​The Cost Of Breeding A Dog​​

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Just like showing, there is a fine line and a cost of breeding a dog. It is less costly having one or two bitches. However when you have five to ten, it can get costly. We will use a variable. Everything is based on an average.

A bitch can be bred once she is thirty days, but the expenses don't start there. Expenses start at her birth, or even before.

It starts with food rations. Just like my show dogs, my brood bitches (when I refer to brood bitches in this article, lets take into consideration that they are raised entirely for breeding, and not once entering a show ring, sessioned, or even raised for showing) start on a custom ration of 1171 from birth to day thirty. Because this is a lesser quality of food than 1777, it will take longer for condition to reach 20. The 1171 ration costs $2.90 per day. Lets assume she is fully conditioned on day thirty. From zero to thirty days, it will cost me about $87 before I breed her.

Next is choosing a stud fee. On average a stud fee is about $100. Obviously, the stud fee will vary depending on how much or how little you want to spend.

For five days after she is bred, she will carry puppies. In that time, it will cost about $8 to feed her while she is carrying the puppies. I choose pet house once she reaches thirty days.

So the cost for to breed one bitch will cost about $195 for one breeding, and from birth to thirty-five days when the puppies drop.

If I decide to breed the bitch again five days after her litter drops, it will cost me another $8 in food. Again, I am feeding Pet House. The stud fee will cost $100 on average. Then she will carry the pups another five days at $8 for food during those five days. So the total cost for two breedings, from birth to her second litter, will cost $311.

Lets say I decide to breed her a third time. Calculating the same variables as above, $16 for food and $100 for stud fees, the cost for three breedings, from birth until the third litter, will be $427.

To break even (only calculating puppy sales and not including any other income), you will need to sell two pups out of the first two litters, and one out of the last, total of five pups at $100 each.

If you are a large kennel, and you breed five bitches at once, the cost for five bitches from birth to dropping their first litter will cost you $975. For two litters for five bitches will cost you $1,555. To breed those same five bitches a third time will cost you, $2,135.

Again, this is just an average. The variables are the type of food to feed and stud fees. In this case, it is more cost effective to continue to breed a bitch as long as possible, rather than continually raise a variety of bitches to only have one litter each.

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