Frequently asked questions
Straight answers about how buying and selling a Maine Coon on TrueKitten actually works — the money, the verification, and what happens if something goes wrong.
For buyers
The TrueKitten Safe-Home Process is the name for how every purchase on TrueKitten works, end to end. It has five parts: a breeder whose identity we've independently verified; health documents authenticated against their issuing registries and matched to the kitten by microchip; one standard sale contract you both sign; your payment held in escrow until you confirm the in-person handoff with a one-time PIN; and two separate protections standing behind the deal. The Safe-Handover Guarantee is the transaction backstop — if a deal turns out to be fraudulent, you're made whole through our resolution process, from the funds held for that transaction. Separately, the Zero-Regret Guarantee refunds our Payment Protection fee within 30 days if you're unhappy with TrueKitten's service — our fee, never the kitten's price.
When you pay for a kitten on TrueKitten, your money isn't sent straight to the breeder. It's held securely by our payments provider, Stripe, and released to the breeder only after you've met your kitten in person and confirmed the handoff. TrueKitten never holds your money in its own bank account — we orchestrate the release, Stripe holds the funds. That means the breeder has every reason to show up with a real, healthy kitten before they get paid.
The breeder's own health guarantee is part of the sale contract you both sign — it's the breeder's promise, and it's shown to you before you make an offer, so there are no surprises at handover. TrueKitten is a marketplace venue, not the seller, so we don't guarantee any animal's health ourselves. What we do is verify health documents against their issuing registries and match them to the specific cat by microchip, so you can see the paperwork is real before you commit.
We authenticate a cattery's identity before its listings go public, so every breeder in our catalog is verified — unverified catteries don't appear at all. We also authenticate the health-test documents a breeder submits against their issuing registries, matching each test to the cat it covers by microchip. A Verified badge is the visible marker of that identity check — it is never a promise about a kitten's health.
As a buyer, you pay a flat 10% Payment Protection fee on the kitten's price — for example, $300 on a $3,000 kitten. It's the same flat 10% on every on-platform purchase, with no tiers. You also cover a payment-processing fee, passed through at cost and shown as its own line. The breeder pays their own success fee separately — you're never charged for the breeder's side. There are no membership or sign-up fees to buy.
Two separate protections cover you, and they're deliberately kept apart. The Safe-Handover Guarantee is our transaction backstop: if a deal turns out to be fraudulent or seriously wrong, you're made whole through our resolution process — usually by refunding the money still held in escrow, since the breeder hasn't been paid yet. Separately, the Zero-Regret Guarantee is our 30-day service promise: if you're unhappy with TrueKitten's service, we refund our 10% Payment Protection fee, no questions asked. That refunds our fee — never the kitten's price. Two guarantees, two different jobs.
It's self-serve and takes a moment. Open your purchase from your dashboard, and within 30 days of picking up your kitten choose “Request the Zero-Regret refund.” We refund our 10% Payment Protection fee back to your original payment method — no questions asked. This refunds our service fee only, never the kitten's price, and it's completely separate from the Safe-Handover transaction backstop.
Every sale is an in-person pickup. When you meet the breeder and take your kitten home, you confirm the handoff with a one-time PIN. That confirmation is what releases the breeder's payment from escrow — so you've seen and held your kitten before any money moves. There's no shipping or fly-in delivery.
Your protection only exists while the deal stays on TrueKitten — the escrow hold, the verification, and both guarantees all depend on the payment running through the platform. If a breeder pushes you to pay off-platform by wire or app, that's a red flag: it strips away every protection above. Keep the payment here.
For breeders
There are no listing fees and no membership fees — you pay only when a kitten actually sells. The success fee is 10% of the sale, success-based. Founding catteries pay half — 5% — for their first 6 months, and that window runs from your own cattery's signup. And when you bring your own buyer with your referral link, you pay 0% success fee on that sale, because we took no acquisition cost.
The buyer's payment is held securely in escrow by Stripe — not in TrueKitten's account — until the sale completes. After the buyer confirms the in-person handoff with a one-time PIN, the funds auto-release to you after a short grace window. You don't have to chase the buyer to release your money; it happens automatically once the handoff is confirmed.
We authenticate your identity before your listings go public, so your cattery earns the Verified badge and appears in the catalog — every breeder buyers see there is verified, which is exactly why they trust it. We also authenticate the health-test documents you submit against their issuing registries, matching each test to the cat by microchip. The badge tells buyers we confirmed your paperwork is genuine.
Yes. You keep full veto over every offer — nothing sells without your say-so. The sale runs on the TrueKitten Standard Contract set to your own terms (your health guarantee length, your spay/neuter and return terms), shown to buyers before they offer. You set the terms once; TrueKitten just makes them clear and consistently applied.
No. Listing on TrueKitten is non-exclusive — you're free to sell through your own channels too. TrueKitten earns its 10% only on the sales that complete here, so there's no reason to lock you in.