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Post by crazymouse on Jul 19, 2006 22:38:02 GMT 7
Firstly, like what Jas said, you NEVER SAID YOU WANTED TO BREED. If you had said before, we would have adviced you about which to breed. 2 main gerbils breeders are breeding and they supply to every petshop.... but how do we know they are inbred? Which petshop they supply to? Even a petshop is now asking us to supply to them but we don't coz it will spoil the lineage.
We are concern about the breeding line, the colour variety. Fine, breed lilacs... but agoutis? They are the most common colours.... Pets Wonderland still has Agoutis for sale for such a long time. Ask pet shops in Petaling street, they avoid selling gerbils coz no one interested in agouti colours. Blacks also the same. So for people getting from me, I let them have agoutis and blacks as pet quality.... if for breeding they get nutmegs, lilacs, DEH... anything that can improve colour quality. So if you had said sooner that you willing to breed for a good cause, you can have nicer gerbils lah.
Making this pet popular is not easy. Look at what happened to hamsters? All mixbreed, there is not colour quality anymore.... us breeders here trying to breed out colour variety, not just to feed the market demand.
We 3 breeders here work closely with each other. Word goes around when someone keeps asking for gerbils. Already 3 others working on breeding with the help from us. Gerbils only recently became in demand as 10 years ago they were bred for snakes. Can always ask the petshops in petaling street that sold gerbils long ago.... we are just concern that people take advantage and start breeding and selling to earn fast money.
Since you are truthful now, we all view you in a different light.
"screw with having only 3 so call big all mighty breeders in Malaysia"
Are we mighty? Did we call ourselves big gerbil breeders in Malaysia? We are only the few that come up than be quiet breeders only. We are still learners.... we get oversea breeders to advice and help us. We ask and we learn. We tell them our intentions and they give us advice. I have asked people to scout gerbils for me in Seremban, Malacca and Penang.... that was year 2004 and no petshop had them..... Taman Megah was the current supplier in year 2004.
Now there is a breeding craze... did you not notice? Everyone buying hamsters in pairs from the same petshop, people getting sugar gliders in opposite sex pairs.... rabbits in pairs... and what happens to the offspring? Sold off to petshops and this goes on and on and on till all also inbreed. So it is only natural for us to protect our gerbils in falling into the wrong type of breeders. We just feel protective... coz gerbils are like our own children.
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Post by crazymouse on Jul 19, 2006 22:40:29 GMT 7
yes there r too many ppl posting as ' HELP!!! MY GERBIL HAS BABIES!! WHAT SHOULD I DO!!??' i hope we don't see this kind of posting in any Gerbil Forum in here... Hahah... I see this in some Singaporean forums and international forums... yah loh, same with me, Don't want to see this happening. |
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Post by Nezumitaro on Jul 19, 2006 23:02:34 GMT 7
yes always think y these ppl so stupid.. sometime tot not to answer them.. but pity the animals only ai.. still layan...
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Post by reanne on Jul 20, 2006 3:33:24 GMT 7
Yes, there may be only a handful of gerbil owners or breeders that are active in forums but that is an irreponsible excuse to breed. I am very surprised at the growing interest in gerbils recently. When I got my first gerbil, Rin, there was completely no demand for gerbils and she was the first gerbil I saw in person. This does show that the hobby is slowly but steadily rising. If you are severely affected by this, then maybe you can try to organize an event to raise awareness, as many common modern day pets are misunderstood. You do not need more people to be hooked into the hobby to enjoy your stay in the forums. The people here are resourceful, informative and at least are aware of the basics of breeding. I do not think they will refuse to help if you ask for their advise and guidance. Potential breeders will have a lower chance of being turned down compared to massbreeders because they can still sell face to face with individual customers. I also prefer knowing who I sell to personally. The internet is only one way of selling and advertising. If a breeder stays silent, then they cannot really be considered as breeders because 'breeders' need to sell off at least 60% of their offspring to cover the costs of food, bedding and housing unless they are filthy rich. Hidden breeders? Hmm... Mayb someone who has purchased a pair of gerbils and started a colony. Then they ended up with too many offspring and finally sold them to pet stores. There is such a thing as 'breeder ethics' that a responsible and more cautious breeder follows. These breeders will also take the colour and body structures to be improved upon. Breeding should be done to improve from the previous generation with careful planning and judgement. Every breeder should also have goals in breeding to improve on features, colours, body etc of the animal. If they say the colour doesn't match, it means that the colours do not compliment each other and if mixed can result in poor quality in the colour. (unwanted mutant loci) There are also certain colour combos(mutations) that should be avoided due to several reasons such as jeopardising their health. Mass destruction of gerbils? It's already happening to hamsters, there is a high chance of it happening to gerbils in the near future if people also intend to breed for the hobby to 'grow'. Use a brain chart to list the consequences of that and the list will go on and on..... No one here is victimising you, judging you or treating you as 'second class'. We are all here to help and guide you. I am sure that many of us are growing tired of answering questions and giving the same advise over and over again, but most of us do not mind because this is done for the wellfare of the gerbils. Hope you enjoy your stay here.  |
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Post by Nezumitaro on Jul 20, 2006 10:34:54 GMT 7
thanks for understnading Reanne... |
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Post by reanne on Jul 21, 2006 2:51:02 GMT 7
No prob  Sometimes there are just things that need to be said. Do you actually know how much hassle it is to import animals? Especially in large scale? Even if they did have the power to do so, the stress alone can kill half the stock. This is not counting after they've arrived because after arrival, they need to adjust to a completely new environment and the stress adds on. Reasons like these boosts the retail price sky high to cover costs and since everybody wants cheap, maybe some money-minded dumbnut will buy a few and breed them to make up for the demand for 'cheap' pets. Do you seriously think this guy will care if the gerbils are overbred? Whether they are receiving enough nutrition to sustain a healthy litter? Or whether they are siblings? The answer is NO. As long as there are enough gerbils to go around, anything to them is 'boleh lah'! And whether you want to believe it or not, these sad people do refer to themselves as 'BREEDERS' because their true title 'MASSBREEDERS' speaks for itself. As I have said before, the active breeders here are the people that actually care about the pups that die, the mothers that are getting thin when nursing and to avoid inbreeding as much as they can. We stain our hands with the blood of the newborns who never make it to ensure the ones that do, go to loving homes or contribute to the future generations of their species. We do fear that if people continue on this 'trend' of breeding for (I repeat) irresponsible reasons, it will not only further spoil the already spoiled market, with lack of knowledge in breeding, preparation and research, you are already putting blood on your hands however insignificantly small and pink it is, the fact that it is still a 'Life' should not be taken lightly. We are dirtying our hands to provide wellbred, healthy and wonderful pets for you, why dirty your own unnecessarily? For what? Just to see little pink things stumbling about? For the fun of it? Educational purposes? To earn extra $$$? What a pile of bull. If you want to breed, do it properly and for the right reasons. Updates from our past-buyers saying "how much they love their pet, how smart they are and what cute thing they did today" are the greater joy of breeding and is one of the things that give us the motivation to go on and pursue this wonderful hobby further. Oh yeah, we breed for quality, not quantity. Have a nice day. : ) |
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Post by Nezumitaro on Jul 21, 2006 8:10:02 GMT 7
yes breeding is really not easy.... if someone is doing it, i may stop breeding n wait for their goodie...
we hv to count their genes everyday. counting how many days more the mum will give birth, make sure tank is clean for them. when to seperate them. always worried something wrong with the pup since they born. etc etc... more n more tanks to clean, more n more gerbil pups to tame.
when the pups are not well feed, i hv to hand feed them since 2 days old. they r smaller than my little finger.. hv to feed them milk, then wipe their mouth.. feed again, wipe agaiin.. this repeat everyday... until they refuse to drink milk.. n start eating n drink from bottle..
all of the time n love we spend.. even rehome them to a good hand, its still heart breaking.. imagine u put ur pup on the table.. she will struggle n run crazily until they found ur hand, n they immedially sleep in ur palm... will u simply push the pups away?
n selling these pups don't make money at all!!!! its just help part of the expenses.. even everyone can count.. how many pups are available a mth? how much i got to spend on my 6 tanks? of cos i don't expect the money can cover how much i spend.. n i know it canot... i even spend more on them after i sale some of them...
provide them good quality food is what i can do the best for them, tame every single pups everyday no matter how tired i am....
i am not telling ppl how good i am, cos i am still learning n gerbils r the 1st small animal to me. but hope ppl will know how much time they need to spend on the animal if they start breeding.. unless they just dump them in n breed n only take out for sale 2 mths later.. then i hv nothing to say...
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Post by farshagerbilclan on Jul 23, 2006 10:19:27 GMT 7
Just to add , If u start to breed you must have all the essentials ... ESP : TANKS ... and i mean a lot of them ... If you only have 1 pair and 1 tank ... its not good enuf .... You need 3-4 tanks for a pair ... 1 is for the breeding pair , 1 is for the male pups you want to sell/rehome , 1 is for the female pups you want to sell/rehome ... The last one is optional , for the pups you want to keep ... Its also expensive to breed any animal ... I've spent over S$100 on my gerbs per month ... For the food , extra water bottles , toys , hay/grass and sand baths ... Its really $$$ consuming and time consuming ... So please , think carefully before u breed ... Pls do your homework 1st .... Read up the gerbil sites ...
Cheers
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Post by reanne on Jul 25, 2006 21:54:08 GMT 7
You know, it saddens us when we see people who bought from us suddenly without warning, selling the offspring at a lower price in the same forum or area that we frequent. It's like you believe that you have just given your hams or gerbils a good home.... Then they breed them without telling you and suddenly post the babies up for sale, and in turn, become your competitors... It gives us an unpleasant shock and a lingering feeling of betrayal... At least let us know, so we'll know what to expect.
If this scenario continues to repeat itself, we breeders will not be able to cover the costs to maintain our animals and will either have to sell them dirt cheap(which not many caring breeders will do), to petstores or stop breeding altogether. This brings everything back to square one where all the hams and gerbils in the market are of mishmashed colours and have poor body structure as well as terrible health. Let's not leave out the poor temperaments too.
In short, all our efforts will be wasted.
Edit : My friend's syrian hamster just died 2 days ago. It wasn't even a year old yet. Was bought from Petstore. Most of her hams were from petstores and their lifespans were very short, about less than a year.
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Post by Nezumitaro on Aug 16, 2007 7:57:41 GMT 7
** SOLD **
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