Before You Breed

During our years in the animal world, we've seen what can happen when someone starts breeding without thoroughly considering the decision. Adult animals end up neglected. Babies receive little - if any - handling, so are poorly socialized. And, sooner or later, the person regrets the choice to breed. Before long, bonded adult pairs get split up, critters that were originally pets are given away, the quality of care deteriorates and worse. Sometimes, much worse.

A Bad Example

A while back, we received a phone call from a woman who had just gotten four pair of adult sugar gliders, some with pouch babies. This woman had, quite frankly, made some of the biggest mistakes possible in buying any animal, especially breeding stock.

By the time she contacted us, the adults had gone through the stress of shipping (some with pouch babies) and adjusting to a new environment. The gliders had been randomly put into pairs. One of the females had lost her litter. Another litter had been destroyed by the male in the cage, which was obviously not the father. They were also being fed an extremely poor diet of frozen vegetables, canned fruit, parrot seed mix and cat food.

What was most upsetting, however, was that the woman wasn't interested in providing quality care for the adults or determining why the babies had died. She didn't want to hear our feeding recommendations. She wasn't licensed to sell exotic mammals and didn't care about this requirement. In fact, all she wanted to know was how soon the babies could be weaned, how to go about selling them, and how much to charge!

For the sake of the animals, I gave the best advice I could. However, as I hung up the phone, I doubted any of my suggestions would be followed.

Before bringing any new critter into your home, it is important to understand the animal's needs. Health, prior care and the animal's history are important with any pet, but even more so if you plan on breeding. You will only be successful if you start with quality animals and provide them the best possible care.

For more on this topic, visit Before You Buy.

Start At The Beginning

To provide quality care, you must have quality knowledge. For this reason, we strongly recommend not beginning with a breeding pair. Get one or two same-sex animals and spend some time getting to know their needs and habits. No amount of research can replace this practical, "hands-on" experience. Later, if you decide you want to proceed, get breeding stock or mates for your original critters.

If you're committed to breeding responsibly, you should be willing to take the extra time this will require, allowing you to continue learning as you go and avoiding many common mistakes - such as buying inferior animals in a rush to start or expand a breeding program, having more babies than customers, and becoming overextended in regards to time, space or money.

On the other hand, going slow may give you time to decide breeding was not the right decision for you...before your home is full of breeding stock and their babies!

Some questions to ask yourself before you decide to breed:

For more on this topic, visit The Exotic Factor.

Making The Decision

If after giving the above honest consideration, you decide that breeding is the right choice for you, please keep these points in mind:

Do The Math

If you are interested in breeding, your motivation is hopefully the animals. However, we strongly encourage you to be realistic about the expenses involved. Consider this example, for a hobby breeder with two pair of sugar gliders:

  Income Expense
Annual Sales
Based on 2 litters per female, 2 joeys per litter at $150 each		$1200 
Annual USDA License Fee  $100
Annual Vet House Call
Required by the USDA		  $150
Annual Feeding Costs  $800
Cost of Other Consumables  $200
Surprise Costs
There's always something!		  $100
Total Income $50 

A Tip From Toby

When doing the math, you may be tempted to increase the size of your breeding program. This means you'll have more babies to sell. Also, some expenses are fixed and others wouldn't go up significantly. So you'd actually make money, right?

Well, maybe. But only if you sell all the babies. The more babies you have, the more customers you need. Until you develop a customer base, more animals simply mean more expenses.

In this example, most of the expenses are low estimates. Initial costs for breeding stock, housing and equipment are not included. Also, keep in mind that if you start with young animals, you'll have fewer babies the first year.

With that meager $50 income, you'll need to cover these additional expenses:

By the time these additional costs are covered, you've lost money.

If you're a hobby breeder, you probably couldn't deduct any of these costs as business expenses, but the gross income would still be taxable. If you're a "real" business, you can only declare a loss for three of the first five years. Then the IRS considers your activity to be a hobby.

For more on this, consult your accountant. Then, add that fee to this growing list of expenses.

The Name Game

When you start looking for breeding stock, you're likely to encounter various terms which can be used differently. The generally accepted definitions are:

You are likely to pay more for an animal which is proven or experienced, so be sure to ask the seller exactly what is meant by the use of these terms. Request breeding records and relevant history on any animal you buy. Also, ask why the seller is willing to part with quality breeding stock.

Finally, remember that just because an animal is a proven breeder does not mean the animal will ever breed for you - just that the animal has done so in the past.

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