Guest Author - Meg Grooms

When buying your exotic pet you often have two choices, wild caught versus captive bred. Which is the right choice and how to you go about finding the animal that was bred according to your choice?

Wild caught animals are exactly that, animals that were caught, or eggs that were harvested, from the wild. Turtles are infamous for being wild caught, a person happens upon a nest and either sells the eggs to a pet store or breeder, or even worse they hatch the eggs themselves and you will see the turtles for sale at a roadside stand.

Captive bread animals are animals that were bred in captivity. This means that a breeder owns a mating pair of animals, which are bred at their facility. Sometimes this means a captive animal was studded, either is acceptable. The offspring of this pair are sold to pet stores or sold directly through the breeder.

Why should you buy captive bred?

-Captive bred animals are generally healthier due to their controlled environment. A good breeder will have the resources available to seek medical treatment for both the parents and their offspring. Breeders are in this as a career, they know what kind of care animals need in order to produce offspring, without healthy offspring there is no income.

-Because captive bred animals are well cared for the chance that you purchase a sick animal is much less than if you catch or buy a wild caught animal. Stress is a big deal for animals, removing them from their environment and food source is stressful, and in some species stress can lead to an early death. The chance of receiving a stressed animal from a breeder, or one that cannot recover once in their new home, is much less.

-Animals can carry disease, including salmonella, toxoplasma, parasites and various staph infections. Bringing an animal in from the wild greatly increases the chance that you have a sick animal. These diseases can spread to you, your children and your other animals. As wild caught animals most definitely have been exposed to illness these animals shouldn’t join a family with young children, with immune compromised humans or animals or with persons who aren’t able to maintain proper hygiene. Forgetting to wash your hands after handing your animal just once can spread disease to your entire family.

-Buying your animal from a breeder buys you a guarantee that your animal is healthy and any good breeder will stand behind his animals, working with you to solve any problems that occur after you take your animal home.
-It’s easier to feed a captive bred animal. Captive bred animals that eat meat are generally more willing to accept dead food, whereas wild caught may only accept living food. Feeding live food is alright, but the prey food can also carry disease. Dead food has usually been frozen first in a process that kills any disease the prey may be carrying. It’s similar for animals that aren’t carnivores. Animals who have been raised in captivity are generally more accepting of different, common foods for their breed.

-Buying captive bred causes less stress on the environment. Animal species exist in a delicate balance. If you remove an animal species from an area all other species, including humans, will suffer. For example, in some areas of the southern United States native lizards have been almost completely removed, causing an overgrowth of insects, a loss of natural predators and the invasion of non-native lizards. Buying wild caught is supporting the removal of an animal from the environment and tipping this balance.

How do you know that you are buying captive bred? Your first line of action is simply to ask. Reputable breeders will have papers certifying that the animals in their collection were not wild caught. Pet stores usually display a sign stating the status of the animal, and they should be able to provide you with the name and address of the breeder they purchased their animals from. It is a bit harder to get this information from chain pet stores, but someone in the chain of command will have this info, you just have to do some digging for it. If the animal is listed as “imported” it’s probably wild caught. “Captive born” is almost as good as captive bred, but know that the animal’s parents were probably wild caught, or there is no proof of captive breeding. Captive born animals have more health problems than captive bred.

The differences between wild caught and captive bred are many. It’s important to decide which type of animal you want and find a breeder or store who can provide that. The health of your animal, and your family, depend on the decision you make.