we have a labrador and would like to breed her at some point but haven't a clue of any prices
could someone give us some prices on how much it would cost to breed her with a stud dog

£150 Hip Scoring
£30 Eye Testing
£400 Stud fees
£???? Travelling expenses
£???? Whelping box
£????Heat Pad or Heat Lamp
£???? new Vet Bedding
£???? KC Registration Fees
£500 Contingency for possible Caesarian Delivery of the pups.
£????Extra high quality feeding of mum and pups.

= £1500 or so minimum. I've probably missed something out too.

Dawn R.

I'm sure someone will be along soon and give you a list of the health tests you need to undertake before you know she is physically fit to be bred from - take that list to you vet and ask the cost. The next step is to contact someone VERY knowledgeable in the breed to have her assessed for conformation, to make sure she is good enough to be bred from. After that you will need to find the RIGHT stud, to compliment her, and find out the stud fee. After all that, if you go ahead, work out the cost of the extra food she will need (about 4 times the amount she eats now while feeding her babies, and that should be good quality protein) and add on roughly £1000 for equipment and vets fees (for a straightforward birth) plus lost earnings for time off work. 

Hello guest

Please think long and hard before you breed your bitch, why do you want to breed? If you think it will make you a bit of extra cash on the side then you would be wrong.

I bred my bitch last year it cost £1,500 to rear the litter and thats what I got back If I had sold the one I kept then I would have made a profit, but would it really have been a profit? No because it would not cover the cost of all the hip scoring and eye testing, all the things needed for first time mum, the upkeep of my bitch before her litter and for the rest of her life.

Is your bitch KC reg? Has she had health tests and have fantastic results? Has she proven to be a winning show dog or have she proved herself in the field? Does she have any major faults or hereditary ones? Have you homes for these pups or are you willing to keep any or all puppies that you can't sell? Have you the time to rear a litter? Have you got someone you can turn to for advice and who can mentor you? Do you have the funds for things that may go wrong, you bitch may have to have a cesarean and then she may not take to the pups and you will have to hand rear them, feeding every two hours and what if all the puppies die even after all your hard work, you will be out of pocket by quite a few hundred poundsand can take its toll on the heart strings.

These are just some of the questions that you have to ask yourself, I am not trying to tell you, that you can't breed but please do extensive research before you consider it. I know we all had to start somewhere but if you really are interested in breeding for the right reasons and not for money then take your time to visit show, talk to breeders, read books and so on. It may take many years to find a bitch that is suitably to breed from.

Also please think of all the dogs that are in rescue, lots of them are labs, if you don't already have suitable homes for your pups then they may well end up here.