Cattery

[banth]

What experience or qualifications would I need to become an owner of a cattery, are there any legal requirements? Can I do it in my home?

Any info appeciated, thanks.

[gammaray]

An afinity with cats would be a must. You can do it from home but I suspect it depends on how much room you have (outside of course, I don't think you should house cats inside your own home). In running a business there are always the usual raft of red tape to get through - public liability insurance, Inland revenue, etc etc etc.

[bekah]

I worked in a cattery for 10 years and I would suggest you do some serious thinking before commiting. It is a 24 hour job, with the responsibility of somebody elses pets, it is essential that somebody is on site 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Most catteries find that they need to be open 7 days a week to cater for their customers needs, meaning lots of work and not much down time for yourself. A lot of space is definately necessary for your own sake (keep business away from pleasure) and lots of people dont realise how noisy unsettled cats can be, esp the more exotic breeds. On the plus side, there is a lot of money to be made, and some of the cats are the most gorgeous things you will ever see!! Would definately recommend that you look at the FAB website (think its www.fabcats.org) they should be able to answer all of your questions. You dont need any qualifications, but experience would always be useful.

[WendyS]

I would certainly emphasise the fact that running a cattery is a 24/7 job so forget holidays unless you can book them so far in advance that you don't have any cat bookings, and there will always be people who want to go away for Christmas, Easter etc so this will be a peak profit time for you. How do you feel about having to give up these seasonal feativals? Also, holidaymakers could be arriving back from airports at 3 a.m or some ungodly hour and want to come straight to the cattery to collect their beloved animal. Will you be able to deal with that?

If your house is in a residential area there could well be objections from local residents because of noise. (Distressed and lonely cats can make a lot of noise) so check first with your local planning department as to whether there would be any objections before making other detailed plans.

However, there will always be a place for a good and reputable cattery so I hoe you are able to achieve your goal.