Cattery Owner

Key skills/talents

• It should go without saying that, ideally, you should be passionate about animals. But if you lack experience, perhaps consider taking one of the many animal care courses available at colleges across the UK (see below).

• It should also go without saying that this is a business that requires A LOT of physical and mental commitment, as Maria touches on in the chat. Don’t think it’s a fun-fun, walk in the park type of job (or a ‘cake-walk’ as Americans say). You'll need to be:

• Highly organised… Lets face it, you'll will literally be herding cats!

• Excellent verbal communication skills

• Sensitivity and understanding to owners and their pets specific needs

• Patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations - animals can be highly unpredictable

• Good level of customer service skills

• Good computer skills

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Qualifications required

There are no specific requirements for becoming a cattery or kennel worker, however experience with animals and an animal related qualification will enhance your CV and put you in a strong position when applying for jobs, or applying to your local council to set-up a business.

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The College of Animal Welfare offers several City & Guild courses relating to work-based Animal Care.

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Animal Courses Direct also offers courses recognised by Ofqual.

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The National Careers Service gives a lot of great information regarding how to get into this line of work, what’s involved, plus training options.

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Rules and regs

The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs gives statutory guidance here regarding the licensing that a local authority are required to check. Here is the official Government page for if you are looking to set-up a cat or dog boarding business.

All catteries and kennels n the UK must be both licensed with and inspected by the Environmental Health department of their local authority. This is in line with the legislation set out under the Animal Boarding Establishments Act 1963.

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Once you've earned/received your licence, it must be displayed prominently in a location that is accessible to all of your customers (new and old).

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The CPD college gives more in depth information to support some of the key directives stated here.

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Follow size/space regulations for sleeping areas

Cats should never share sleeping areas unless they come from the same household. Regulations specify that the sleeping areas in a cattery must follow minimum size regulations. All sleeping areas have a minimum height requirement of 1.8m. The minimum size requirements vary depending on the number of cats the sleeping area holds.

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One cat: Minimum area = 0.85m2. Minimum dimensions = 0.9m.

Up to two cats: Minimum area = 1.5m2. Minimum dimensions = 1.2m.

Up to four cats: Minimum area = 1.9m2, Minimum dimensions = 1.2m.

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Ensure the sleeping area gets enough light.

If the sleeping areas in your cattery get natural light throughout the day, you won’t have to make any special adjustments. However, if the sleeping areas use artificial light, you must ensure the lights are on for between 10 and 12 hours every day.

Ensure the cats receive an acceptable number of visits.

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Follow regulations on temperature

The regulations regarding the temperature of sleeping areas specify that a temperature between 15°C and 26°C must be maintained. A temperature below 10°C should never be reached.

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You should ensure the cats in your care receive a visit at least once every four hours (during the working day). Cats who have any health conditions may require more frequent visits.

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You are, of course, required to have the correct insurance. It provides reassurance to your customers, plus cover, should any accidents happen whilst their pets are under your care. One example (and a good one), is here.

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Also, if your Cattery has CCTV (which is advised), and it processes any type of personal information, you will need to apply for a licence with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and renew your registration every year.

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And of course, a regular on these posts, but if you’re storing personal data, you need to follow all GDPR rules and the Data Protection Act (2018).

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Remuneration framework

As Maria says in the chat, as a cattery or kennel owner, remuneration can be good. Now ‘good’ is subjective, BUT, Maria has run successful businesses before, so good means actual good in this case. Plus, it's well known that the UK are huge pet lovers; dogs (12 million) and cats (11 million), so within reason and unless another pandemic crops up to scupper things, a good boarding house should always be busy.

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Oh and if you’re interested: to know more about pet stats.

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The average cash compensation for a week in a Kennel and Cattery in the UK is estimated to be £6.5k, but as always, where you live/ which part of the UK you are based will dictate rates considerably (busy areas/cities being the most expensive to board in).

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Generally speaking, the better the boarding house, the more expensive its rates, which is as obvious to say as it is fruitless to worry about, because let's face it, we all love our pets, so we’re not going to send them to a dodgy drug den for a week, are we?

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How to get started

We’ve already discussed animal care courses available and we would strongly advise doing one of these, especially if you are setting up from scratch. Maria took over a very established business that had a very established reputation and way of working, so simply had to get up to speed with that as quickly as possible, and then enhance it.

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Most people will start with a City & Guilds Diploma in Animal Welfare (link above), but there are many different types of courses available, depending on which area you may be most interested in.

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'Animal Careers Direct' have specific Cat Courses available, which are all Ofqual regulated. Their feline qualifications meet the new Animal Activities Licensing (AAL) requirements.

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Whether qualified or not, and whether you want to run your own business or not, work experience will be key, so get registered with local catteries and kennels and start doing some work experience and volunteer work. Nothing will ever prepare you for animal care, like actually, physically, and yes, ‘literally’ doing it.

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Associations or official bodies to register with

All members of the 'National Register of Boarding Kennels and Catteries' are professionals that have agreed to abide by a strict Code of Best Practice.

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The 'Licensed Kennel & Cattery Association' (LiKCA) was formed in 2014, as an association of like-minded boarding kennel and cattery owners to provide support, education, information, help and advice for our sector. The Association is a not-for-profit organisation.

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Job site links

All the usual job sites will have boarding house (animal care) roles on them; however, unless you plan to relocate, a simple good search will provide you with a list of boarding houses within a commutable distance of your home, and then (as we always say) be proactive. Contact them, send your CV, offer to do some work experience/volunteer work. Then, and if you’re enthusiastic, positive and committed (as Maria advocates), a job offer will surely follow in due course.

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Indeed

Indeed Kennel Jobs

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Progression pathway

The 'College of Animal Welfare' gives a great list, with links, to potential animal carer/welfare career pathways.

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If you start working at a cattery or kennel, then in time (and should you wish) and because you are innately building up the skills to do so, you could set-up your own. And why not?

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When setting up a boarding house, it is always worth bearing in mind its natural (financial) progression, should demand increase along with your reputation; i.e. could you expand the premises and have more enclosures to take more animals? Alternatively, could you open more than one site? It’s not uncommon for boarding houses to open 2 or 3 venues within a 50 mile radius of each other. Doing this means you can share staff and systems, but still offer a good geographical range.

As Maria touches on in her chat, she has further progressed her business by working with local animal charities (who re-home cats and dogs), in order to fill gaps during slow periods. Likewise, supporting local schools and support groups might earn you some government funding in compensation.

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Finally, and if animals are really your thing, and once you have the basic diplomas in place, you could consider going on to do a veterinary course (nurse or doctor):

CAW

BVA

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Becoming a Veterinary Doctor is certainly no 'cake walk', and it's a long education/learning process, just like becoming a human Doctor is. But, at the end it pays well, for doing something that (hopefully) you still really love. Sounds pretty good to us!