What is a good Re-Home Fee? Update

[aTailOf2Kitties]

I believe that Craigslist requires that you charge some sort of a "rehoming fee", but then they say that pet "sales" are prohibited. In between those is a huge gray area. Honestly most people looking for a cat on CL aren't going to pay much for one, because there are always tons of free ones in the newspaper. If you have a purebred or otherwise desirable breed you might be able to get $50-100 which is still less than a shelter would charge normally, but there's a real good chance that some jerk or nosy nancy is gonna flag your ad before a serious adoptee even sees it. Pets cost money to maintain that's for sure, but any time you advertise to the general public, they're gonna want something for as close to nothing as you'll let them get away with paying.

Most people who have spent the time and $ to properly vet an animal aren't going to recover that amount on Craigslist. I know this and most people reading the ads know this, but some folks who post animals for adoption still want to break even and it's probably not gonna happen.

As far as CL goes.... if it was me, and I had a litter of run-of-the-mill kittens that needed a good home, I probably would do one of 2 things (1)worm and vaccinate them, adopt them for maybe $10 apiece and hope and pray that the future owners get them spayed/neutered later. or (2) Charge a higher adoption fee, but promise to refund the $ as soon as proof was provided that the animal was spayed or neutered. I suppose in essence that the animal would then have been adopted for free in the long run, but the new owner would have to initially come up with some money (which weeds out the total dead-beats) and then spend whatever other $ the animal needed for routine care.

It's a slippery slope when you ask for money in return for a pet, especially via Craigslist. Some would say a particular rehoming fee is reasonable while yet another person would say that you are selling the animal if you get any money at all for it.

[GILL]

First off I would NEVER use Craigslist too find a home for an animal, too many animal brokers lark there.
As to a fee most shelters and agencies I work with charge from $ 100 - 200. per cat. Higher for pure bred kittens and lower for older. This also eliminates the animal brokers. Some even require you to bring the animal in 2-3 months after adoption. Just so they can be checked.
Over the last 8 weeks I have moved 37 cats & kittens, including 1 EX grand champion. So far all have been placed except 2. I have even meet some of the adopter’s.
All I can say is be very careful.

[Tora Oni]

Thanks everyone, for those who couldn't understand the thread, which I can't blame you I read it myself seemed kinda foggy...guess ranting more less.

Thanks Sasvermont: As for my cat Stormy if he was still around I probably only asked 20-45 since his shots cost that yearly. Depends on who I go to. I think a basic Domestic cat would probably be decent price.

Phesina: yeah that is why I think there should be some fee.

Catmandu: Totally agree with you, I thought about getting 2 cats one from pure breed rescue and another Domestic Longhair since I really like to have something like a ragdoll but I also love Domestic Longhair.

aTailof2Kitties: Don't you think that it is weird they require a small re-home fee but they don't specify what small is? I mean I saw a chinchilla for 300 but if you saw a dog on there for 300 oh boy it was going to get flagged. Its just weird.

GILL: I don't get pets from craigslist but that is how we got Chi. As for myself I've only got a motorcycle from there...looking for yard sales and what not. The pet section I might just not look at any more. After all its just depressing.

[catmandu]

I was fotunate Tora , in that the Lady who has Balinese and Siamese Cats was having trouble selling her Two Oriental Shorthairs as they dont really look like the pure breds that they are.
And Hamiltons a poor working class city where people arent as interested in pure bred Cats.
She knew I would take good care of Her Babies as I have with BJ and John Hancock.
I love Miquelito My Little Orange Lion and Pounciege the Precious.

[katladyd]

Gee, I loved them both when I thought they were just regular ol' cats you had saved. Now that I look at pictures of them both, I can see it in their faces. A very pretty breed. I know you would love them both no matter what their breeding. All of us would.

[aTailOf2Kitties]

what annoys me about craigslist is when people flag a posting for a hard-to-find or desirable breed dog because they think the fee is too high. I mean if you had an English Mastiff puppy they'd flag you if you ask too much (in their opinion) but if you ask for less then you'd get overloaded with a butt-load of deadbeats trying to get a truly valuable dog for next-to-nothing. Then they turn around and breed the hell out of it for profit, or can't afford to feed it anyway.

You don't see this as much with cats, around here anyway. I think most of your everyday schmucks looking on CL probably don't know one cat breed from another enough to justify paying a high adoption fee, no matter what the pedigree. Those are the ones who flag postings and prevent someone who would truly be interested from ever seeing it.

[Tora Oni]

Yeah that is the screwy thing about it people selling pets without fixing them and then asking new owner to do that if they adopt them. Not that I think that is wrong to ask but in my opinion I wouldn't trust someone else to spay and neuter a pet if I hadn't already chances are the ragdoll kitten I saw getting a home could have been a back yard breeder. I mean I seriously don't think that happens so much with cats as someone who thinks ragdoll is going to be docile and lazy and not get pregnant because Its so laid back... People come up with the weirdest ideas. Like one girl on youtube that ragdolls make less mess and damage than a domestic with no pedigree. I was like have you ever took not on the size and note that they are a bit clumsy sometimes. Some can knock over more because they can weigh around 20lbs. They are a big cat breed some say biggest but I've heard too much to say for sure. Plus my cat never tore up our stuff, I mean yeah the bottom of the furniture which nobody cares about he never crawled up in it which I was worried about but honestly he probably prevented a lot more damage than he caused due to our last dog's fear of thunderstorms.

Thanks everyone, I was questioning if I was wrong on charging a decent pet fee.