Why are French Bulldogs So Much Money?
One of the most common questions I get when I tell someone I am a french bulldog breeder is, “how much do french bulldogs cost?” Typically they don’t like my answer! But when I break it down for them they begin to understand. The biggest factor that racks up a frenchies price tag is how much money it cost breed them. Another factor that can increase their price tag is there coat color (i.e. lilac, Isabella, blue, chocolate, etc.). Fluffy frenchies are now starting to become popular too and you guessed it…that also increases the price tag!
Read on to learn more about why french bulldogs are so expensive!
Cesarean Section
Most of the time french bulldog puppies need to be born via a cesarean section (C-section) opposed to natural whelping. The reason behind this is there body shape. Frenchies have slim hips and large heads and relatively wide shoulders. During natural birth, the puppies are sometimes unable to pass through the female’s pelvic canal which, for obvious reasons, puts the mom and her puppies at serious risk. This can all be avoided by a veterinarian performing a c-section. However, this can add a hefty price tag ranging from $1,000 to $3,500 for a non-emergency C-section.
Artificial Insemination
French bulldogs having narrow hips also require them to be artificially inseminated to get pregnant. Stud dogs (male dogs) can have difficulties mounting and cannot establish a tie which is necessary for dogs to successfully breed.
Artificial insemination is typically performed twice, and it is a good idea to have the males motility checked prior to insemination too. Each visit will run you about $300 to $600 just to attempt to get your female dog pregnant!
Progesterone Testing
Since most french bulldogs are artificial inseminated, timing is everything! Typically with other dog breeds, the female dog will do something known as flagging. Flagging is nature’s way of saying they are fertile and ready to mingle! When natural breeding, the stud dog can just mount the female and do their thing! If you’re doing AI you don’t have that luxury and everything needs to be planned in advance. How romantic!
Progesterone testing is performed to determine when the frenchie is fertile and ready to breed. As we mentioned in the section above, AI is not cheap and you only want to do it twice! Therefore, in order to confirm you are performing AI when your frenchie is most fertile, a totally of 3 to 5 progesterone test spanned over 10 to 15 days is performed. This will help lock down the frenchies most fertile day (the best day to perform AI). These test can range from $80 to $150 each.
Stud Service
Lots of french bulldog breeders only have female dogs. This requires many breeders to purchase semen from another male stud dog. This price can vary greatly depending on the stud, but breeders typically charge around $1,500 to $2,000 for a stud service.
Vet Check Ups
Although any pregnant dog should be having frequent checkups during her pregnancy, frenchies typically have 1 or 2 more than other breeds. Add that to the bill!
Now that we summed up the process for breeding a frenchie, we can see that breeding alone can cost anywhere from $3,500 to $6,000 before any puppies are even born! Now let’s dig deeper into the other factors not related to breeding.
Coat Color
Besides french bulldogs being the cutest dogs of all, another really cool thing about frenchies is the variety of colors they come in! The most common color frenchies around are fawn, white, cream or brindle frenchies. These little guys are super cute and are typically the most affordable frenchies on the market. These dogs range from $3,500 to $4,500
On the other spectrum, we have the more ‘rare’ frenchies. Some of these frenchie colors are lilac, Isabella, tan point, merle, blue, etc. These dogs can go up in price fairly quickly! These frenchies are considered rare and more planning needs to be involved in determining which dogs can be bred together to achieve certain colors.
Ethical breeders, such as us at Beantown Frenchies also have to consider strong gene diversity. Just because two dogs will create certain colors doesn’t necessary mean they should be bred. Certain factors need to be looked at before breeding such as ensuring the parents pedigree have a large gene diversity, and that the parents pass certain health test. Important health tests include the standard 4-panel health test and an OFA cardiac exam. As you can see this can drastically increase the cost of a frenchie. These rare color frenchies can range from $5,000 to $15,000.
To add more icing to the cake, fluffy french bulldogs, aka long hair frenchies, are starting to become more popular too! These long hair fluffs can have all the same colors and patterns as the short hair frenchies, but with long hair! These little fluff balls can range from $8,000 to $20,000.
Go for it!
I believe the french bulldog is worth the price. Frenchies have the best personalities and are great companion dogs. They are great with kids, great with adults and are great with anyone and anything! Two of my frenchies have been sitting on my lap the entire time I’ve been writing this blog post!
Before buying your frenchie, it is important to do your research. The increase demand for frenchies has led to some unethical breeding being performed by amateur breeders. Although must breeders are ethical and care about the breed, some do it solely for the financial benefit. At Beantown Frenchies we believe health comes first and will never compromise the health of any frenchie for financial reward.
Thank you for the read! Want a frenchie? Join our waiting list and let’s get you a french bulldog!
e
The typical colors people associate frenchies with are fawn, white, cream and brindle. These are typically the most affordable frenchies as they are the most common. Other colors are considered to be more ‘rare’