How much does it cost to breed puppies? Expense breakdown

If you’re thinking about trying to breed puppies with your female dog, you might be wondering if it’s worth it. How much money can you really make from a litter of puppies? Well, it depends. From stud fees to vet bills, I’ll give you a great cost breakdown and then you can decide for yourself if it’s worth it.

So, I’m not a professional breeder. I’m a backyard breeder or a hobby breeder. My husband and I just decided to try breeding our dark red golden retriever. This was our first year trying it out. Overall, it was such a fun experience and it’s not as hard as you might think to be a good breeder and a responsible breeder. My kids loved playing with the puppies, we learned a lot and yes, we earned a little bit of play money. Here’s a breakdown of all the costs that we incurred along the way.

Expenses to breed puppies

Here’s a look at the average cost of what we spent in order to breed and sell a litter of golden retriever puppies:

• Female Purebred Golden Retriever (with breeding rights): $1500
• American Kennel Club registration for mom: $75
• Stud dog for breeding (stud service fee): $750
• Digital scale (to weigh each puppy): $20.35
• Deworming medicine: $25.49
• Puppy food (6, 20-lb bags solid food for mom and puppies): $108
• Dew claw trimmer: $13
• AKC online litter application: $118
• Veterinary care health check, vaccines, dewormer: $350
• Puppy collars: $10.49
• Marketing to sell the puppies: $60
• Dog sitter while we were out of town: $150

TOTAL COST: $3,180

Additional purchases for puppy litters

There were a few items that we didn’t need to purchase because we borrowed them or they were given to us. But these items were nonetheless, very helpful:

• Dog crate (for transporting puppies to the vet): $55
• Puppy play pen (to contain puppies in one area): $40
• Health testing – OFA hips, shoulder, eyes exam for mom: $200-$500
• Whelping/birthing box (for mom and puppies): $70
• Whelping box liner: $12
• Puppy warming mat (to keep puppies warm after birth): $23
• Heat lamp: $20
• Artificial insemination: Costs vary

There are other basic costs that I didn’t list above such as poop bags, premium food, neuter surgery, adoption fees, puppy packs and pet insurance that might not apply to your situation.

A whelping box is a must. Your puppies with spend the first four weeks in your whelping box. My sister-in-law made her own and let us borrow hers. It was a life-saver. Or you can just buy your own whelping box on Amazon. I found a puppy play pen at a yard sale and it was really helpful to have after four weeks when the puppies are getting bigger and running around.

Grand total from our puppy litter

We originally started to breed puppies, we thought that the cost of a puppy would be $2,000 each. But after no phone calls from potential buyers for a couple weeks, we slowly had to drop the price of a puppy. Of course different breeds vary in cost, but because the mom and dad didn’t have an OFA score for hips, shoulders and eyes, we couldn’t charge top dollar for our puppies. Instead, we settled charging the following for our puppies:

• Girls: $1,100
• Boys: $1,000
• Breeding rights: Additional $300

After all of our puppies were sold to their new owners, six people bought breeding rights for the girls. We also had to provide a $100 discount for four of the puppies because we didn’t cut their dew claws deep enough and they grew back. Here’s how much money we ended up earning once all of the puppies were sold:

• Puppy expenses: $3,180
• Puppy income: $10,800

GRAND TOTAL: $7,620

What I would do differently

Overall, I feel like the effort to breed puppies was definitely worth it. Even though it is hard work, we pocketed more than $7,000 (which is a lot of money) and it was a fun experience for the whole family. However, there’s a few things I would do differently the next time:

1. Let the vet remove the dew claws

Okay, you’re basically clipping off a toe on each paw of these tiny puppies. They cry and I feel like crying too. Plus, we didn’t even cut deep enough and four of the dew claws grew back. It was a mess. It costs $12-15 per puppy to have the vet do it and I feel like that is well worth the money.

2. Get an OFA hip, shoulder and eye exam

This exam is kind of pricey, but people who are buying puppies want to make sure they won’t have bad hips (hip dysplasia), shoulders or eyes. However, you can’t do this until your dog is 2 years old. Our dog was one month shy of being two years old when she had her litter and that’s why we didn’t do it. But we are planning on it. Then you can sell your puppies for more money as well. It’s a best practice for adult dogs.

3. Market our puppies nationwide in the United States

Puppies in some states, like Utah where we live, don’t sell for as much. But we were new at breeding so we only advertised locally. If you want to make more money, advertise your pups on the AKC Marketplace or Good Dog. You’ll get more money for each puppy.

Overall we were really happy with how everything turned out. We learned a lot and I think we will probably try to get another litter or two out of our cute Ruby. Regardless of whether you have Great Danes, German Shepherds, smaller dogs or large dogs, hopefully this blog post helped give you a good idea whether or not breeding will be worth it to you.

Check out this cute video of our puppies playing for five minutes straight!

Do you have any other suggestions on approximate costs when dog breeding to save some extra money and extra costs? Leave your comments below.

Related link: How to raise a puppy without going crazy