Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey,

Captive Bred vs. Wild Caught. Which is the best? Which is the worst? Which do you have more of? In my opinion, I think Captive Bred animals, herps or not, are hands down the better of the two. I only buy CB herps for a few reasons.... for one, the animal usual does better (feeding, handling, no parasites, etc.) and just plain happier. And two, wild populations are not harmed. Whats your opinion?

Adam

Wild caught is a touchy subject. It is illegal in many places. But, if you are someone who likes locality specific animals, and you can obtain them legally, wild caught is the way to go. The problem is, you don't know what you are introducing into your collection as far as bacterial or viral infections are concerned. I think that you need to be absolutely sure that you are willing to take on not just the responsibility of treating the animal(vet bills), but you should also be willing to make a commitment to keep the animal(s). I am opposed to releasing wild-caught animals back into the wild once they've been introduced to captivity.

the Poo-inator
Chris

Obviously captive breds are easier all the way around. However, without wild caught herps, we wouldn't have any captive bred ones! I've got three wild caught snakes, which I bought because I'd like to breed them so other people can have CB's.

I'm certainly no expert, but it seems to me that the matter of CB and WC should be fairly easy.

For someone like me who just wants a pet snake (or two or three!), then CB is by far the best choice to make, for all the reasons already stated.

Occassionaly, someone will rescue an animal. Keeping and caring for that animal is admirable, I think. But for a casual hobbiest like myself, going out to hunt for wild animals just to keep as pets is unwise, dangerous, and just plain wrong.

However, there is a place in the industry for WC animals. As someone already said, if there weren't WC in the first place, then we wouldn't have CB. For those experienced breeders, WC offers a chance to renew and refresh bloodlines and prevent too much inbreeding of existing stock. They also offer a chance (for those lucky few who find them!) to experiment with the specacular morphs that so many of us enjoy. We wouldn't have our ghosts and snows and pastels and whatnots if the characteristics weren't first found, to some degree or another, in the wild.

To sum up (yes, I know I'm awfully chatty tonight!)...Leave the WC animals to the professionals in most instances, and focus on CB for most of us.

My 2 coppers...
Judy
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1.0 red cape gopher (Caesar)

Yeah.. and it would be GREAT if everyone did that! No more thousands of WC ball pythons and savanna monitors in pet stores. I don't think there should a restriction on keeping WC herps, I just think everyone should be smart enough to know whether or not they need them. That would be awesome.