Captive bred VS wild caught

Wolfus_305 · 01-30-12, 02:39 PM

Hey everybody,

So a while back I was in a pet store in london and happened to look at their Red Eyed Tree Frogs, they were all bruised up and didn't look that great. My boyfriend later found out that these frogs were wild caught.

He already has a captive bred RETF (kiwi) and we would like to get kiwi a friend. We both would like kiwi to have a captive bred friend but I am just curious to know what the pros/cons are of wild caught vs captive bred

youngster · 01-30-12, 02:42 PM

WC can have diseases and parasites. And *usually* more docile

BarelyBreathing · 01-30-12, 02:45 PM

The only pros of wild caught are new blood lines and less money

Cons:
Parasites
Diseases
Possible exposure to chitrid or other fungus
Stress from shipping
Stress from being in a captive environment
Sometimes they don't recognise common sources of food as such
No background knowledge
Long quarantine periods
Little idea of age

I'm sure the list can go on forever.

Wolfus_305 · 01-30-12, 02:45 PM

The wild caught ones are usually more docile? I wonder why, if anything I would have thought it would be less docile.

mhmm parasites and diseases don't sound too good and judging by that pet store's cleanliness and the state of their reptile/amphibians I doubt they would have cleared up any of that

alessia55 · 01-30-12, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wolfus_305

The wild caught ones are usually more docile? I wonder why, if anything I would have thought it would be less docile.

mhmm parasites and diseases don't sound too good and judging by that pet store's cleanliness and the state of their reptile/amphibians I doubt they would have cleared up any of that

I think Eli meant to say LESS docile

BarelyBreathing · 01-30-12, 02:54 PM

Yeah, I would agree with Alessia, I think he meant less docile.

BarelyBreathing · 01-30-12, 02:55 PM

They also tend to make less interesting display animals, as they hide more.

youngster · 01-30-12, 03:15 PM

I did mean less docile

DragonsEye · 01-30-12, 03:30 PM

They also tend to be less healthy due to the stress of capture, importation, and being wild animals suddenly in a much more restricted environment. As a result of the raised stress, detrimental effects of diseases and internal parasites become even more pronounced (not unlike how we often find ourselves becoming sick more easily when we are under a lot of stress). Because of this and the other factors folks mentioned, WC animals tend to die at a much earlier age than CB.

DavethePython · 01-30-12, 03:39 PM

My personal opinion is that captive bred is the way to go. There are ample breeders throughout the world now that wild animals should not need to be taken from their environment. I do however support the trade in wild caught if the animals in question are an invasive species such as the Burmese Pythons or Green Iguanas in Florida .Would rather see them go to a good home than killed because they are somewhere they don't know they should not be. Hate to see an animal suffer because humans screwed up again. Just my opinion .

Terranaut · 01-30-12, 04:20 PM

Yup. No need for wild unless it's to introduce new genes. Only a breeder should be looking at wild caught and certainly not a pet store. Is there not a local breeder you can buy from. Actually I wanna get a couple of these too. Way cute. no WC for us.

Wolfus_305 · 01-30-12, 06:15 PM

wow, thanks everybody for all your comments. I knew that there were issues with WC but didn't think of health issues being more pronounced due to stress and some of the other suggestions.

We have always been 10000% for captive bred for our own collections, I was just curious if there were pros/cons to WC that I didn't know of.

Mhmm I thought it was odd that a pet store would have wild caught. they looked awful, I'm guessing they just got them in when I was there because the poor froggies were black and blue with bruises.

I think there is a reptile expo near us in May so we will probably look there or go back to the store we got kiwi at

Terranaut · 01-30-12, 07:20 PM

March 6 in Missisauga

SpOoKy · 01-30-12, 07:31 PM

Quote:

I think there is a reptile expo near us in May so we will probably look there or go back to the store we got kiwi at

Feb 26 in Etobicoke

Ontario Reptile & Exotic Pet Expo

Terranaut · 01-30-12, 07:38 PM

Yup. Website still has last years date