about breeding Maine Coons. One of the chapters was about obtaining breeding cats, the where, what’s, and why’s. The author said that buying cats from overseas was so much cheaper, and had different lines than USA Catteries…I took the bait and began looking overseas. I have had some great experiences meeting and working with breeders from different countries, but I’ve also had some bad experiences that range from blatant lies to downright nightmares.

When we were getting started and investing in our breeding cats, our losses are in tens of thousands of dollars in bad experiences. The worst was a female, and in the picture she was a gorgeous silver polydactyl beauty of about 5 months old. When she got to us, it was apparent that she was a much older cat. In fact her passport showed her to already be 14 months old. Not only that, but she was in full blown untreated pyometra!! We took her to our veterinarian immediately, and spent thousands of dollars trying to save her. In the end, she had to be spade, had pancreatitis, and insulin resistant diabetes!! I was going to have to put her down, because she was going to take round the clock care. The Veterinary Tech that was seeing to her care asked me if she could have her instead!! What a relief!! I check on her regularly, and I am happy to say, she is doing as good as she can and living a spoiled and loved life! However, that is just one of our bad experiences, there were several more. For every bad, there were also some great experiences though.

So, to import or not is a personal choice. My opinion is that the gamble is too great if you are only wanting a pet Maine Coon. You should definitely buy local from reputable breeders. If you are breeding, you may have to import for the lines and characteristics you are looking for…but “Buyer Beware” and be ready for anything….