Breedings Easy In'it

I don’t mind giving advice over the phone helping people and their animals, l do it all the time. In certain cases though l get angry that people, in easily remedied situations, have not taken the time to do their own basic homework.

I had 6 phone calls between 04:00 and 06:00am the other day. The woman was hysterical about her bitch giving birth. I told her at one point to “put her husband on who l could hear in the background and sounded less upset. Then go and make coffee, bake a cake, anything that got her OUT of the area the bitch was giving birth as she was winding the bitch up screaming and crying over her, hugging her and poking her and she [bitch] would probably kill the puppies”

“Oh dear, oh no oh my god l didn’t realise l was causing a problem” followed by more crying and howling down the phone. She handed the phone over for this call but did all the rest.

None of the calls were quick all needed Q and A and repeating of A as she wasn’t listening properly. There was no complications just people who had not taken the time to learn. The calls kept dragging me away from the inpatients, genuine cases that l was trying to deal with.

The vet took the 7th call as my arms were full of an injured cat it was to tell him the puppies were suckling and wasn’t it exciting, then she put the phone down. The vet looked at the phone like it had bitten him and, then looked at me and said “What was all that about”?

Was it wonderful, no actually it wasn’t, we were dealing with a genuine emergency who were more important than some woman who should have taken her time to do her basic breeders homework. Who couldn’t deal with the basics of a bitch giving birth normally and who stressed her [bitch] to almost reject the puppies, and interfered with the care of genuinely ill patients because of her lack of fore thought.

If you insist on breeding your dog or cat you should at least learn the very basics about what goes on. Instead the vast majority of people look at an average litter, add a couple of extra babies (optimism).
They then look at what new things they want, after all, why use the money to pay off debts.
They look for the cheapest pedigree stud of the breed needed available, preferably their own male but if not any close ones will do.
Unless you want a cross breed litter with a fancy name then any old mutt or moggie, will do.
Finally they take a calculator and work out how much to charge for each puppy/kitten.

It is no excuse to say that it was an unplanned litter and giggle about how exciting it is and how you wonder what is going to happen or be shocked at what does. If you know the bitch is pregnant deal with it, properly. If the bitch or queen is not neutered learn what can happen, you know that bird and bee stuff naughty sex. If your bitch gets a sudden weight gain and they have been in season a couple of months before what did you assume…they ate doughnuts DUH!
Yes, l had that said to me once that they thought the bitch had eaten some doughnuts lying around.

The checklist below is in no particular order; The majority of questions below are not all the questions, just some basic ones the “breeders” wouldn’t even think to look into and if they do, they ignore the question as it would cost money or time or effort or all 3. After all animals have babies all the time so what's the problem...in'it

Should you look into the various birthing stages and what happens?
Yes…ignore

Should the animals (male and female) have any tests for genetic problems?
Yes…ignore

Should you check the family history of the dam and sire to avoid inbreeding?
Yes…Ignore

Should the mother be wormed pre and during and post pregnancy and the pups?
Yes…ignore

Should there be no fleas about (these can suck usually kitten’s dry of blood)?
Yes…Ignore

Should the mother be vaccinated?
Yes...ignore

Should the homes be checked?
Yes…ignore

Should the mother and the pups be fed on good quality food?
Yes…ignore

Should you look at buying in milk substitute and feed bottles in case needed?
Yes…Ignore

Should you look up information on how to hand raise puppies/kittens?
Yes…Ignore

Should you look into the cost of a caesarean and other vets fees?
Yes…Ignore

Should you look into the post birth problems of mothers?
Yes…ignore

Should you know how old the mother should be bred from till?
Yes…Ignore

Should you make sure the dam and sire are fit and healthy?
Yes…Ignore

Should you only breed at responsible times? i.e. Not at Christmas
Yes…Ignore

Should they make up stupid names and charge a fortune for cross breeds?
Yes… Confirm

Should they make sure their pedigree is registered with the kennel club so they can give out paperwork to charge as much as possible?
Yes…Confirm

Should you advertise as cheaply as possible to make as much money as possible?
Yes…Confirm

See you checked the important things yes; breeding animals couldn’t be easier, now just sit back and wait for the money to roll in.