04/01/2025
PSA: I love talking about my cavaliers and my program but please do your diligence and research this breed and the cost of the breed before contacting me. I have a questionnaire that you can fill out and has information on it along with my website that will answer a lot of your questions. I say that to explain that cavaliers aren't cheap dogs and if you find them UNDER 💲2️⃣ k please research that breeder up and down. Get on the phone with them, talk to them, and FaceTime them. See their face, their dogs. There are a ton of scammers out there claiming to be selling cavaliers for nothing and people are losing money.
Why is this breed so expensive you ask? I'm glad you asked!
Limited availability- cavaliers have small litters
and responsible breeders don't have many litters, only a few a year. These are our family members first and foremost. Have you ever noticed that there aren't many cavaliers or breeders around and usually you have to find a breeder out of your state or several hours away?
Health testing- we Heath test our adults before pairing them. DNA (one time testing over $100 per dog), yearly OFA testing (hundreds per dog), and of course we keep their vaccines updated yearly along with a complete work up to ensure every dog is healthy and ready. Dry Eye/ Curly Coat (DE/CC) and Episodic Falling Syndrome (EFS) are very real and harmful genes that can be passed down into cavaliers . Cavaliers are also very prone to heart disease which is why we also have them checked yearly. The amount of testing can go way up depending on breeder and location which some testing isn't necessary but the more testing done the better chances you have to getting a very healthy puppy.
Some breeders may x-ray and/or ultrasound their pregnant females. We finally were able to purchase our own ultrasound machine. Google the expense. 😳
Whelping- responsible breeders keep their dogs in home, not outside in a kennel or on their own to whelp. All of our dogs live in home with us and are whelped in our house. I sleep next to mom and pups the first 2 weeks constantly checking on mom and pups every 1-2 hours to make sure pups are feeding. They are very fragile in the first 2 weeks. Moms can have trouble birthing and it can be scary. This could result in emergency c-sections (this is 3k and up).
Food quality- we feed PawTree, which is a high quality food and pay several hundred a month to feed our dogs. We want the best food for them.
Pedigree and bloodline- do you want your cavalier pup to look like a cute cavalier pup? Well that comes with breeding pure and healthy bloodlines while breeding for the correct coat, structure, looks, temperament, etc. breeding purebred with great bloodlines have costs to us breeders. Many of us don't have time to show the best but want the best for our buyers so we end up buying from show breeders as we know we can continue creating health offspring while doing it responsibly.
I know I'm probably missing something but this should give you an understanding of why cavaliers are costly.