Good morning all,

I am sure this has been covered on this Web board but I haven't been able to find it. I have always wondered what is the true cost of breeding? And how do puppy mills are able to afford what they do?
Thanks guys!

I can't give my true costs - if I saw it in person, I would realize I was insane. Basically, I will never come close to breaking even. Ever. I will "ball park" the inclusive costs at $175,000+ in the last 5/6 years of competing/breeding.

Puppy mills don't make "big" money - they make enough money to stay in business. They do this by denying vet care, proper nutrition, proper housing etc to the "breeding" stock. They also save money by not providing any preventative care for puppies, this needs to be done by whoever is buying the puppies (usually a pet shop/website for resale). They also don't provide vet care, proper nutrition, socialization etc to their puppies.

They don't do any health testing, temperament testing, work or competition with their dogs either.

Because they don't do anything with their dogs and provide substandard care, its also hard to ask market value for the progeny. The breeding stock that does make it out, usually ends up at auction.

Generally speaking, puppy mills sell their puppies for $50-$300 each, then the resaler will turn around and sell that same puppy for thousands out of a store or off a website (broker). Most are sick when they get to their new homes, a LOT have genetic issues both with their health and temperament.

In a puppy mill, dogs are raised like other "livestock", like food animals.

 Quote: Betty Landercasp

In a puppy mill, dogs are raised like other "livestock", like food animals.

At best!

The initial purchase price of the puppy is a tiny fraction of what it costs over its lifetime.

A bargain-priced pup is not a bargain.

I'm currently drooling over a Boxer litter that's about $2500 each. Both parents are titled and health tested. A Boxer from the same line lived to be 15.5 years old.

I would consider part of the cost of that breeding to be all the money spent getting the parents titled and health tested. In that view $2500 is a bargain!

The breeder I got my American Bulldog pup from is having issues with pyrantel resistant worms. He's now having to do multiple rounds of worming with a more expensive wormer for every single one of his dogs. Even using the bulk livestock versions it's going to cost him and that's just one small part of keeping his dogs healthy.

It really depends on how good a breeder you're talking about. For the people who just throw their two dogs together in the backyard and sell the pups without any preventative health care it's fairly cheap. They pay for some extra food and that's about it. The breeder I got my blue heeler from was like that. He didn't health test the parents or even bother with worming the pups. Just threw his dogs together because he liked their looks. I would be surprised if he spent $60 for the whole litter. At $200 a pup for 9 pups he made quite a profit. Thankfully it's a pretty genetically healthy breed but I'm still throwing the dice on PRA which could lead to blindness.

It's not really expensive to produce dogs. When I was a kid our GSD mutt had a litter and the cost was extra dog food (yes, she was spayed after that).

It costs time and money to produce good dogs. Kolt came from a breeder who only has a litter every year or two. But she does hip/health checks, spends lots of time socializing the pups, does worming and first vaccines and has them BAER tested. Parents weren't titled but were really nice working farm dogs.

The cost was at the very upper end of my budget at the time but I still felt that that was reasonable considering the health testing and work put into the litter.