This is why I say breeding is a selfish act.Except that responsible breeding is done to better the health, longevity, and temperament of a breed and a reputable breeder is lucky to break even let alone make money off of breeding.
Many of my *responsibly bred* rats have been freely given to me by their breeders also. Not because there’s anything wrong with the rats [well, one of them I took on as a special case, but she’s irrelevant to this] or the breeders can’t find someone else to home them or anything like that. But despite the cost it takes to care for and breed rats responsibly, some don’t like charging money for people [non-human people, yes] who’re essentially family. I tend to donate to a charity [usually the NERS Rescue Fund] instead.
Even responsible rat breeders who do charge for kittens, they’re nowhere near going to cover the cost of the decision to breed. That is the care of the litter in question, let alone the costs involved with caring for the numbers required to breed in an ethically responsible manner. A couple of years ago, a good friend of mine who breeds rats told me that the money she makes from selling babies very rarely even covers the costs of feeding the mum and babies for 7 weeks. Tangent: I know in the US it’s normal to home rats out younger, but in the UK the NFRS states 6 weeks minimum, with breeders who have slower-maturing lines using 7 weeks as minimum.
The only way to breed rats and make any money at all from it involves breeding malnourished unstimulated babies (and probably kill-culling too) from malnourished unstimulated overcrowded adults who aren’t given more than basic medical attention. Extra money for you if you’re being dickish and charging more for some varieties than others. If you want to breed rats responsibly, you need to be prepared to lose a lot of your own money. And that’s while noting that rats don’t even have the available health tests that larger species have access to.
It’s incorrect, wrong and downright unfair to lump all breeders together. Anyone who sticks a boy and a girl together and gets babies is technically a breeder; that doesn’t mean every breeder should be supported just as much as it doesn’t mean every breeder should be unsupported. You need people ‘clearing up’ the problems caused by irresponsible breeding and farms, but you also need people working from the other side to promote longterm benefits and change.
Choosing A High Quality Pet Food.
Not all pet food is made equally. A lot of it is full of corn, by-products, dyes, unhealthy preservatives, filler grains and all sorts of nasty stuff. A lot of pet food companies are perfectly happy to the dump cheap leftovers and things that aren’t safe for human consumption (from human food processing plants) into their foods. Will it kill your pet? No, it has to be nutritionally complete and safe to even be marketed. Is it healthy? Not by a long shot.
Corn is a low quality ingredient you never want to see in your pet food. Corn and low quality grains are two of the biggest culprits when it comes to food allergies in our pets.
Thankfully, there are some excellent pet foods being made these days that include organic, human grade ingredients rather than trash not fit for human consumption.
Examples of low quality foods to avoid: Anything you can find in a grocery store will be low end, Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Pedigree, Whiskas, Friskies, Kibbles n’ Bits, Meow Mix, Beneful, Fancy Feast, Ol’Roy.
Examples of high quality foods to look for: Wellness, Solid Gold, Canidae All Life Stages (for dogs), Felidae (for cats), Fromm Four Star, Merrick, GO Natural, Nature’s Variety Prairie, Nature’s Logic, Artemis Fresh Mix, Timberwolf Organics (for dogs).A whole lot more past the read more break.
[TRIGGER WARNING: Animal abuse, animal cruelty]
Last year I received a video showing Cesar Millan (aka the “dog whisperer”) hanging a husky who was ill-behaved. This treatment of a sentient being named Shadow sickened me and I soon discovered that many others also were horrified by this so-called “training” session. (For further discussion please see Mark Derr’s “Pack of Lies.”)
Commcercial Kibble Realities by *sassawj
A good question for dog owners - Do you realize what you’re feeding your dog? What about your cat?
Here you can see a bag of the dog food brand Beneful, with a oddly colored German Shepherd Dog tilting his head in curiosity / confusion, and a bowl of what is supposed to be bone meal, ground corn and corn syrup, which are all prime ingredients in brands like Beneful, Iams and Pedigree and the like.
I have a long ass list of educational drawings / paintings & comics I want to complete in effort to raise awareness on certain pet / dog / cat / animal related issues that many people have no knowledge of; a very long list.
Anyway, let’s talk commercial dog and cat food…
Please sign to campaign for bittering agents to be added to antifreeze.
Unlike many toxins it tastes sweet to cats, yet only a tiny amount is fatal.
There is no reason for manufacturers not to do this.
Please sign and repost so that fewer animals suffer such a horrific, painful death.
Thank you.
xxx
Parrots And Snakes As Pets?
There seems to be some debate on keeping these animals as pets, so I want to know what everyone thinks. Should parrots and snakes be kept as pets?
Here’s my two cents:
Parrots: Unless the person is an extremely good owner and has an aviary (aviary! not a cage, no matter how large) that is large enough for the bird to actually fly in, and is prepared to spend thirty+ years living with, training, and entertaining the parrot, then they shouldn’t be keeping it.
Also, the problem of wild-caught parrots comes into play. Unless we as a society can reliable make sure that parrots are (humanely, safely, and responsibly) captive-born and not wild-caught, we shouldn’t be keeping them as pets. They are extremely intelligent, and shouldn’t be kept by just anyone, and wild-caught birds should stay wild.
And that sounds like an oxymoron, how can we have captive-born parrots if we don’t capture wild ones? but I believe there are enough captive birds to form a breeding population for pets, and if there aren’t, they shouldn’t be kept as pets anyways and the only ones breeding them should be conservation centers.
IN THE END since it’s a big deal when dealing with parrots, and most people would not be up to the challenge of keeping parrots as pets, they probably should not be pets.
Snakes: …I don’t understand why there’s a debate on snakes? Snakes by nature don’t need area to roam - if they have a reliable food source and water source they aren’t going to be traipsing about the country getting into wild hijinks. I certainly wouldn’t want people keeping poisonous or highly exotic snakes but snakes like corn snakes, garter snakes, rat snakes, and even the red-tail boas aren’t problematic. The problem comes from people who get a small snake and don’t think their purchase through (and that problem occurs in all pet animal areas).While snakes need special care, they aren’t that difficult to take care of (as long as you don’t try to make them vegetarians or feed them only chicken nuggets). Most pet snakes are also captive-bred, meaning they have dispositions more suited to being pets, their genetics are known, and they aren’t being captured in the wild.
I can agree with having to get a license to own snakes (not all states/cities do) but otherwise I don’t see what the problem would be with owning them if the owner is responsible and does what they’re supposed to do. (and doesn’t keep more than one snake housed together seriously people snakes eat other snakes)
(via the-wolf-father)
Parrots And Snakes As Pets?
There seems to be some debate on keeping these animals as pets, so I want to know what everyone thinks. Should parrots and snakes be kept as pets?
Finally, a solid idea for pet-sitting…
Sites cater to canine couch surfers
(CNN) — Does your dog object to vacationing in a cage? Can’t count on your brother-in-law to commit to dog-sitting for two weeks? Now there are home stay websites for four-legged creatures.
Frustrated with kennels that keep dogs cooped up and charge extra for petting and walks, the founders of DogVacay.com and Rover.com are connecting dog lovers who want to earn extra cash with travelers who want dog-friendly people to care for their pets close to home while they’re away.
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(via magicalnaturetour)
No-kill?
There seems to be this idea that no-kill shelters don’t kill any animals. At all. Like, not even un-adoptable animals. Not even animals that are sick/hurt/suffering (aka animals that really need to be euthanized to end their suffering), or have severe behavioral issues or… whatever. Is this true?
Because I was under the impression that they still euthanize animals that have no chance of adoption and animals that require euthanasia because they are suffering, they just don’t euthanize healthy, adoptable animals.
