Independent guide · Updated November 2026

Getting a cat? Start with real numbers

Adopt or buy, choose a breeder, spot a scam, and know what the first year costs. We collect and date the prices ourselves, and every health or safety point links to a vet or official source.

New kitten checklist
How we research
  • Prices we collect and date ourselves
  • Vet and official sources, linked
  • No sponsored rankings

Before you bring a cat home

  1. Adopt or buy?Shelter fees next to breeder prices
  2. Choose a breederWhat a good one does, and the red flags
  3. Spot a kitten scamCheck the seller before you pay
  4. Pick the right ageWhen a kitten is ready to leave its mother
  5. Get readyWhat to buy, and what it really costs

Latest guides

Card: best cat nail clippers. What the ASPCA and WSU's veterinary hospital advise: a guillotine-style clipper with a sharp blade, made for pets, styptic powder on hand, and a scissor type for dew claws.

Supplies

Best cat nail clippers

Guillotine or scissor? What the ASPCA and a veterinary teaching hospital say about cat nail clippers, and two guillotine clippers plus a styptic powder compared from the makers’ specs. Not a hands-on test.

Checked November 4, 2026 · By Anisur Rahman

Card: how to cat-proof a Christmas tree. Anchor the tree, cover the tree water, protect the light cords, hang unbreakable ornaments and keep lilies out of the house. The most-repeated rule: no tinsel.

Kitten care

How to cat-proof a Christmas tree

How to cat-proof a Christmas tree: anchor it, skip the tinsel, cover the water and cords, and hang only unbreakable ornaments low, from the ASPCA, Cornell, Cats Protection and Pet Poison Helpline.

Checked November 3, 2026 · By Anisur Rahman

Card: best cat litter for kittens. Keep the litter the kitten knows; choose unscented, fine and low-dust litter; use non-clumping while a kitten still eats litter, and change litters slowly. Vets advise one to two inches deep.

Supplies

Best cat litter for kittens

What vets advise for a kitten’s litter (unscented, fine, shallow, the one it knows) and five unscented litters that fit, from clumping clay to paper and pine pellets.

Checked November 6, 2026 · By Anisur Rahman

Card: how much a Siamese cat costs. Posted prices at 15 US catteries on Nov 4, 2026: a median pet kitten price of $1,500, with the middle half at $1,000 to $2,000; spay or neuter included at 2 of 15; a median deposit of $500; and $308 to $1,158 for first vet care.

Costs

How much a Siamese cat costs

What 15 registered US Siamese catteries charge for a pet kitten (median $1,500, checked Nov 4, 2026), plus what the price includes, deposits, old-style Siamese, health tests and first-year costs.

Checked November 4, 2026 · By Anisur Rahman

Card: how to get a cat used to a carrier. FelineVMA's six steps: lie on a blanket, the blanket in the bottom half, the top on, the door closed, longer stays, then lifting the carrier from underneath. Keep the carrier out at home like furniture.

Supplies

How to get a cat used to a carrier

How to get a cat used to a carrier, step by step: leave it out as furniture, then six small training steps from feline vets, plus visit-day, car and train tips.

Checked November 2, 2026 · By Anisur Rahman

Card: how to stop a cat scratching furniture. Match what the cat scratches, put a sturdy post beside the damage, reward every use, cover the old spot and never punish. In a 2018 vet-practice survey, owners said 81.5% of their cats scratched chairs or other furniture.

Supplies

Stop a cat scratching furniture

You can’t stop a cat scratching, but you can move it off the couch: a sturdy post that matches what your cat scratches, placed right beside the damage, rewards, and covers on the old spot, from vet and cat-welfare guidance.

Checked November 1, 2026 · By Anisur Rahman

How we research

Our full method →

1

Collect real prices

Breeder prices from public listings, shelter adoption fees, insurers’ published prices and retail prices, each one dated, with the raw data kept.

2

Check expert sources

Health, age, safety and the law come from vets and official bodies: Cornell, AAFP, ASPCA, International Cat Care, CFA, TICA, the FTC and the BBB.

3

Show the method

Every guide says where its numbers come from, when they were checked and what we left out. We don’t test products or pets hands-on, and we say so.

Anisur Rahman

Who’s behind Cat Buyer Guide

Cat Buyer Guide is edited by Anisur Rahman and published by PPC Optimizer Pro LLC. We don’t own a cat, so we don’t pretend to review pets or products hands-on: our value is careful, dated research you can check. More about us

Looking for the old Cat Buyer Guide?

This domain changed hands in 2026. The cat breeders who ran the old site, its forum and its cattery lists are not part of this site, and we can’t help with their kittens or accounts. Old links now lead to new guides on the same topics. More about the change