FACTS ABOUT BULLDOGS
Why Are Bulldog Puppies So Expensive?
You would be surprised how many times I have heard this question "Why
are they so expensive? You must make a lot of money..."
I guess people just
don’t realize what goes into raising a litter of bulldog puppies…raising the
best puppies you possibly can, as responsibly
as you can.
The prices I quote are rounded off, and may vary depending on the cost of your
vet and where you purchase your animal supplies. Some things you can save money
on by doing them yourself, but not very many. I am only basing this information
on a litter of 4 puppies being raised to 12 weeks old. There are many
variables, but this is just going to be an average. I’m sure other breeds have
costs specific to their breed, so this does in no way represent what other
responsible breeders go through with their puppies.
The cost for puppies starts before breeding. Health screening of the parents is
a must. Knowing the health problems in the lines of both parents, judging temperament,
and the physical qualities you are trying to produce, and the list goes on.
Most, if not all, bulldogs are Artificially Inseminated (A/I) and need to have
a thyroid screening. Our vet charges $60 to collect from the male and
inseminate the bitch. Since my wife has her own stud dogs and the equipment and
knowledge to do this herself, we saved $60. Say you don’t have your own stud
dog and have to go out for stud service, this could be around $500. But for the
sake of my example, we are going to use the $60. Usually you have to do a few
tests on the bitch to see when she’s ovulating. Once you figure that out, you
usually breed her 3 times…wow, that’s $180 just for collection from the dog. I
won’t add in the thyroid T-4 test at $40 a test.
After the bitch has been bred, we put her on pre-natal vitamins, the same
vitamins that would be taken by a pregnant woman or a woman planning on getting
pregnant. These run around $12 for a bottle of 120, since they are pregnant for
63 days, we will say $6 for pre-natal and $5 for a bottle of folic acid. Folic
acid is used to prevent birth defects, the same reason pregnant women use it.
So now we’re up to $191.
The bitch is switched from her normal dog food to puppy food two weeks after
breeding. Proper nutrition helps ensure healthy puppies. We use Pro Plan Large
Dog Breed puppy food. I can usually pick up a 37.5 lb bag for $30 at Petsmart.
This will usually last the entire pregnancy, but you may have to get more.
Let’s see….we’re up to just over $210 and puppies haven’t even gotten here.
IT’S PUPPY TIME!!!!! Ok…the bitch has been pregnant for 9 weeks, she looks like
she swallowed a basketball, she uncomfortable and looks pitiful. 3 days before
her 1st due date (there’s no guess work on this date when you A/I) we take the
dog 70 miles to the vet. WOW…70 miles? Yep, our vet owns bulldogs, loves
bulldogs, knows them inside and out, that’s why he’s the best and we go 70
miles one way. My wife trusts him so much, she’d let him do surgery on her.
He’s pretty good on other breeds too. So, we drop the bitch off. The vet takes
an x-ray or two for $60 each, monitors her temperature, runs a few progesterone
tests, and figures out exactly when she’s going to start going into labor. At
this point he puts her under anesthesia and performs a c-section. A few days
later, the vet calls up and says to come get Ma and the kids. He sends us home
with vitamin K shots for the puppies and anything else he might think the pups
need. We walk out of the vet’s office for $1200. This includes the c-section,
test, x-rays, boarding fee, etc… So, now we’re up to $.1410.00
Well, the puppies are home. Now what? Well, babies need to be kept warm, so
let’s turn up the heat. We don’t want to heat the whole house, just the
bedroom, so we turn on the ceramic space heater and warm the room up to a
toasty 85 degrees (Get used to it, it’s going to be like this for the next few
weeks). Ok, the room’s hot, now where are the puppies going to sleep? Well the
floor’s not as warm as the rest of the room and it’s kind of drafty, so we need
to get the babies off the floor. Let’s put them on the bed. My wife uses a
small wading pool, you know, the blue plastic pools
for little kids? (Don’t plan on sleeping very comfortably for a while.)
We line it with a blanket and cover the blanket with sheepskin cloth. This
keeps the puppies dry if they pee. We also put a heating pad BELOW the blankets
off to one side so if the pups get cold they can get warm, and if they get too
warm they can get off. You also need to cover the puppies with a thin light
blanket to keep any drafts off of them, but still allow them to breathe.
Ceramic heaters use up quite a bit of electricity. Guess what? Our electric
bill just went up an extra $120 a month to keep puppies warm. Is there a
cheaper way? Probably, but I don’t have any ideas around it yet. Wait, what if
you don’t have the pool, or the blankets? You have to buy them. What if you
have them already? Eventually you’ll have to replace them because they’ll wear
out, but it takes a long time for that to happen. Hmmm….$1410.00 so far…this is
starting to get expensive.
Puppies love to eat. I mean it, they LOVE to eat. And, they usually let you
know when they’re ready to eat, even if you think you should be sleeping at 2
or 3am. Unfortunately, mommy bulldogs don’t produce that much milk, so, we have
to supplement with formula. You could use Esbilac, but we found something
easier for the puppies to digest, Just Born. It comes in an 8 oz box. Let’s
see, for the first week puppies eat every 2 to 3 hours, and they eat about one
quarter of an ounce, so that’s about 2 oz a day right? And I said that this is
going to be an average for 4 puppies, so that’s 8 oz or a box a day for the
first week. Week 2 they’re eating around half an ounce every 4 hours, so that’s
10 boxes for the week. By week 3 they’re eating a whole ounce every 6 hours, so
that’s 14 boxes for the week. All together that’s around 31 boxes of formula.
After shipping, we pay around $100 for 36 boxes. The extra boxes are used in
the weaning process. So, we’re up to $1510.00 after formula.
Weaning begins at 4 to 5 weeks old. We take dry puppy food, soak it in water
overnight, toss it in the blender and add formula and a jar of Gerber’s baby
food meats (Turkey, chicken, beef, veal, lamb). Puppy food is $30 a bag. The
Gerber’s baby food is $.70 a jar and we usually end up getting 5 jars of each
so that’s $18. And we figure after weaning they’ll go through another 3 bags of
puppy food, so that’s another $90. Ummm….that’s $1600.00 total.
Hidden costs, things you might not think about being in the cost of raising a
puppy….
Laundry. They can make a big mess of things or on things as the case may be, so
we do 4 loads of puppy blankets a day. 4 loads a day for 12 weeks, that’s 336
loads of laundry. We get our soap from the Dollar Store, and I don’t know how
many loads a box can do, but I can hear my electricity bill going up
again….Let’s say $10 a week for soap and electricity to wash and dry puppy
blankets. That would be $120. I guess it’s a good thing we have well water, or
that would be even more.
Toys. Can’t walk out of Petsmart with just a bag of puppy food. Each puppy gets
a toy and gets to take that toy with them if we place them. We try not to spend
more than $15 on each toy, so that’s $60.
Gas. Without fail puppies get sick and have to go see the vet. 140 miles round
trip. We usually end up going at least 6 times. Call it 3 tanks of gas, that’s
$45.
Vet. Those 6 trips to the vet? $50 each on average for the office visit and
medication, so that’s $300. Oh…I almost forgot shots, 2 sets of shots and a
health certificate…that’s another $320. We need some special equipment from the
vet…syringes, feeding tubes for sick puppies, ringers solution if they get
dehydrated from diarrhea, antibiotics…..that’s another $100 easy.
Health care. You don’t have to go to the vet for everything. We add supplements
to the formula, we use baby nasal spray if they get the sniffles, we use
Desitin if they get "diaper rash" from diarrhea, baby wash. All added
together that’s about another $50.
Baby wipes. You can never have enough baby wipes. Remember me saying puppies
love to eat? Guess what they love to do 5 minutes after eating and any time in
between feedings? We go through about 5 refills. I think the last time I bought
baby wipes, I bought store brand, and they were around $5 each, so that’s $25.
Time lost from work. I’m lucky enough to work in a small company that I can
take time off at the drop of a hat or I can change my work schedule. My wife
will use 1 week vacation for the 1st week, and I work half days for the next
three weeks because my company is more flexible than hers. I net $13 an hour
after taxes, so that’s $780 I didn’t bring home, because I’m home with puppies.
Advertising. Advertising in Dog World Magazine is $23 a month,
and the website is $9 a month, so that’s $384 a year.
AKC Litter registration is $25 and $2 for each puppy, so that’s $33.
Adult dogs. 2 stud dogs, 2 brood bitches, 5 spayed bitches and 3 of which are
old timers. The price of the puppy also goes to pay for the food and veterinary
cost of the adult dogs. After all, you wouldn’t have any puppies at this point
if you didn’t have some adult dogs for breeding to begin with. A bag of food
lasts 4 days for 9 dogs, so that’s 92 bags a year at $30 each for a total of
$2760. One of those spayed dogs is on a prescription food for Irritable Bowel
Syndrome. That food is $33 for a 20lb bag, which lasts 2 weeks. So that dog’s
food is another $858 a year. That’s just dog food. I don’t even want to think
of the veterinary cost of yearly shots, check ups, emergency visits, etc… I’m
also not adding in the cost of showing a dog – gas, hotel, entry fees and who
knows what else.
So, we are finally up to what $7034? Call it $7000 for argument’s sake. If I
sells all 4 puppies for $2000 each, after all of the expenses related to the
dogs are taken out, that leaves her with $1000 ($250 per puppy). If you take
that and divide it by 12, you get $83 a week. Now divide that by 7, and you’ll
get $12 a day. Now take that $12 and divide it by the 16 hours my wife spends
taking care of the puppies and you’ll see that my wife only makes $.75 an hour.
(If you really want to sit and do the math, you’re more than welcome to, I’m
just rounding everything off to the nearest whole dollar before I go to the
next division.) Granted, not all of the cost is associated directly with the
puppies, and is paid out over time whether there are puppies sold or not. This
probably isn’t even half the expense for the bulldogs.
Let’s say one out of those puppies dies. Now subtract that $7000 from $6000.
Oops, you’re $1000 in the hole, looks like you didn’t make enough money from
puppies to pay for your dogs. You didn’t even make $.75 an hour putting your
sweat and tears into that puppy.
Let’s say one of those puppies is good enough to show and my wife decides to
keep it. That’s $2000 that has to be absorbed by the other three.
Let’s say there was only one puppy in the litter and you manage to keep it
alive. You decide it’s not exactly to the standard you were breeding for, so
you decide to sell it. Well, then you’d be down $6000, and barely able to pay
for the c-section and raising that one puppy. And if you did keep it, then you
would just have to eat everything and hope your boss at your regular full time
job is taking heavy medication when it comes time to give out the Christmas
bonuses and adds an extra zero or two to the end of yours. Hey, it could
happen…..just not in this example or my lifetime.
Ok, worst case scenario. (And it’s happened to us, twice) You drop the bitch
off at the vet, he finds out there was a dead puppy inside her, which spread
infection throughout her body, which caused her to die an excruciatingly
painful death as her major organs shut down one by one, and kills off the rest
of the puppies as well. Not only are you out the puppies, pre-breeding costs,
and c-section, but you’ve lost a family member, and any future puppies she may
have produced for you. How do you put a price tag on that loss?
When you have done this, $2000 for a puppy suddenly doesn’t seem like very
much, and then you understand, that you aren’t and can’t possibly be in it for
the money.
I don’t understand why people are saying breeders like my wife are trying to
ram it to someone when they ask $2000 for a puppy. How are you begrudging a
breeder $.75 an hour, when they work a regular full time job? So it’s wrong for
a responsible breeder to make $250 for raising a puppy for 12 weeks and not
call it a business? It’s wrong for a responsible breeder to do it once, maybe
twice a year? But it’s OK for a puppy mill or BYB to make more than that…
because they don’t put as much money into the pre-breeding expenses, or any of
the other expenses that my wife does? Now, there’s a lot of things I didn’t add
in to the total cost of breeding bulldogs, so in reality she doesn’t even make
that $.75 an hour. In fact sometimes I wonder how anyone can breed dogs and
still afford to eat. I know the IRS won’t let you operate a business unless you
MAKE a PROFIT,
If you don’t care about what breed of dog you want, and you just want A DOG /
ANY DOG, go to the local shelter and save a life. If you know what breed of dog
you really, really want, and you can’t afford it right now, save your
money to get what you want. If you have enough money to get any dog you
want, get the best. If you just want a pet, but don’t care if it has any
ribbons or is a champion, go to a responsible breeder, they try as hard as they
can to breed the perfect dog, and end up creating a lot of great pets along the
way.
So now that I’ve given you something to think about, go ahead and talk about it
amongst yourselves. No wonder they say breeding should be left to those
individuals who can dedicate their lives to it.
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Here we have listed some
frequently asked questions and their answers.
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What Do You Mean They Can't Swim?
Bulldogs and swimming pools are a lethal combination as a lot of bulldogs
can't swim, NONE of them can get themselves out of a pool, and they ALL love
water. A pool or pond with broad shallow steps where they can sit in summer
is ideal. But supervision is essential at all times.
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Do Bulldogs Slobber?
As a general rule, Bulldogs do not slobber. However, they are a flat-faced
breed, which means when they get a drink of water, they must lay their lips
in the bowl. This will lead to dribble trails across the floor. It cannot be
helped. It is always a good idea to have a hand towel handy for this type of
occasion.
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Aren't Bulldogs Stubborn and Hard to Train?
The most common misconception about bulldogs is that they cannot be trained.
Forget this straight away. They are exceptionally intelligent, and are
capable of strategic thinking ie plotting and planning moves with a specific
result in mind. Bulldogs have LOTS of common sense....more than some people I
know!
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Well Who Wants a Dog Who Can't Breathe? All Bulldogs Have
Breathing Problems, Right?
Yes and no. Bulldogs are very sensitive to heat. They do not have efficient
thermostats.
Heat, over-exertion, stress and anxiety contribute to the Bulldogs' breathing
issues. They have big flat faces and throats with lots of loose skin and
flesh. When a Bulldog gets overheated, overly excited or stressed out, that
loose skin and flesh can being to swell, cutting off the dogs airway.
You must at all costs avoid taking them out in cars, on walks, to beaches or
other hot places, or exercising them, during the summer. They get heatstrokes
and die more easily than any other breed.
If your dog overheats, get him/her into the shade immediately, or better still
get the dog into a pool of cold water. Otherwise, get to a tap fast. Wet the
neck and stomach first, wrap a dripping cold towel round the neck, and keep
him quiet until his breathing stabilizes and he is absolutely comfortable
again. The very best precaution is always having a tub of cold water
accessible to the dog in summer--they'll get in themselves, and cool off
quickly.
Your Bulldog doesn't know he can't do things like jog with you, play ball or
frisbee in the warm weather or go for long walks on summer days. The Bulldog
is loyal and will try to keep up with you and do your bidding, even if it
costs him his life. It is up to YOU to ensure the saftey and well being of
your Bulldog. You know what he can and can't do. Your Bullie's life is in
your hands.
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What Kind of Toys Should I Get For My Bulldog?
Bulldogs must never be given bones or small balls to chew or play with. Chew
hooves (the kind of chewy hooves you get from the vet) and pig ears are very
dangerous. Because of their bite, they do not chew efficiently and can choke
to death on balls and bones. Large Nylabones are preferred as they are
excellent exercise for the dog and are very safe. Never give a Bulldog
rawhide sticks or chips...these are too small and once chewed on they be come
slimy and can slip down the throat causing the dog to choke.
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Do Bulldogs Shed?
Yes, all short coated breeds of dog shed. Regular grooming and care can
reduce the amount of hair that the dogs sheds. A nice brushing twice a week
during heavy shedding season (Spring and Fall) can pull out those loose hairs
and keep them from winding up on your clothes. However, if you are looking
for a dog who does not shed at all....then purchase yourself a non-shedding
breed or a stuffed animal.
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Do Bulldogs Bark?
Bulldogs can and will bark, occasionally. They are not a "yappy"
breed. Normally a Bulldog will only bark when someone knocks on the door or
if they are confronted with someone or something they are unfamiliar with.
They are not incessant barkers.
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Are Bulldogs Good Watch Dogs?
Certainly! They have no problem watching a burgler come into your house and
watching him carry out all your stuff! Honestly though, Bulldogs are not your
typical watch dog. They will alert you when something isn't right. But they
aren't one for guarding the junk yard! Bulldogs have a tender nature and
should not be overly protective to the point of having to be put away when
company visits.
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How Long Do Bulldogs Usually Live?
A Bulldog's life expectancy is approximately 8-12 years, but some dogs live
years beyond that. The key to a long life for your Bulldog begins with his
breeding. If he comes from good quality, healthy bloodlines who are vigorus
and free from genetic disorders, the chances of your Bulldog living longer,
are better. Of course no one can guarantee life...but having a healthy dog
just isn't enough. You need to ensure he stays in good health by feeding good
quality food and providing him with excellent vet care
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