A Bit Worried

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MyNameIs86

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 7, 2010
Messages
56
Okay, I am getting a new hedgehog in 5 weeks. The hedgehog is going to be 8 weeks old when i pick him/her up.

The hedgehogs are now 3 weeks old and yet the breeder hasn't picked up the babies or sexed them.

I am a little bit worried that the baby isn't going to be friendly towards me because of the lack of handeling from the breeder.

The breeder said she had litters before but i'm not sure. I asked her a few times about this and she said i have to be patient and if i ask again then she'll gladly give back the deposit.

Hmm. Should i be worried or should i just let the breeder do what she's doing since she "knows" all about this?
 
My 3 weeks most breeders have been handling babies for at least a week and usually longer than that. Of course it all depends on the mom. Perhaps mom is over protective.

You can pm me the name of the breeder and I can tell you anything I know or ask people who might know.
 
hmmmm, I have never heard of this person. Judging by the website, I am betting this is their first litter. Their care information is terrible and obviously not written by someone with much experience.

First and foremost though, she should not be getting perturbed because you are asking questions. Breeders should be ready and willing to answer as many questions as you want to ask. Usually when someone is not willing to answer questions it's because either they don't know the answer or know you wouldn't like the answer. If this breeder is having issues with your questions before purchase I can just about guarantee they will totally ignore you as soon as you get the baby.

There are many good breeders out there. I think you could do much better. I suggest getting your deposit back.
 
I would be extremely worried..

Looking at their site I came across this. http://www.nirvanafauna.com/rescue.html



This is not something a reputable breeder will say.
OMG, I didn't even read the rescue page.

Stay clear of them. No reputable breed would ever consider breeding a rescue.

Another thing I find concerning is nowhere do they say who they are? What is their name? I know I must sound like a broken record but reputable breeders have no problem putting their name on their website.
 
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I have no knowledge about hedgies so cannot comment on the care sheet for them but the chinchilla one is rubbish:
Chinchilla treats should consist exclusively of dried fruit – our chinchillas love raisins. There is no need to feed your chinchilla human foods such as candy, and this should never be done as these foods can be very dangerous to chinchillas. Only feed your chinchilla one or two treats per day – these animals have very small stomachs and can easily fill up on treats!

That alone would have me running for the hills, let alone the fact that they claim to be a vet student............

Welcome to Nirvana Fauna! Nirvana Fauna is a small breeding operation that consists of myself and my fiancee. All of our breeders are also our pets; our goal is not only to produce beautiful, quality small mammals, but to also to educate the public about their care.

I am a student at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in Worcester, Massachusetts, specializing in exotic, zoo and wildlife medicine. I firmly believe in the mutual benefits that pet ownership offers both animal and man, and support the rights of pet owners and private exotic animal keepers.

If they want to breed healthy animals they should not be breeding rescues .............


Get your deposit back & find a reputable breeder - I am sure some of the hedgie guys on here could recommend one or two for you to contact. :)
 
Hello all,

This is my first post on this site, and I am sincerely disappointed that it has to be this one.

I was directed to this post by a very kind member of the forum, who took the time to email me regarding the situation and the negative things that were being said about me.

I realize that the "rescue" page sounds terrible. I highly debated even posting it. I can guarantee you that I have never ONCE bred a rescue chinchilla or hedgehog. All of my stock comes from reputable breeders in the Northeast; I have pedigree and/or lineage data for all of my animals.

The reason that it is worded in this way is primarily for the reptile rescue. It isn't completely unheard of to be surrendered stock that is suitable for breeding. I want to be upfront with people who may potentially surrender a snake. Ultimately, though, this hasn't happened and it was probably just a stupid thing to write, since it makes me sound like a scumbag who takes in crappy, rescued animals and breeds them. I'm not. I will repeat; I have NEVER bred a rescued animal.

As far as the OP, I ended up canceling the sale of the hedgehog to her as I became highly questioning of her ability to care for an animal. I was never "perturbed" to answer her questions -- I probably have five dozen emails from her answering all of her questions patiently. I may have seem guarded towards her as I was questioning her age and ability this entire time, and just waited WAY too long to cancel the sale.

As far as being a veterinary student -- yup, this is 100% true. If a moderator wants to contact me for my full, legal name and institution, I am happy to provide this so that you can verify it independently. I don't know why this fact seems so hard for people to believe ...

And yes, you are right that I need to change the information about the treats (I think I was overzealous about posting cautionary words about treats, having heard horror stories about people feeding chinchillas totally inappropriate treats like candy...) There are other, perfectly valid treats out there. In fact, all of my info could probably use an overhaul. As of this moment, I have removed my care guides from my website, pending some significant proofreading.

If there is anything else I can do to convince this community that I am a reputable breeder, please let it be known. I have local references within New England who could speak to my character. I am deeply concerned with not letting my reputation be ruined by someone who, in the end, I did not even deem responsible enough to sell an animal to.

Thank you for your time and for keeping an open mind. I hope that the community here will be willing to work with me to help me make this right in ANY way that I can.
 
While trying to stay neutral on this subject, I will say that the OP herself has pretty much lied about everything and anything she can, so her credibility here is nil. I believe she's moved elsewhere now and is buying hedgies to start breeding, and she doesn't care where they come from.

So, that said, (and this is a personal observation) I wish before people slap up a web page that they would do even a minimal amount of research into the information they are providing. As a vet student, you of all people should have made SURE the information you provided was safe and accurate. When someone sees "vet student" they just automatically assume that they know what they are talking about. Just about every person on this forum can attest to the fact that they, and practicing vets as well, don't. I can count on one hand the vet/vet tech/vet student that I've visited who actually knew what they were talking about when it comes to exotics. We've all learned this the hard way, but a noobie reading a site for the first time, looking for information, would probably not have looked any further than the bad information you provided.

You are going to have people suspicious of you now because of that statement about rescues. I don't care if it's bunnies or baboons - it's an unwritten rule that you do not breed rescues, I don't care what reason is behind it. People are going to latch onto that and it's going to be hard for them to forget.

If you want to fix your site, stick around. Review the various forums here and post correct information for people that might visit your site and want to learn. Read through all the FAQs and you'll find a ton of information right there. Then assemble your information, get the facts straight, and get your website up to par. If you're going to provide information to the masses, do it responsibly.

Welcome to CnH.
 
I will say that the OP herself has pretty much lied about everything and anything she can, so her credibility here is nil
This made me laugh because under her avatar is says "Bender of Truth"...doesn't that say it all LMBO...
 
This made me laugh because under her avatar is says "Bender of Truth"...doesn't that say it all LMBO...

I don't know HOW that could have gotten there............ :innocent:
 
Tunes, you are absolutely right about the information. I wrote it based on research and experience, BUT my proofreading of it was pathetic, and that's just negligent on my part. (I didn't think it was ALL that bad -- at least I didn't say something really stupid like suggesting that chinchillas should be fed all guinea pig pellets or something like that -- but even a few errors are a big problem.)

I don't have a **** thing to say about that that can in any way make it better except to say that before I put it back up, I am going to make **** sure that everything on there is 100% accurate. If y'all are willing, I can post it for review here so that the collective experience of those on the board can make sure that it is totally accurate before being put out there to the world.

I've spent the weekend studying for a cardiology exam, so I haven't had time to work on the info yet ... I just took it down for now. But once I get a moment I will go through it with a fine-toothed comb, and post it for review if you guys are willing to have a look at it.

As far as the rescue thing goes ... I have taken that statement down, because it's honestly misleading. I **don't** breed rescues. I can provide peds and background info for all of my breeders (and anyone buying a baby from me will be furnished with a pedigree). I do take in rescues if they need re-homing (in fact, I have a few that need new homes now if anyone is looking ..!) but I do NOT breed them! In fact, they don't even go in the same room as my breeders for health reasons. So, rather than having something ridiculously sketchy and inaccurate on my site, I just removed it.

Aaand as for the OP ... Boy was that weird. And for the record -- I had NO idea that she had intended to breed her hedgehogs (this was never even obliquely mentioned in any of her dozens of emails), but if I had known, I would've canceled the sale just that much earlier. Yikes.
 
Thank you Nirvana for posting your side of the storey. The way the OP posted to HHC led people to believe it was she who decided not to buy from you.

As for breeding rescues, Peggy is right. There is no animal groups that are going to agree that breeding rescues is okay to do.
 
So what's the reason behind not handling them much? Is it a protective mom? Just preference? Or a lie from OP?


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It's alittle hard to sort out truth from fiction in the OP's post... so I don't know when those babies were first handled. That said, in general, momma hedgies are very protective of their babies. Handling babies too early can stress out a momma. And stressed mommas can do things like neglecting or cannibalizing their babies. So, depending on how stressed and protective a momma hedgie is, their human will know to either interact with or stay away from the babies.
 
Yeah I'm aware it's not a option for some mamas, but that's why I was asking said breeder. I just realized the date on this thread... No idea how I came across it. Lol. Thanks for your response

It says on nirvanas profile they were banned?


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