# Recent breeding situations that annoyed me - The "Anyone Can Breed" Mentality.



## Jackie (Jan 31, 2013)

*Recent breeding situations that annoyed me - The "Anyone Can Breed" Mentality.*

This is going to be SO redundant because I know we love to rant about this so I'm sorry. I'm just fed up with stuff that I see about people wanting to breed animals that shouldn't be breeding. 

This person on facebook today "Can someone explain the difference of dumbo and fancy and rex? what are these girls? 
Also, what is the youngest a rat can be bred?" She showed two young rats, quite obviously her first rats. Some comments: "Petstore. Im just breeding them each once. Just for hobby." 
UGHH. You got your first two rats and now all of a sudden you're "learning a lot" and can breed them.

My personal thought on true rat breeders is: YES you go for it. We need more reputable breeders, but sadly there are just as many bad ones that just breed without thought like this girl.

The story of my new rats: 
I got two girls from a "breeder" who has been around for years and owned rats for like 20 years. She has a ridiculous amount of rat info on her website (some of it is questionable). Even claims to not have rats bred without tumors for at least 6 years. I thought she was going to have a nice set up.Yet when I got there her basement just reeked. There were too many animals in my opinion (I know she does do business by selling babies to pet stores so maybe that's why). All of the rats breeding rats and other animals (she doesn't just breed rats...) were kept in aquariums. Is it reasonable to keep breeding rats in aquariums? I never thought so. Also she'll keep a male in with the female she's breeding 24/7. One of my babies was taken too soon from mom so the rats in that litter seemed on the small side for 5 weeks. They were taken from mom at 3 weeks (she usually takes them from mom at 4) because mom had a new litter. I've kind of given up on finding a good breeder in my area. I thought she was the one but the conditions make me second guess it. My first two also came from someone almost exactly like her that had too many animals in her basement and the breeding rats were in aquariums and it stunk. They both were nice ladies but I thought if you love rats you'd have them living better lives  I don't know if I should keep getting rats from the breeder because they may have better health. I just don't like how she runs her business.

 Luckily the amount of homeless rats in shelters is nowhere near cats or dogs. Now I'm going to depart from rats.

Why do SO many people not think before they breed? Where do they think all of these baby animals will end up? Would anyone want their dog's puppies or cat's kittens to be re-homed and then dumped at a shelter later and put to sleep?  I don't know why people clearly know the shelter system exists and rescues exist and know that there are dogs and cats that need homes but "oh wouldn't it be so fun to see what Missy and Rex's puppies would look like (etc.)."

And of course we all eat it up. We love puppies and kittens because we're conditioned to love puppies and kittens. I mean I'll admit I love playing with them and they're super cute... but I feel like it needs to change. Right now (at least in USA) it's typical to have your family... your kids may be right around the right age where they start asking for a puppy or kitten and it might be the right time. I know I did.
How great would it be if we could raise our children to consider an older dog or cat that needs a home? I know I will. It's easy you just say "Sally, I know you want a kitten, but I want us to go to the shelter and look at some adult cats to bring home because they are homeless and might be put to sleep if we don't help them." C'mon mom/dad. Encourage your children to care about animals just that much more. My mom gave me the choice, either I find a dog that is 2 or older or I don't have a dog. So I got a dog that was 2. And I loved him. It didn't matter that he wasn't a puppy.

I volunteer for a dog rescue so I naturally have a dislike for backyard breeders and have no intentions on getting a puppy (only a rescue, but even then probably not) because I know an older dog has been for his/her forever home for possibly years with no luck. 
Sadly I recently learned even some rescues are corrupt. Recently I saw some peke puggles (pug + beagle + pekingese <-- pekes are my favorite breed) on petfinder and posted them on facebook just because they were cute. My friend at the rescue I volunteer for said that rescue they were from is known for keeping unaltered males and females together and purposely breeding puppies to get funds. I couldn't believe it. Rescues are supposed to be about saving dogs and rehoming them, not making more. I am just so angry that everything is how it is.  My rescue works so hard and takes in hard cases while this one is carefree and breeding puppies for the **** of it... ughhhh

I'm done. *sigh* Please share your opinions. I have no hate towards anyone who gets puppies/kittens from a breeder nor hate for responsible dog/cat breeders. That's your choice. Don't want to come off wrong, it's just not for me.


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## Jackie (Jan 31, 2013)

If anyone is interested in what I had to say to that person on fb:
You don't breed your first rats and you NEVER should breed pet store rats. Think about what you're doing. Pet store rats generally have bad genes and you want to pass that on and have their babies possibly having bad health.
If you're new to rats you should stay out of breeding. Breeding is for experienced owners that carefully select their does and bucks that they've gotten from other breeders to ensure good babies. It's not a hobby. Breeding animals should never be a hobby. It's a serious thing. You're going to end up with more rats than you can handle and then what? They're going to have no place to go.
I don't want to offend you. I just want to tell you how it is. Enjoy your new girls. Leave it at that. Rats are beautiful special creatures. Please don't disrespect them like that and breed them when you shouldn't be.


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## isabelleharris (Jul 15, 2014)

i 100% agree with you. My friend had decided to breed her girl and my boy, but its the only litter she decided to do. and i at the moment have an accidental pregnancy because im fairly new to rats and my little 6 month old boy has been humping like crazy this past month and go a hold of one of my girls.


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## Jackie (Jan 31, 2013)

isabelleharris said:


> i 100% agree with you. My friend had decided to breed her girl and my boy, but its the only litter she decided to do. and i at the moment have an accidental pregnancy because im fairly new to rats and my little 6 month old boy has been humping like crazy this past month and go a hold of one of my girls.


In no way do I condemn anyone who had accidental litters. It happens. I want both males and females but I was worried of an accident (in half a DCN for each gender) and I don't mide all girls so I just did that.


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## Penelepe (Jan 12, 2014)

My sister's father in law is doing this. But with hamsters. We got a female about a year ago who was pregnant. We kept all except 2 who went to them. Last week I hear he got a male from the petshop to breed the 2 girls for some pups to sell. Greedy fat *******. 

On the shelter topic, adopting from a shelter here is extremely expensive. I would jump at a chance to have a shelter dog or cat, but $120 (R1200.here) is waaaay out of many families price range. 

We have an explosion in backyard breeders. Every 4th post on facebook is a puppy for sale dewormed ect ect for R2000 then the puppy is a "purebred" with no proof like papers ect. Then most of them end up in the shelter and being put down. 

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## SneakyLord (Mar 22, 2014)

Penelepe said:


> My sister's father in law is doing this. But with hamsters. We got a female about a year ago who was pregnant. We kept all except 2 who went to them. Last week I hear he got a male from the petshop to breed the 2 girls for some pups to sell. Greedy fat *******. On the shelter topic, adopting from a shelter here is extremely expensive. I would jump at a chance to have a shelter dog or cat, but $120 (R1200.here) is waaaay out of many families price range. We have an explosion in backyard breeders. Every 4th post on facebook is a puppy for sale dewormed ect ect for R2000 then the puppy is a "purebred" with no proof like papers ect. Then most of them end up in the shelter and being put down. Sent from Petguide.com Free App


 $120!!!! Bloody **** thats expensive. My rescue cat was only £40 from a nice old lady who spoiled them, they had heat mats in winter and central heating and fans in the winter. They would get posh cat food and tuna sometimes. I also think there should be more breeders, but only by expert rat owners. I don't get why people are so negative about good breeders. Mine was great, kept them all in massive, good cages with plenty of toys and medium cages for breeding and handled them every day. If someone joined here without reading the rules and said 'I'm a breeder' they would be bombarded with people saying its against the rules, which I guess is excused, but also people would say 'oh you know nothing, just leave it to the professionals'. They could be expert and great breeders for all they know. I think the problem really resides in society, most places only accept 'professionals'. How do people become expert if businesses don't allow them to join or train. Most people put down young people, thinking they can't possibly have experience or know what they're doing.


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## Penelepe (Jan 12, 2014)

Yeah it's even more to get your pet spayed or neutured. It's a vicious cycle, cant fix pet, pet has babies, cant find homes for babies, surrenders to spca, spca is to expensive to adopt from, babies gets put down. 

Sadly it's true about the breeders. I'm okay with someone breeding to improve the breed or health and temprement. But to breed only for money purposes ticks me off. For example the father in law's hamsters have small cages, small weels, dont get free range time time ect. If he just does a bit more effort then it would be awesome. 

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