Why breed?

[Tillygizmo]

Not to ruffle any feathers, but I am wondering what peoples motives for being large ranch breeders are?

From my side of the table, I cant help but to think of all of the chins that need homes that are in rescues and other small animals

I suppose I wonder what I am not seeing??

 

[Ash]

A majority of the 'large rancher breeders' breed for the pelt industry, and they breed to pelt standards.

 

[Stackie]

I'd say most of the people contributing to the rescues are backyard breeders that are just looking to make a quick buck or want cute little babies. Once they find out that they aren't going to make much money, they dump their chins off. These breeders usually do not care about good homes either, so they sell to inadequate owners that also dump their chins off at a rescue or whatever once interest fades.

 

[ABBY W.]

Yes, I would agree most of the chins that end up in rescues got there because of people who buy chinchillas without knowing anything about them, because of how cute they are. Then the owners/breeders get tired of them after a while. Although, more and more I am being contacted by people who have lost their jobs and for one reason or another have to re-home their pets. It's very sad!

 

[SunshineChins]

I'd say most of the people contributing to the rescues are backyard breeders that are just looking to make a quick buck or want cute little babies. Once they find out that they aren't going to make much money, they dump their chins off. These breeders usually do not care about good homes either, so they sell to inadequate owners that also dump their chins off at a rescue or whatever once interest fades.

I have to totally agree with this. I have never gotten in a rescue from a large rancher or someone with serious chinchilla knowledge. All that have been surrendered to me are those that were either bought from petstores or someone thought they were going to make their millions breeding them.

 

[Riven]

Define large breeder, I have 100 animals and to most people that is a lot. If all of the good breeders stopped breeding, the ones who actually care about quality and health, all the good animals and genetics would be lost and idiot people would still breed. Is that what we want for the chinchilla of the future? Sick, unhealthy, fur chewers?

And actually, the pelting market at this time in the US is not the #1 place large ranchers ( with 1000's) of chins sell their offspring, right now the pet market is, at least with the ones I know. While many do pelt, it's not like it used to be, although many still stick by old ways and do not sell for pets. Orginally the theory on not selling lower quality animals ( which usually go for pets, wholesale ( petstores), etc ) was that you will never have lower quality animals produced, because they will be culled out.

 

[Claire D]

If all of the good breeders stopped breeding, the ones who actually care about quality and health, all the good animals and genetics would be lost and idiot people would still breed. Is that what we want for the chinchilla of the future? Sick, unhealthy, fur chewers?

Very well said
We have the same discussions here in the UK and the outcome is the same -some ethical breeders remain who are trying to breed good quality, healthy chinchilla.

 

[SunshineChins]

Define large breeder, I have 100 animals and to most people that is a lot. If all of the good breeders stopped breeding, the ones who actually care about quality and health, all the good animals and genetics would be lost and idiot people would still breed. Is that what we want for the chinchilla of the future? Sick, unhealthy, fur chewers?

And actually, the pelting market at this time in the US is not the #1 place large ranchers ( with 1000's) of chins sell their offspring, right now the pet market is, at least with the ones I know. While many do pelt, it's not like it used to be, although many still stick by old ways and do not sell for pets. Orginally the theory on not selling lower quality animals ( which usually go for pets, wholesale ( petstores), etc ) was that you will never have lower quality animals produced, because they will be culled out.

:clap1:

I agree.. very well said.

 

[MerrittChinchillas]

If you figure out a way to stop bad breeders let me know. When we bought our first chins, way back when, we thought boy this will make us rich. We soon found out that wasn't going to happen. Back then, if you were new no one bought breeding stock from you, it was many years before that happened to us. The natural thing to do was to become a pelt herd, which is what we did. We still are. With the market being what it is right now we are holding our pelts till it rebounds, and it will. When we tell people we have a 135 breeding females they think that is large, we consider large 500 or more. I come on here and other forums and read the posts and wonder why some of these people want to breed. It is money, pure and simple. You can be upset over ranchers who pelt all you want to, but what about unscrupulous breeders who don't care about the species or what happens to the animal? Our chins are well cared for and if they are not our end product(the pelt) is not worth a plug nickel. Which is worse, being pelted or given to a home where it is starved, mistreated, or worse? Think about these things before you decide to breed these beautiful animals.

 

[tunes]

Wait - Vicki - Are you saying you don't watch the classified ads and buy every $20 or $25.00 rescue to breed, so you can build your chinchilla empire?

Nicole! You lied to me! :crazy:

I want to add to what was said as well:

First, the obvious, if everybody stopped breeding you wouldn't have any chins, whether it's through rescue or a private sale.

Second, everybody wants to heap blame on the people who breed chins for the animals being in rescue. I don't sell to rescues. I'm pretty sure other breeders on here don't sell to rescues either. I even go so far as to have a re-homing policy - If you can't keep an animal from me, you ALWAYS have the option of sending it back. There is absolutely no reason for an animal from me to EVER end up in a rescue, unless you're too lazy or too stupid to contact me. It's not like I'm hard to find. Almost every sale I've ever made has come from CnQ. I haven't changed my name, I haven't hidden.

Third, what Nicole said is dead on. If it weren't for the responsible breeders breeding healthy animals, chinchillas would eventually die out from the people who are so incredibly irresponsible with their breeding, who care nothing about the animals or their health issues. Someone I know that used to breed, and thank God does not any more, would sit in the classifieds and wait for people to sell their chins as pet only. She would snap them up as fast as she could and went from 0 to 100 chins seemingly overnight. Every small, misshapen, bad furred, unhealthy animal you would want to see ended up as her "breeders." She'd pay $50.00 for the breeding pair, slap every nasty mutation under the sun together and sell her TOV/white/sc/ec/vc offspring for $300.00 because it had a spot on it's left buttcheek. Is THAT who you want to buy your next pet from? I sure wouldn't.

 

[Terbear24]

Agreed to what tunes said..... any of my chins people are told if they cant keep them they are always welcome back with me. And so also there is no reason for my chins to end up in rescues.

But to answer your question as to why I wanted to breed. I got my first 2 as just pets and thought they were so great and then of course I found this forum then went to some shows and really wanted to get involved. Growing up my mom and I showed collies and I just love I guess the competition, the pride, the excitement. And since my husband and I didnt have time and space to get into dogs... I thought it would be great to get into chinchillas!

 

[MerrittChinchillas]

Gosh no Peggy, i don't want to pay that much for them. :thinking: Yeh, you have to watch Nicole.
I commend all the good young breeders in the industry now and the people who run the rescues. Its to bad there are people out there who run what amounts to a puppy mill, except its chin kits instead. If you are a serious breeder you will buy good stock and go to shows and seminars and learn how to improve them.
I wish I had a chinny empire!:handstogether:

 

[oxchincerelyxo]

Wait - Vicki - Are you saying you don't watch the classified ads and buy every $20 or $25.00 rescue to breed, so you can build your chinchilla empire?

Nicole! You lied to me! :crazy:

I want to add to what was said as well:

First, the obvious, if everybody stopped breeding you wouldn't have any chins, whether it's through rescue or a private sale.

Second, everybody wants to heap blame on the people who breed chins for the animals being in rescue. I don't sell to rescues. I'm pretty sure other breeders on here don't sell to rescues either. I even go so far as to have a re-homing policy - If you can't keep an animal from me, you ALWAYS have the option of sending it back. There is absolutely no reason for an animal from me to EVER end up in a rescue, unless you're too lazy or too stupid to contact me. It's not like I'm hard to find. Almost every sale I've ever made has come from CnQ. I haven't changed my name, I haven't hidden.

Third, what Nicole said is dead on. If it weren't for the responsible breeders breeding healthy animals, chinchillas would eventually die out from the people who are so incredibly irresponsible with their breeding, who care nothing about the animals or their health issues. Someone I know that used to breed, and thank God does not any more, would sit in the classifieds and wait for people to sell their chins as pet only. She would snap them up as fast as she could and went from 0 to 100 chins seemingly overnight. Every small, misshapen, bad furred, unhealthy animal you would want to see ended up as her "breeders." She'd pay $50.00 for the breeding pair, slap every nasty mutation under the sun together and sell her TOV/white/sc/ec/vc offspring for $300.00 because it had a spot on it's left buttcheek. Is THAT who you want to buy your next pet from? I sure wouldn't.

:thumbsup: enough said...

 

[Diva Chins]

Ah man, this brings back memories.
I do agree. If it wasn't for good breeders who practiced good ethics, we'd have a ton of TOV Pink White v/c e/c s/c running around with even more people breeding thinking "Oh this is easy, nah, my female won't attack my male, my female would never turn on her kits, no way kits could get stuck in the birthing canal, nope, I'm too lucky! Vet? Who needs one, they're just a buncha quacks. They do it in the wild, why can't they do it in a cage?"
Most of the rescues I personally took in (A total of 4, not many buuuut I can still say I've helped a few), 3 of them came from an exotic pet sale with only God knows who as a breeder, and my latest was a pet store buy that got passed back onto another pet store to which an employee took home that got passed onto me. No idea on his background otherwise. I shudder to think, this boy as a fur chewer, might have gotten snatched up by someone wanting to breed "Oh what's that patch on his back? Oh! Too late, humping has commensed, worry later babies now."
And also, if humans suddenly stopped producing, we'd slowly die out, same thing with animals. While chins are (From what I saw on another thread) almost extinct in the wild, that's just as much initiative to keep these beautiful, gorgeous, unique creatures going as best perfect to the ideal of the original chinchilla. Breed to better the species, breed to enhance the attributes that makes the chinchilla, the chinchilla.
I don't think breeders sit there and think "Oooh boy! I wonder which rescue this chinchilla is going to." Or "Ha! I bet this'll end up at a desperately over crowded rescue in ____!" They breed hoping and praying and trusting that their babies will go to a good knowledgeable home, hoping that whoever it was had the decency to think "Exotic animal aye? Maybe I should research that."
And that, in my opinion, is why they breed.

 

[ABBY W.]

I totally agree! When someone contacts me about chins the first thing I do is send them a booklet on care. I correspond extensively by email, and insist on an in person visit BEFORE the pickup. If anyone doesn't want to comply with these conditions, they aren't getting one of my babies. I, and most of the hobby breeders I know, love these animals like kids, and want only the best homes for them.

 

[starleomach]

Wether you pelt or not all breeders should strive to breed to pelting standards...those are some beautiful animals. I hope to get my sapphires up to those standards although I will never pelt

 

[Raela]

Tillygizmo, I was wondering about this same issue and I am so glad you asked. Everything everyone has said makes perfect sense, and I completely understand why breeding is still going on. I just wish, as I am sure all of you do, that there weren't so many awful fly by the seat of their pants idiot breeders. Every time I go on craigslist I want to scream through my computer at people. Their were no less than 3 idiots in the Portland, Vancouver area selling male/female pairs last week that would make "wonderful pets for children" and are "so easy to care for"!