Questions to ask any Australian Ragdoll breeder

We would rather you bought a healthy kitten from another good cattery than a sick one from a bad one. So here is the list we'd use ourselves, along with what a good answer sounds like — and please ask us all nine.

1. Are you registered, and with which body?

Australia has several recognised cat registries, and a registered breeder will have a prefix, a membership number and a code of ethics they can be held to.

Good answer: the body, the prefix, the membership number and an offer to show you the certificate. Warning sign: "registered" with nothing after it, or a council pet-shop licence presented as a breeding registration.

2. What is your breeder or source number?

In Victoria every advertisement for a kitten must legally carry a source number or a microchip number. New South Wales requires a rehoming or microchip number in ads. If an advertisement has neither, that alone tells you something.

3. Can I see the HCM and PKD test results for both parents?

This is the important one. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the main inherited disease in the breed, and the Ragdoll-specific MyBPC3 mutation can be DNA tested, so it is avoidable.

Good answer: a copy of the lab certificate for each parent, naming the cat, with the microchip number matching. Warning sign: "our vet says they're healthy", "the line has never had it", or a scan result offered instead of a DNA test. A cardiac scan tells you about that cat today; a DNA test tells you what it can pass on.

4. Can I meet the mother?

You should always meet the queen and see where the kittens actually sleep. A confident, friendly mother in a normal room is the single best predictor of a confident kitten.

Warning sign: the mother is "at the vet", "at a friend's", or you're asked to meet in a car park. Meet in a car park and you have no idea what you're buying.

5. At what age do kittens go home?

Twelve weeks, and no earlier. Kittens taken at eight weeks miss critical social learning and the second vaccination, and it reliably shows up later as anxiety, poor eating and litter problems.

Warning sign: any offer of an eight or ten week old kitten. It is a shortcut taken for the breeder's convenience, not the kitten's.

6. What exactly is included in the price?

Get it itemised: vaccinations and certificate, microchip registered in your name, worming, a vet health check dated close to pickup, pedigree papers, desexing or a desexing contract, and any insurance.

Warning sign: pedigree papers offered as an optional extra. A pedigree is a record of the cat's ancestry, not an upsell.

7. What does your health guarantee actually say?

Ask to read the contract before you pay a deposit — not on pickup day, with a kitten in your arms and a queue behind you.

Good answer: a written document covering an initial illness period, a genetic guarantee with a defined term, and what isn't covered. Warning sign: a verbal promise, or a guarantee that requires you to return the cat to receive a replacement.

8. What happens if I can't keep the cat in five years?

This is the first of the two we wish more people asked. Every ethical breeder takes their cats back, for life, without a fee. It's the clearest signal of whether someone sees the kitten as an animal or as stock.

9. Why did you choose this pairing?

And this is the second. Ask why this queen and this stud. A serious breeder will talk for ten minutes about temperament, coat, structure and what they were trying to improve. Someone who shrugs and says they had two cats is telling you exactly how much thought went into the litter.

The questions a breeder asks you matter as much as the answers they give. If nobody wants to know about your home, your hours or your other pets, ask yourself who is looking after the kitten's interests.

Red flags, briefly

• Multiple breeds advertised by the same seller.
• Kittens always "available now", with no waitlist and no season.
• Pressure to pay a deposit today to "hold" a kitten.
• Payment by gift card, cryptocurrency or a wire transfer to another state.
• No physical address, or a refusal to do a video call.
• Stock photographs, or images that reverse-search to another cattery.
• A price well below everyone else. Pedigree kittens cost what they cost because of testing, vet work and time.

And finally

Take your time. A good cattery has a waitlist, and waiting three months for the right kitten from someone who answers all nine questions is a far better outcome than driving out this weekend to collect one from someone who answers none.

If you'd like to put our answers side by side with anyone else's, ask us — our health guarantee and what comes home with your kitten are set out in full on this site, and everything else is a phone call away.