An observation

I have owned rats for the last 4 years and when
I first decided that I wanted them as a pet I also knew I eventually wanted to breed them. When I voiced this desire to the rat community I was almost immediately shunned, with people condemning me as a backyard breeder and how could you bring more animals into this world. Apperantly the only people worthy enough to breed pet rats are the people with thousands of dollars and have been doing it for the last 10 years. If you think you want to breed rats no one will take you seriously unless you apprentice under one of the established breeders. Part of this is good rats have huge litters and there's a lot that are in rescues already but in some places, namely Dallas, Texas there are none of these responsible breeders around. So if you get into that hobby you really can't let anyone know because the top dogs of eat breeding and ownership call you out and no one wants to by from a bad breeder.

Now then what I've noticed within the herp, or atleast the Bp community is that not only do you help new breeders or people interested in breeding but no one seems to be all high and mighty calling out new breeders and telling them how awful they are. I do plan on breeding bps in the future, and I am very glad I've found this community.

I love my rats but I camt stand most of the rat people, they adhere to an incredibly high standard for their pets which is great. Unless you don't keep your pets to the same standard then you are a bad pet owner. I guess I just expected that with an animal that lives longer and costs more the snake people would be even crazier but you aren't and I'm really happy about that. So I guess I just want to thank you guys for being open and accepting of new comers.

Не за что пожалуйста.

Horse people are the same way. If you dare mention thinking about breeding your mare or not castrating your stallion, prepare for an all out flame war.

Seems pretty much all mammal breeding is like that. You have to really work your way up and schmooze the top people to even be considered a good pet owner, let alone a breeder.

For instance, sphynx cats. Don't even utter the word breeding unless you have entered and won like, multiple cat shows, and are apprenticing under the 'big names' in the breed.. get some of their kittens and show absolute devotion to the breed and only the breed for years and years before the respect is earned to breed. Otherwise there is just no trust! :O


But of course, there aren't shelters full of reptiles from over breeding, shelters are there basically for people who just didn't know how to take care of the animal. We aren't seeing the overbreeding we see with pitbulls or other dogs and cats done by anyone too lazy to get their animal fixed. So maybe that's why there is more trust here.

Yeah ... I don't like "rat" people that much.

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Originally Posted by purplemuffin

Seems pretty much all mammal breeding is like that. You have to really work your way up and schmooze the top people to even be considered a good pet owner, let alone a breeder.

For instance, sphynx cats. Don't even utter the word breeding unless you have entered and won like, multiple cat shows, and are apprenticing under the 'big names' in the breed.. get some of their kittens and show absolute devotion to the breed and only the breed for years and years before the respect is earned to breed. Otherwise there is just no trust! :O


But of course, there aren't shelters full of reptiles from over breeding, shelters are there basically for people who just didn't know how to take care of the animal. We aren't seeing the overbreeding we see with pitbulls or other dogs and cats done by anyone too lazy to get their animal fixed. So maybe that's why there is more trust here.

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I think one of the big differences between reptiles and mammals is that it is much easier to keep 10 snakes than 10 dogs and much cheaper. Given that people who keep reptiles are usually stigmatized as well kind of bonds us more as a group. I think this is why we are more accepting of hobby breeders.

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Originally Posted by purplemuffin

Seems pretty much all mammal breeding is like that. You have to really work your way up and schmooze the top people to even be considered a good pet owner, let alone a breeder.

For instance, sphynx cats. Don't even utter the word breeding unless you have entered and won like, multiple cat shows, and are apprenticing under the 'big names' in the breed.. get some of their kittens and show absolute devotion to the breed and only the breed for years and years before the respect is earned to breed. Otherwise there is just no trust! :O


But of course, there aren't shelters full of reptiles from over breeding, shelters are there basically for people who just didn't know how to take care of the animal. We aren't seeing the overbreeding we see with pitbulls or other dogs and cats done by anyone too lazy to get their animal fixed. So maybe that's why there is more trust here.

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As far as I know, it isn't like that for sheeps/goats/cows. Then again, if you get tired of them, you can always take them to the meat market.

Good that you can get info on breeding rats here, eh? :gj:

On a more serious note though, there are major "cultural" differences between breeding reptiles and amphibians vs breeding mammals. The biggest one I figure is in mammal breeding where the mentality is to aim for the best pedigree of show winners from big names where in breeding snakes it's more about the quality of the animal, regardless of who produced it. So if you're a hobby or smaller breeder in the reptile community who consistently puts out nice looking animals, it's easy to build yourself up from that point. Being a generalization it isn't true about all mammal breeders or all reptile breeders, but it seems to be the case most of the time.

As far as I'm concerned, there's not too many rats. My snakes say they could use some more.

Seriously, there's going to be idiots in every hobby. I do know a few breeders that are laid back and cool with someone breeding their pet rats(or even really nice rats). It's just the "show" people normally. They think of each and every rat as the most pampered pet ever. Sometimes I really wonder if those 'show breeders' really do pamper EVERY rat born? Since by the average numbers, they should have several more ratties for sale than they ever admit to, where did the rest go? Perhaps they just find great loving forever homes for them before they say anything about availability.

Dogs, cats, horses, goats, chickens or pythons. If someone is keeping them animals humanely and they have a market for the babies, I don't really care if they breed healthy animals. It's a myth that breeders are the reason behind shelter dogs/cats anyway. The horse market being in the toilet isn't the result of breeders, it's the AR crowd and their stupid laws. Anyone in the horse industry will tell you that. Breeding a horse right now, you'd BETTER be prepared to feed that baby yourself, or have a SUPERB animal being born.

Snakes(reptiles) usually don't need a ton of time from an owner compared to dogs. They usually want food, water, heat and left alone. So if you don't have time to admire your ball python for a couple days, the python couldn't care less. In fact, he's probably happy to be left to his own devices. A dog would go stir crazy and it'd be the beginning of borderline neglect to ignore a dog for a few days at a time(other than food water and shelter). So mammals are perceived as both needing more care and also as more worthy of concern.

There's quite a few rat admirers on this board though. So you can share all your rattie stories and pictures here!

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Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

The horse market being in the toilet isn't the result of breeders, it's the AR crowd and their stupid laws. Anyone in the horse industry will tell you that. Breeding a horse right now, you'd BETTER be prepared to feed that baby yourself, or have a SUPERB animal being born.

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Actually, what I mentioned has come from people in the horse industry. Although, I must say, backyard breeders flooding the market with subpar horses isn't helping.