So..."my aunt" wants a pet

ladysown · Jun 17, 2012

That was the original email.

it was followed up with .... but I'm wondering about breeding them....

Background: this young lass has purchased three young sows from me (guinea pigs) in the last month.

My response was, that's fine..but before I sell your aunt a pet (in this case a rescued boar), I need to know that you have done your research.

Gave this list of questions to the young lass

1. how old do your sows (girls) need to be before attempting to breed them?
2. what if you can't sell the young?
3. what kind of things can go wrong in a pregnancy?
4. what will you do with pups whose mom dies?
5. at what age do you wean the young?
6. can you run the boar with the sows all the time? (do you want to?)

think I should have asked more? These were just questions to get her started, and to make sure she is thinking things through...

-HRanchito · Jun 18, 2012

Sounds good. I like the idea of quizzing your prospective buyers. Some dog breeders even put quizzes up on their websites for getting put on their puppy waiting list http://www.arvaypugs.com/submissions.php?id=1 There's one off the top of my head. (I bet if you even mention breeding you fail that quiz!)

Would the rescued boar be a good breeding companion for those ladies? It's obvious the aunt thing is just a front so as not to scare you off. Perhaps you could point her in the direction of a nicer stud so she isn't stuck with poor quality animals from her breeding endeavors. Or just don't sell to her if you can't do it in good conscience after the quiz results are in. :lol:

ladysown · Jun 18, 2012

for pet stock, he'll be just fine. For showing...absolutely not. My concern with spontaneous breeders is they won't know what to do with their overflow. Guinea pigs don't sell well at certain times of the year, that's just reality and new to breeding folks often don't take that into account.