Most weeks of the year, if you ring and ask whether we have British Shorthair kittens for sale, the answer is no.

I would rather tell you that at the top of the page than three paragraphs down.

We breed a litter or two a year. That is not a scarcity we are engineering to make you keen, it is simply what happens when two people breed cats as a hobby they love rather than a business they run, and will not hurry a queen to suit a waiting list. If you need a kitten this month, we are almost certainly the wrong people to ask (and I would rather say so now than waste your evening).

What is available right now

One blue boy is still available, and he is ready for his new home now. He is the last of Rosie’s first litter, fully vaccinated, vet checked and microchipped. £1,200, with a £300 deposit to reserve, collected from us here in Fareham. Ring 07789 148542.

Watch them growing up

Three short films of Rosie's 2026 litter, from their first days to confident, well-handled kittens.

Whatever is true today is on our available kittens page, and that page carries the date it was last updated so you can see for yourself how current it is. If that date is more than a fortnight old, ring me on 07789 148542 rather than assume.

You will have to come to Fareham

We are in Fareham, Hampshire, between Portsmouth and Southampton. Every kitten is collected in person, from here. We do not deliver, we do not meet halfway, and we do not use couriers.

That rules some people out, and it is meant to. Handing a kitten over in our own hallway is the only way we get to meet the person it is going to live with, talk you through the paperwork properly, and answer the question you think of on the doorstep rather than a week later. It also means you have seen where your kitten grew up, which is a thing worth insisting on from any breeder.

Visits are by appointment once the kittens are old enough for visitors. We will give you the address when we arrange one.

The kitten list, and how to get on it

Because there are only one or two litters a year, most enquiries arrive when there is nothing to sell. That is what the kitten list is for.

Send us a message, choose joining the kitten waiting list, and tell us a bit about your home and what you are hoping for. Colour, sex, whether there are children or another cat, whether you have had a British Shorthair before. It costs nothing, and nothing you can pay will hold you a place. There is no deposit until there is a real kitten to put it against.

When a litter is planned, the people on that list hear before the website does.

It is not a queue, and we would rather say so than let you assume otherwise. When a litter arrives we match kittens to homes rather than working down the list in order. Temperament varies far more than colour does, and the kitten who will be happiest in a busy house full of children is not always the one who would suit somebody living quietly on their own. So being first to write to us is not the same as being first to be offered, and somebody who joined after you may be offered a kitten ahead of you because that kitten suits them better.

What the list does is make sure you hear. Once a kitten has been matched to you, the £300 deposit is what reserves him, and not before. How long you wait depends on when the next litter is planned rather than on how many people are ahead of you.

What a kitten costs

£1,200, with a £300 deposit to reserve and the balance on collection.

We publish that because a price you have to ask for is a price that can move, and because you deserve to know before you get emotionally involved with a photograph. Most British Shorthair breeders do not publish one at all. If you want to know what actually sits behind that number, I have broken it down honestly in my guide to what a British Shorthair costs, including what a litter costs us to do properly.

What comes home with your kitten

Fully vaccinated, vet checked twice, microchipped here at the kitchen table by Paula, wormed, flea treated, GCCF registered with the full pedigree, four weeks of free Petplan cover, and a kitten pack of the food and litter yours is already used to.

The full list, the health testing behind it and the questions buyers actually ask are on our kitten information page. Both parents of our current litter are PKD1 tested clear and blood typed, and our health and genetics page explains what we test, what we do not, and why we are honest about heart scanning rather than quietly leaving it off the list.

We might not be the right cattery for you

Worth saying plainly, because it saves everybody time.

Our kittens go to indoor homes only, and that is a condition of the contract rather than a preference. They leave at fourteen to sixteen weeks — not eight, and not thirteen, which is only ever the GCCF minimum. They are registered on the GCCF non-active register and cannot be bred from unless we have agreed it in advance. And you are collecting from Fareham.

If you need a kitten in time for a particular birthday, or you want one that will be free to roam, we are not your breeder. I would far rather tell you that today than take your deposit and disappoint you in November.

Why buy a kitten from a judge

I have been breeding and showing pedigree cats since 2004, under my Burnthwaites prefix, and I am a full GCCF judge across Sections 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6. That is an unusual way round: most breeders start with a cat they love and learn the standard afterwards. I learned the standard first, on other people’s cats, in public, with my name written under the critique.

What it buys you is not a better-looking kitten. It is a straight answer. When I tell you which kitten in a litter is the pick of it, or that the one you have fallen for is not the one I would choose for your house, that is a judgement I have made hundreds of times on a table in front of an audience.

And if you are still deciding whether the breed suits you at all, start with what British Shorthairs are actually like to live with. I would rather point you at the right breed than sell you the wrong one.

Ask us about a kitten

Tell us about your home and what you are looking for, and we will answer honestly, including if the answer is that we have nothing suitable. Every enquiry comes straight to us and we reply to all of them, usually within a day or two.

Prefer to talk? Ring us on 07789 148542.