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Rant.

4.2K views 24 replies 13 participants last post by  shmurciakova  
#1 ·
Okay so I'm just YouTubing and I come across this "breeder" and he thinks he's just the most amazing person ever. Says mesh wheels are fine. Says hedgehog food is perfect. Breeds animals he doesn't even know the gender of. Keeps a brother and sister together at 2 months 1 week.


Come on! Get ur act together man! If you can't give your animals the best then don't breed them and give people bad info! Seriously!

Omg had to. If you wanna know his youtube account(s!) Just PM me and I'll tell ya. Makes me so angry!!
 
#7 ·
I can understand your anger at the youtube user...they're really a piece of work. I looked at one of the videos and in the comments he made hedgies sound like very low maintenence pets that 'anyone can take care of'. I made a point of correcting him and explaining how hard work hedgies are, and of linking them to LizardGirl's book.

The pinkies though, there's nothing wrong with that. I've heard of a lot of people doing them. Animals eating other baby animals happens in the wild all the time. They're nutritious and the hedgies love them.
 
#8 ·
I think it's the feeding live part. At least that would be what bothers me.
Have you actually seen a hedgie eat a pinkie? They tend to chew a bit, spit out, chew and gnaw some more. I personally could not subject a live pinkie to that.
I have no problems with feeding whole or freshly killed. I'd just feel sorry for the pinkie if the hedgie decides to chew from the back end first.
 
#9 ·
This guy is very uneducated and has no idea what he is doing. He keeps his hedgehogs in less then ideal conditions. He lets them free feed, gives them crappy food, wrong wheel, keeps wheel in with nursing mom and I'm pretty sure he has them on cedar shavings if I'm not mistaken. It's hard to tell though. I have tried giving this person information on what to do right and he is not receptive. In one of his other videos he has all the baby hoglets in the sink practically drowning because the water is so high. When he drains the water the poor hedgehogs are completely exhausted. I was really upset when I seen that video.

I'm not sure what to do. Maybe someone else can try getting trough to him..
 
#12 ·
I've tried to talk to him about the way he operates I got no response. I had never heard of the pinky thing til I saw it, then I looked into it more as other people do it for extra protein or pregnant mamas.


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#14 ·
Euthanizing a pinkie humanely in a CO2 chamber is near impossible due to the fact that they require so little oxygen - an evolutionary development based on having to cram under their mother's body. Because of this, the only ways to kill pinkies is a blow to the head (which would be messy, and they are not sold like that), or frozen to death. Would you rather be frozen to death slowly or killed quickly by a bite? I don't like feeding live, though in some cases the only way a baby snake will eat and survive is by live offering. With hedgehogs, I agree that frozen/thawed would be preferred, but I can't say that I am entirely against it for high moral standards.

As for feeding pinkies themselves, it is safe in moderation. I see so many arguments against pinkies for uninformed reasons, and I urge you to please view my thread on the nutritional value of pinkies, which can actually be quite good when you know what you're feeding.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=20959&hilit=+pinkie
 
#21 ·
Christemo said:
I would stay away from any f/t mice from the southeastern part of the US right now. There's been at least 15 snake deaths from some distributers down there and they're in the process of finding out who they got them from.
Where is your source for this information? I'm active on multiple snake forums, other reptile forums, and have contacts with breeders throughout the country. I have not heard anything about this. Can you link me?
 
#23 ·
I wasn't talking about the feeding pinkies part of it, I just meant if it was a case of a guy breeding irresponsibly, not giving correct advice (i.e. mesh wheels), etc....maybe they should bring it to the attention of HWS instead of posting about it here, where we really can't do much if anything about it.
 
#24 ·
This isn't a HWS issue as Nancy has stated in a previous post. He actually posted a new video with better information on hedgehogs. He seems to have learned a little since his previous videos. Please keep in mind some of his previous videos are a few years old.

He isn't abusing or neglecting his animals. Sure he might have them in less then ideal cages but its not a crime that HWS can do anything about.

Yes he is irresponsibly breeding, free feeding and keeping older siblings together but in his newer video he has some correct information in it, far better then the last. Hopefully he has learned to keep siblings apart after they reach maturity, that was my biggest concern.

This is one of the videos that makes me quite upset: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7LRZkIj ... 1B&index=4
The hoglets are practically drowning. The water is coming up to their eyes, no doubt its getting in their ears as well..

This is his newer video with updated information:
 
#25 ·
OK, well, when I first replied to the post I hadn't watched the video. I have seen this guys videos before and actually found some of them to be helpful. You are right, that I don't think this guy is abusing hedgehogs or needs to be reported, although I do not know anything about him. The post was a bit alarmist and I reacted to it. As for the HWS, I did not mean that they would do anything about it per se, I only meant they could advise the person who complained about this in the first place, what, if anything, could be done about it...... :?