And in my area, buying from a breeder means making the trip to Valley View.
No it doesn't. It means you're not willing to go to a better breeder because it's not convenient for you. I drove 16 hours one way to buy chins, and I'll do it again if the need arises. You won't die if you have to get in your car and drive. People do it all the time.
Finding good breeders is not easy, and you don't find them through the avenues you find other small animal breeders.
How would you know? All you talk about is hamsters. There are plenty of good breeders who have chins, and they are hardly hiding under rocks. Bowens Chinchillas is in California. I don't care where in California you are located, that would be a trip worth making if you really do want to breed quality chins and not just argue to argue.
I have little doubt in my area that there are far more backyard/casual breeders than show breeders. Really the only model accepted in the show community is to find a rancher to mentor you, buy their animals, and do what they tell you to do. To learn beyond that rancher, drive hundreds of miles to attend a show. It's not hard to see why few breeders follow that path. Around here among "normal" pet people, Valley View has a very good reputation. Bowens is only a few hours from them, but except for this list, I haven't found many people who have heard of them let alone purchased from them. They much prefer Valley View.
You are taking what you want out of the posts being given, and being deliberately obtuse about it. Nobody said the only way to do it was to find A rancher, buy THEIR animals, and do only what THEY say. If you only buy your animals from one rancher, you're an idiot. There are only so many lines in a herd, and so many offspring. Buying only from one breeder is almost as good as having a closed herd, which to me is senseless. If no one has heard of Bowen's in your neck of the woods, then they are nothing but backyard breeders. Anybody who knows anything about chins knows who Bowens Chinchilla/Gary Neubauer is.
Again, it sounds as though you would rather to go someone nearby because it's convenient, regardless of whether they have crap animals or not, than to put your butt in your car and drive a little distance to get good quality breeding stock. Why? Is gas THAT expensive in California? Is your time THAT valuable that you can't go a little farther afield?
The cycle most other small animals have gone through is almost assuredly hitting chins. As more and more people buy and breed from the easy-to-find avenues like pet stores and Craigslist, the overall quality and health of the animals decreases dramatically. More and more problems crop up in the animals, but people continue to breed them and just accept the problems as part of the process. More and more unwanted and unhealthy animals get dumped on the shelters and rescues. And it becomes pretty much impossible to reverse the trend and get enough healthy animals into the system to even make a dent.
Which is exactly why people in this thread, and all the others you ask the same questions over and over in, continue to try and get you to do this right. Don't add to the population of crap chinchillas (bad breeding, health issues, etc.) by buying from someone locally just because it's easier, regardless of what crap they sell. Go to a show. Surely you can manage to drive to at least one, can't you? With all the time and effort you put into telling us how much you know about hamsters, you could have attended a show. Check the websites, check the show section here. I'm sure you can find time to attend at least one show so you can speak intelligently and in an informed manner about chins (not hamsters, because frankly, nobody cares) and then maybe your words will carry weight instead of just annoy people.
Right now the education channels set up mean driving hundreds of miles which few people (owners or breeders) are going to do. Taking that information to the demand will reach a dramatically greater population and improve the quality of life of many chins. And infusing the current system with quality animals and information will help them get propagated through that system which already exists and is doing a booming business.
I think you're wrong. I think pretty much all information you can get through a pet store, which let's face it is the venue where most people turn to for the pet information, is crap, regardless of the species. You're confusing wanting to be a breeder of quality chins with being a pet chin owner. Pet chin owners are actually (usually) quite rabid in wanting to learn about their chins and search out the information to find out what to feed, what to bed them on, what toys are safe, etc. This forum is largely pet owners, with breeders thrown in the mix. It's the back yard, junk breeders that don't want to expend the energy to learn how to do it right. Their goal is to make $25.00 off or their offspring from the $50 to $125.00 chins they picked up at a rescue or a pet store so that they could start their breeding empire.
There isn't a pet owner on this forum who argues against how to care for their pet chins they way you seem determined to do about finding a mentor, attending a show, and buying quality animals. Why? What is the point to asking questions if you are only going to argue every single answer given? No wonder you don't want to go to a mentor. You'd just talk them to death about hamsters and not learn a thing!
Becky made a good point, you ignored it. I asked you questions in another thread about what kind of breeder you wanted to be, when you were so blase` about what happens to a chin after it leaves you, and you ignored that too. Why do you continue to harp back on the same thing ad nauseum, but won't answer questions or comments that are actually pertain to the discussion? As Becky said, it just makes people want to ignore what you post and not answer your questions at all.
