#and if you're SELLING those babies you're just a breeder

[randomnow]

I've always had issues with that urban rescue ranch channel on youtube but the dude is breeding his animals and calling himself a rescue

like the birds are one thing but the fucking kangaroos? you aren't a rescue you're farm wearing a mask

[omg-snakes]

So You Want To Be a Corn Snake Breeder

Tip #3

Develop your customer service skills.

Presumably, you will need to sell the snakes you produce. You can try selling to friends or giving baby snakes as gifts to folks you know, but you'll find that this market gets saturated FAST and you'll end up with handfuls of snakes and dwindling reserves of money and space to feed and house all of them.

When selling online or at an in-person reptile show, you'll encounter all sorts of folks, from the seasoned expert to the hopeful novice and a thousand people in-between. You need to be able to communicate on their level, whatever that level may be.

You could be rude or a jerk, and that's a flex I guess, but you'll grow your good reputation faster and have more sales if you are kind.

Sometimes you'll encounter tire-kickers, photo collectors, edgelords, or folks who have malicious intent. Learn not to let those people ruin your demeanor. Shut 'em down politely but firmly, and focus on the positive interactions.

If you're selling online, you may need to juggle lots of conversations and keep track of who's inquiring about what, what they need, and where in the purchase process they are. It's a lot to handle at times but the outcome is a happy snake in a good home, happy customer with their new pet, and happy you with a bit of dosh in your pocket to help with upkeep.

If you seriously can't deal with people, consider just keeping snakes as beloved pets and not breeding them!

[bunposting]

How wary are you of pet store rabbits?

Extremely.

1. Pet stores generally cater to the audience of people who don't actually do much research on the pet they want to buy in the first place, and considering how difficult it is to find genuinely good care advice for rabbits, that means it's even more likely that those rabbits will end up in the wrong hands.

2. Generally, a breeder that really cares where/who their rabbits are going to won't sell to pet stores because they know the people who are buying rabbits from there are likely people who won't properly care for those rabbits.

3. Because most reputable/responsible breeders won't sell to pet stores, the rabbits you buy at pet stores tend to be from irresponsible breeders. These may be people who otherwise breed for good reasons just genuinely don't care what happens to their culls (this is somewhat rare, but it does happen), or they may be people just throwing together whatever random adorable bunnies they come across together in order to pump out even more adorable babies to sell to pet stores or to literally anyone who wants a pet rabbit. Either way, by purchasing rabbits from pet stores, you're telling those pet stores that there is a demand for rabbits to be bought from them, which means they're going to continue to give those irresponsible breeders more business and encourage/fund them to keep going.

4. You have no idea what you're getting when you buy a pet store rabbit. You don't know what medical conditions might run in its lines that it may either express or carry, you don't know what the temperament of the rabbit might turn out to be. Chances are, a rabbit bought at a pet store will have something wrong with it, and you as the pet owner have to decide whether you're willing to/have the financial ability to potentially go through all of the vet bills or if, should any issues arise, you are willing/able to euthanize that rabbit.

5. Just as a general rule, I would say the vast majority of rabbits found in shelters or found released/feral either come directly from irresponsible/non-reputable breeders or from pet stores. By buying from a pet store, you may either directly or indirectly be contributing to the amount of rabbits in shelters and/or found released/feral, and therefore giving rabbits rights groups such as House Rabbit Society more fuel to push their agendas by proving their point that 'there are too many rabbits in shelters/too many rabbits released, and that means all rabbit breeding needs to be stopped' - which then affects all breeders and all rabbits of all kinds.

Basically... Pet store rabbits are generally a huge no from me. They're irresponsibly bred and irresponsibly sold, and really probably shouldn't be a thing (at the very least not until more work has been done to make accurate rabbit care guidelines and facts about what it's like to have rabbits as pets way more accessible).

It gets a little complicated because yes, there is still a market for pet rabbits, and if reputable breeders generally don't sell any pet rabbits then where is anyone supposed to get one? I think the answer to that is... If you already prove yourself to be somebody who is open to listening and learning from folks who have been raising rabbits for years (or who have been taught by folks who have been raising rabbits for years/generations), then folks might be more willing to sell a rabbit that could be suitable as a pet to you. Idk how other breeders feel about this, but personally I think it would be cool if somebody really interested in a well bred pet rabbit came to a rabbit show and talked to some breeders that work with the breeds they're interested in. If somebody came up to me and said they were looking to get a pet rabbit and wanted to learn more about my breed and the general care of rabbits, I might be willing to take their contact information so I can let them know if/when I have something available for them if they're still interested. Again, that's just me personally, and idk how other breeders would feel about this, so I wouldn't say that's the be-all-end-all for how to go about buying a pet rabbit from a reputable breeder.

[caffeine-n-words]

On Goldfish

Let's talk about goldfish. It's a popular first-time pet for people with toddlers--they think they can get a couple, put them in a tiny tank, drop in some flakes, so it's considered easy to care for. The toddler can look at it without worrying about the kid chasing around a cat or dog, which might hurt them if said-child does something foolish, like pull on a cat's tail. If it dies after a few months, oh well! It's just a goldfish. And if it gets too big and the owners don't want it anymore, it's often illegally released into a local stream or lake.

There are many, many problems with this entire mentality.

This is going to be an extremely brief overview of goldfish care. If you're considering getting one, please do your research before buying, because I guarantee it's more complicated than you think it is. Do not rely on pet store employees to know everything--they may be new, they may be filling in from another section, they may have zero interest in fish and only spit out the company line, they may still be learning and make mistakes.

Goldfish are a species of carp from China. If you get tired of your fish, please rehome it or donate it to an aquatic life rescue. Do not release it; it's invasive and will destroy the local ecosystem. We already have too many to deal with as it is.

Likewise, this fish shouldn't die after after a few months. With proper care, they can live 10+ years.

So then, what constitutes "proper care"?

Let's start with the tank. Do not place your goldfish in a dinky, 1-gallon bowl. Those things are incapable of supporting a filter or air pump, and getting the water balance correct is extremely difficult. Most people do this, and their fish dies within months. An experienced hobbyist could probably keep it alive for a few years--5 max.

For smaller species meant to live in a tank, they should be provided 10-20 gallons per fish.

Read that again.

PER

FISH.

They are not necessarily schooling fish. They're fine either alone or in a group. That's a big tank to deal with, so if you're just starting out and are determined to get a goldfish, get a smaller species and a 10 gallon tank. They even sell kits. If properly kept, these guys can live up to 10 years.

Then there are larger species. These ones can get up to 18 inches and should live in ponds. The goldfish you see at fairs? The feeder fish you see in pet stores? These are the ones that get enormous. If they're kept in a properly maintenanced pond, they can live 15-20 years, and there have been reports of longer--the oldest recorded was 43, according to Guinness.

Whichever method you decide to use, make sure to regularly test your water so you can keep on top of any problems that might develop. Keep an eye on the temperature, because they're cool water fish--you don't want it getting too much higher than maybe 70F. And they prefer slower currents.

So what do goldfish eat?

Goldfish are omnivores. If you're keeping a tank variety and want something shelf-stable, then goldfish pellets are often preferable to flakes; flakes don't sink, and a goldfish that takes in too much air can develop a swim bladder disorder.

You can supplement the fish food with other things, like live or frozen brine shrimp, or vegetables. An adult fish can be fed once per day, but the fish you see in pet shops or have delivered from a private breeder are not adults--they're babies, and they need to be fed several times a day so they can grow properly. The feeding instructions given on fish food often assume you're feeding an adult.

Is your head spinning yet?

I'm not one of those people who insist there are "good" and "bad" starter pets. You should start with whatever fascinates you the most. That fascination will get you through all the research and care requirements.

But goldfish are definitely a challenging starter pet. Again, I urge potential owners to do their research. Make sure you're willing to do everything that's required. Familiarize yourself with potential problems.

And if you decide to do it anyway? I wish you the best of luck and many happy years with your new fish!

[saltminerising]

Why Some Random Hatchery Dragons Are So Gosh-Dang Expensive

Mod note: Quite a long post, so I moved the tl;dr to the top and put the rest under a read more -🍄🍖

Tl;dr: if you want interesting-looking, unique dragons; if you're bored of the same popular XXX and XXY color schemes everyone can easily breed; if you consider yourself a fan of "matchy XYZ's"... please understand that you NEED breeders to be willing to invest in projects to make those dragons available to you. And that sometimes means paying significantly above fodder price.

(NOTE: This post is mostly for the influx of newbies, or people new to browsing hatcheries, who tend to come on here and send asks like "Why are people selling pretty typical looking XYZs for hundreds of gems on the forums?" I'm assuming at least some of those asks are coming in good faith, so I wanted to give a thoughtful answer. If you're an experienced player taking part in these conversations, this post isn't really addressed to you, so please don't think I'm talking down to you. It's also not about the cases of overpricing - I'm just guessing about half these asks refer to someone genuinely overvaluing their dragons, but the other half are likely sent by people who may not realize how valuable the dragons actually are.)

Please understand that every time you see a breeding pair with all or mostly gem genes, a highly specific but previously nonexistent or super-rare (i.e., all others with this color are exalted or in dead lairs and have completely different genes to boot) color combination, and popular (in terms of scrolls, this usually equals pricier) breeds, that means that a LOT of work went into that pair that you don't necessarily see.

It means that the owner spent many months (and gems) breeding for perfect colors. If either parent is an imp, that means the breeder had the extra step of needing to find in-range imperials to breed, since scrolls are not accessible to most users and are generally too valuable to spend on breeding projects anyway. Once two unrelated babies of the correct color were finally secured, the owner then spent up to 3.9kg on EACH parent to apply the correct genes, assuming they couldn't be bred for (when it comes to rare colors, you usually have to take whatever you can find that's close enough in range, genes be damned). After that, assuming it wasn't possible to breed for the correct, well, breed (again, with rare colors, you can't always be picky), the owner then has to spend even MORE on breed change scrolls. In total, these pairs can EASILY cost over 10kg to create. 

This is where people will stop and tell me that breeding is known to be a poor way to make money, and you should only create breeding pairs or run a hatchery if you truly love doing it. Trust me - for the most part, we do. If someone is investing the months (maybe years) and thousands of gems it takes to create a rare pair? They almost DEFINITELY love it, because otherwise they would see it's a horrible misallocation of resources. We all know that you will never make back 100% of what you spent on a pairing like that. You might not even make back 50%. These types of projects are almost always labors of love.

With that being said? If I'm going to drop 10kg on a pairing, hell yes I'd like to recuperate SOME of the cost. Both because my savings are going to take a massive hit, but also because the higher price point shows the effort that went into the pairing is being valued and respected, and my buyers understand the hatchlings were crafted with a lot of care (well, as much as you can put into pixels you didn't draw :P) to create something rare and unique. It's insulting to ask breeders to spend thousands creating rare, beautiful dragons, then expecting them to charge 10g per hatchling like they're any old non-fodder XYZ. 

If this still bothers you, try to remember that breeders don't HAVE to put these rare dragons out there. I'm currently working on my dream dragon. I could technically stop once I get that dragon; I only need one, after all. But instead, I'm also breeding her an unrelated mate so I can breed them and put their babies out into the world, making it so next time someone wants a dragon like this, they don't HAVE to spend thousands of gems on a time-consuming and expensive project. They only have to spend a couple hundred gems on the AH.

[kedreeva]

How do you decide between hard culling and soft culling mice?

Depends on what I'm breeding and what I think will actually sell.

Popping this below a cut because it discusses animal death

Since someone else asked and may read this as well, cull is the word used for "remove from the breeding population." This can be via hard culling where the animal is dead, or by soft culling, where the animal is fixed so it cannot breed at all, or it is simply removed from your breeding population via sale or gift to someone else.

Anyone that has a poor temperament is a hard cull; if they bite, if they are super skittish, if they tail rattle, if they attack other mice. Those aren't acceptable breeders and I would never sell a mouse like that to someone else on my end.

Anyone with a health issue that may be genetic or contagious or unable to be fixed is a hard cull. The only thing I "treat" for is preventatively for mites/worms on/in new arrivals. I make my own bedding from trash paper/cardboard or get it from work which is irradiated so should have no parasites, so the only danger is from new arrivals. But fancy mice commonly suffer from various genetic ailments like tumors, so when I find things like that, that mouse gets culled and so does anyone I can track the lineage on that is related down the line. I haven't really had problems with this lately. I did have a male prolapse his penis a while back, and he was hard culled because you can't really fix that and it's painful.

MOST males are a hard cull unless I need to replace a male, or someone has asked me to pull them for purchase. Most of the mice in the "sale" bins right now are going to another breeder that is picking up breeding again after a break, and that's extremely unusual. 99% of people are not looking to adopt males because they think they are stinkier (and they can be), but also because you can't really replace losses in a male cage; when it gets down to 1 old male left, you can't give him a companion unless it's a girl and you're prepared for babies, and not everyone is. Adding more males almost always leads to fighting, often to the death. So, if I have to cull litter sizes, the males are usually the first to go, as day-old pinks.

From the friendly, healthy females that are left, I tend to hard cull the "plain" solid colors at wean or after a week; white, agouti, and black (unless they are stand-outs in temperament, I actually found homes for 2 of the blacks that were super sweet last time, as well as a white and an agouti that I had just weaned, but someone had asked for them before they were weaned). Dove tends to sell, as does blue, but if they don't sell within 2 weeks of being put on the sale rack, they also get culled. A lot of people just don't really care for the solid colored mice when they're not high quality show types. The siamese pretty much always find homes, and often have a wait list (they currently have a wait list). The splash does so far have sold well if they are marked up, but they have a harder time if they're undermarked. I have only sold 1 tricolor so far, and it was a male, but that's the only one I've had available so far. Anyone that has sat on the sale rack for 3 weeks gets hard culled to make room for new stock. Of all of these, the things I keep are ones that have the best color/type and temperament that are still healthy. Also depends on what, exactly, I am working on for the line. For example with the black line, the mice with the most pigment and most pigment coverage are being held back right now.

Lastly, when breeders get to be too old to breed, they get a grace period of 4 weeks on the sale rack to find pet homes for a discounted price. While they can't leave here until after 21 days after being pulled, to ensure they aren't carrying a litter, I spend that month looking for a home for them. If no one wants them, then they are retired via hard culling.

ALL of my hard culls either go to my peafowl if they are pinks, or to a friend to feed his many snakes, so there's no waste of life going on at any point. As for why; litters are culled to allow the 4-6 babies to have the best care by the dam, and to make sure that her milk production maintains through to wean. Too few babies can cause milk to dry up and the pups to be runty. Too many, and not everyone gets enough milk to grow well, and you can end up with runts or worse, the entire litter is smaller and weaker. Adults are culled for all the above reasoning, and also because I only have so much space and equipment, and the dead have a use.

And since I've answered this a million times before but someone's going to inevitably ask again, hard culling is done via cervical dislocation, which is the fastest and most humane method.

[ingo-appreciation]

PLEASE TELL ME ABOUT POKEMON FOOD I THINK OF IT CONSTANTLY

YESSSSSS I LOVE TALKING ABOUT POKEMON FOOD

Adding the read more for the same reason as before, talking about pokemon as food (definitely more vividly than the last ask btw if you're on the fence)

-GENERALLY SPEAKING. there's a fair amount of pokemon types that just. aren't edible. Fighting for the most part, ground, rock, steel, ghost.

-Poison and Electric types are indedible with an astericks. If the poison/electricity goes throughout their body? inedible. If its some sort of gland or sack that generates the poison/electricity? pretty much edible once you remove it and kind of do some prep for the meat. there's probably a third option of "body is harmful, but organs are kept somewhere safe to not be harmed and that meat is fine" (actually now that i think about it, a lot of fire types would probably be in this category too)

-Psychic types are also kind of in a weird limbo. Simply because they're a bit more... sentient? so to speak? I think that one would vary by region

-Speaking of that! I think which pokemon are considered Do Not Hunt depend a lot on region and personal beliefs. like one of my personal favorites is in certain regions, there's a superstition around Abra that makes most of the residents not touch it

-As for general no-go pokemon, it's the usual. Legendaries, babies (which. pokemon in the first line of an evolution aren't off limits since not all pokemon evolve like SPECIFICALLY baby pokemon), endangered pokemon, i think there's some cultural things that kind of became universal (like happiny, togepi, and cleffa lines. like these are pokemon generally meant to bring happiness/healers and if you're hunting them and you're not in an extreme circumstance, you're a TERRIBLE person)

-I think in modern times, most of this stuff is handled by specialists. Like there's breeders and farmers who know a lot about raising a specific type of pokemon and how to get the best out of said pokemon and then the rest is like. typical manufacturing stuff

-there's also a lot of pokemon (probably mostly grass types) that can offer produce without being hunted! Tropius' fruit, Paras' mushrooms, personally I bet Bayleef leaves would make really good tea leaves, and there's probably specialists who know those kinds of things as well! There's probably also like. People who do stuff locally, like they've had a partner pokemon for a while and sell goods from them in local areas

-fun fact that i didn't know where to put, you know why there's so many like... not starter pokemon because they're not starters, but all those beginner pokemon you see on early routes? They're tiny. They're probably not good for hunting, so why would people? means there's gonna be a lot more of them!

-In the past, this was a LOT different. I think that over the entire pokemon world in the past, there were probably specialists but they were a LOT more spread out and more like. people who'd been with the same pokemon over multiple generations or something. Back then it was pretty much "what's something you can take without a pokemon" and "what's something you can harvest from pokemon naturally" which. there's probably not a lot! So I think there'd be a lot more celebrations involving food because if you got a lot of meat, hell, let's throw a party for that! invite everyone around, we don't want any of this to go to waste!

-pokemon trainers in modern day are... a bit picky so to speak. I mean, lovingly, if you have a life long Spearow partner that you've trained since it hatched from the egg and love more than anything... you're probably not gonna wanna eat any members of their species, even though they aren't the same. Obviously it's not a complete guarantee, but a pretty good rule is if you're doing anything with a pokemon trainer, make sure they aren't using any meat that would put them off

-i have some thoughts on some specific dishes but honestly im gonna wait on that, mostly because i need to make sure my laptop doesn't die before i get home fshdkjfhdskj

THANK YOU FOR ASKING THIS IS SOMETHING I HAVE MANY THOUGHTS ON AND ITS BEEN DELIGHTFUL TO RAMBLE

[velkynkarma]

Slight amendment to your dont buy any pets from large chain stores. Some of them host shelter animals, so those cats at petsmart? They’re from whatever shelter that location partners with. They’re really only at the store to get noticed.

Also for fish. Ugh tbh most fish stores get their fish from the same wholesalers chain stores do so, imo if you dont have a lfs that specifically gets right from the breeder, and the chain store treats its fish ok (note, a lot of deaths after they get a new shipment is sadly normal, fish really don’t handle stress well and the wholesalers dont keep them in the best conditions), then it’s generally considered ok in the fish hobby to get from the chain store. Plus you should always quarantine new fish anyways

Yeah, that is true about shelter animals, but even then you're not buying the animal from the pet store, you're usually paying a fee to adopt the animal from the shelter organization. I usually recommend researching the shelter in question to be sure they're legitimate and they've done everything they can to take care of the animal before putting it up for adoption, but that doesn't mean the animal can't be rescued.

I've never been in the fish hobby personally, so I have no experience with fish one way or another. All I know for certain is most large chain stores sell bettas in those pathetic little cups which is just not enough for a betta.

That cycles around to doing your research in general about any kind of pet you want too, though. Big-chain pet stores aren't inherently bad and they are great for getting your pet supplies, but it's super important to research what your animal really needs. The tiny hamster enclosures or tanks they advertise for ball pythons and bearded dragons are just not acceptable for those animals, unless we're talking babies. But people new to any pet hobby might be taken in by how easy it is to by a 'starter kit,' even if it doesn't accurately meet an animal's needs. However, other things like food, toys, and care items can be easily accessed at a pet store, and that's not a bad thing.

[queenoftheroost]

Welcome Carl to the herd!

Carl was advertised for free and at being a 6 month old pygmy. He comes from a home as being a singleton goat house pet, being raised in the house with their dogs. These people we got him from were very nice, but realized they weren't equipped for a house goat they couldn't get litter box trained.

My mother couldn't just let him pass us by so we took him in. They said he wasn't used to being outside but he's been taking it very well. He loves comping on the grass in our pasture.

Carl is in pretty good condition. Vacc status is unknown so he's getting those this weekend after he's decompressed a bit. He is also going to be wethered so he can stay with the bigger herd of Nigerians so he can play with the other babies.

But this is why I never sell my goats to people who want a house pet or want them as a singleton. Often people end up rehoming them bc they become too much. It's just not what even semi-responsible breeders should do. Carl is lucky he was very loved even if they didn't know what they were doing. So if you're a goat breeder, please remember to screen your homes and make sure your babies are going to homes with other goats.

[bettercallroasty]

Guys I have some S. Gastrica mantis nymphs (babies) left over from my hatch! Much more than I need for myself.

Their mother was my first ever mantis and these babies look just like her. So precious.

I'm selling them for 10$ each + shipping to a GOOD home.

USA ONLY.

It's not only illegal to ship out of state but also very risky to these poor guys and I'm not doing a thing that may harm them.

Depending on where you are shipping is between $7.50-$10.00

Hot areas 90+ degrees must be shipped with a COOL PACK and must also be HELD AT POST OFFICE.

They ship USPS priority two day.

It's completely safe for them, if you've never bought a mantis before. They're well packed with love and fed before they leave.

This is a great beginners species. They're cheap and easy to care for. Gentle with humans

NO YOU CANT HOUSE THEM TOGETHER.

You'll need to be able to provide flies and roaches.

I will not sell to anyone who refuses to provide these foods to them.

I do have a list of great breeders to order feeders from. :)

I have a caresheet for these guys so if you are interested message me and you shall receive. I'll answer any other questions you have.

Even if you don't want to buy one of my babies I'll answer your mantis questions!

My latest shipping day is Weds each week.

Thursday is too close to the weekend. The insect needs to get there ASAP. I will ship following Monday.

These guys are instar 4-5 right now and are on large fruit flies. They can likely begin taking house flies, small red runners, and dubia nymphs.

Possibly blue bottle flies

If you're not interested share the word and help me get my angels to good owners! 😍

THOSE UNDER 18

I WILL NOT SELL TO YOU UNLESS YOUR PARENT/GUARDIAN HAS GIVEN COMPLETE PERMISSION AND HAS ALSO READ CARE REQUIREMENTS