The kittens all look the same on Instagram. That is the problem.
Thailand has a growing pedigree cat market and a serious irresponsible breeding problem inside it. For every cattery working to an international standard there are many more producing kittens with no health testing, no genetic management, no socialisation and no accountability once the money has changed hands. The difference does not show up in the photographs. It shows up months or years later, in a vet's consulting room.
What follows is what to ask, how to verify the answers yourself, and the responses that should end the conversation.
What responsible breeding actually means
It is not a marketing phrase. It is a set of specific practices, each of which can be checked.
A responsible breeder health tests every breeding cat for the hereditary conditions specific to the breed, and repeats the tests that need repeating. They register with a recognised international body and can produce documentation that survives verification. They breed toward a written standard and show their cats so that the standard is assessed by someone other than themselves. They track coefficients of inbreeding and let those numbers constrain their pairings. They handle kittens daily from birth. They provide a written contract and they are still reachable after the sale.
None of that is optional in a genuine programme. A breeder doing some of it and not the rest has adopted the vocabulary without the practice.
Health testing, and the documents that prove it
Start here. Ask what health testing is performed on the breeding cats, and ask to see the certificates. This is ordinary due diligence, not an accusation.
Which tests matter depends on the breed. For Bengals: hypertrophic cardiomyopathy screened by echocardiogram with a specialist cardiologist, plus DNA tests for pyruvate kinase deficiency and PRA-b. The cardiac screen is repeated as the cat ages because HCM can develop at any point. The DNA tests are one-time.
For Abyssinians and Somalis, pyruvate kinase deficiency. For Maine Coons, HCM and spinal muscular atrophy. For Persians and Exotics, polycystic kidney disease. Every breed has its list, and you should know the list for your breed before you contact anyone. A breeder who does not know which conditions apply to their own breed has answered the question without meaning to.
One detail people miss: check that the cat named on the certificate is the cat you are being offered a kitten from. A certificate for a different animal is not evidence of anything.
A breeder who says the cats are healthy, that there have never been problems in the lines, or that the question is unnecessary, has told you enough. Leave.
Registration you can verify in five minutes
A responsible breeder registers with CFA, TICA or WCF. All three maintain databases you can search yourself.
Ask for the registration numbers of the kitten's parents. Look them up. If the cats are not there, either the registration is false or the breeder is not registered at all. That check takes five minutes and rules out a large proportion of the market.
Be careful with registry names that sound official but are not affiliated with any international body. A local-only registration has no standard behind it, and nobody audits it. How forged and meaningless paperwork is produced is covered in the fake pedigree problem in cat breeding.
Show history, and why it matters more than the titles
Showing is the mechanism that puts a breeding programme in front of judges who have no financial interest in the verdict. A breeder who never shows has never had their claims tested by anyone but themselves.
Ask whether they show and what their cats have done. The titles matter less than the willingness. A breeder entering CFA or TICA shows with modest results is doing something a breeder with no show history has never done. What the process involves is in raising show kittens: what it takes behind the scenes.
Inbreeding, and the number to ask for
Ask what the coefficient of inbreeding is for the specific kitten. A responsible breeder calculates it as part of every pairing decision. A breeder who has never calculated one is not managing the programme at the level the term implies.
As a rough guide, below five percent is reasonable for most breeds and below three is better. Above ten is a warning. Above fifteen should stop the conversation regardless of how the kitten looks or how impressive the pedigree reads.
High coefficients compromise immune function, raise the expression of hereditary disease and shorten lifespan. Those are documented outcomes rather than theoretical risks, and the hidden danger of inbreeding in cats sets out the evidence.
Socialisation, and how to tell it happened
A kitten handled daily from birth is a different animal from one kept in a pen until it was old enough to sell. The difference shows in temperament, in confidence, and in how the cat copes with anything new for the rest of its life.
Ask the breeder to describe the socialisation programme rather than confirm that one exists. What handling does a kitten get in week one? How are they exposed to sound, to different surfaces, to strangers? When are they introduced to a carrier, to a car, to the kind of handling a vet performs? A breeder doing this deliberately answers in specifics. A breeder who is not answers in adjectives.
You can also test it in the room. Kittens raised with daily handling approach a visitor. Kittens raised without it go under the furniture.
The contract, and what it should say
A responsible breeder provides a written contract covering the health guarantee, the conditions for returning a kitten, the breeder's obligations on genetic disease and yours on care and rehoming. It protects both sides, which is the point.
Ask specifically what happens if the kitten develops a hereditary condition after purchase. The answer tells you how much the breeder actually believes their own testing. A guarantee is easy to offer when the tests were real.
Ask whether they are reachable afterwards. A responsible breeder expects questions about feeding, behaviour and breed-specific care for years. A breeder who becomes unreachable once payment clears has told you what the relationship was.
The responses that should end it
No health testing documentation when asked directly. Registration that does not verify. No show history of any kind. Blankness on inbreeding coefficients. Kittens available at eight weeks or younger. Several breeds produced at once with no evident depth in any. Reluctance to allow a visit. Pressure to decide quickly. No written contract. No contact after the sale. Kittens that are fearful, thin or in poor coat.
One of these is a warning. Several together is a description of a backyard operation, and the hidden dangers of backyard breeders covers what tends to follow.
Where to start looking
The registries themselves are the most reliable starting point. CFA and TICA both publish breeder directories by country and breed, which removes unregistered operations from the list before you have spoken to anyone.
Breed-specific groups and club sites can help, with more caution, because belonging to a group implies nothing about how someone breeds.
Expect to wait. A programme producing a small number of well-bred litters a year will not have a kitten available the week you decide you want one, and a breeder who always has kittens available is telling you something about volume. Why that volume costs what it does is set out in why pedigree cats are so expensive.
Pau and Sun have bred cats for over fifteen years at Bangkok Cats, a world championship cattery in Bangkok working with Bengals and Abyssinians. The cats, pedigrees, health testing and show record are at Bangkok Cats, and the same questions above apply to them as to anyone else.
Common questions
How do I verify a CFA or TICA registration?
Go to cfa.org or tica.org and use the registration lookup. Enter the number the breeder gave you. A registered cat appears with its owner information. If nothing appears, either the number is wrong or the registration is not real, and the breeder should be able to explain which.
Is it reasonable to ask to visit the cattery?
Yes, and a responsible breeder expects it. Seeing how kittens interact with people and how the breeding cats are housed tells you more than any video. Consistent reasons why a visit is not possible are themselves an answer.
What should I look for on a visit?
Clean cats in good coat condition. Kittens that come toward you rather than hide. A facility that is clean without being sterile. A breeder who can talk specifically about testing, genetics and care rather than generally about how much they love the cats. Overcrowding, poor hygiene or frightened animals end the visit.
Should I pay a deposit?
Deposits are normal where there is a waiting list. Make sure the terms are in writing, including when it is refundable. A deposit request with no written terms is a warning.
What age should a kitten leave the breeder?
Twelve weeks at the earliest, and fourteen to sixteen is better. Kittens leaving before twelve weeks have not finished the socialisation period that requires their mother and littermates, and early separation is associated with fearfulness and behavioural problems in adulthood. Eight-week kittens mean turnover is being prioritised over the animal.
Can I buy responsibly without visiting?
Often yes, if you replace the visit with something. Ask for a video call tour rather than clips, ask to see kittens interacting with people live, get the full testing and registration documentation before any payment, and keep every term in writing. Distance is a reason to be more thorough, not less.
