Pets
Man, I wish I'd seen a crazy cat lady instead. The dang dogs chewed on mah boots.
Most people keep one or two pets. A cat. A dog. Maybe a lizard.
Adrian Theroux has two dogs, three tarantulas, four chinchillas, 25 fish, 30 geckos, 200 African soft-haired rats and a pair of axolotls - about 350 pets in total, all crammed into a one-storey bungalow in St. Albert.
He used to have 40 pets in an apartment, he explains, but he whittled it down to two. “Then Crystal (his fiancé) and I got together and it exploded again.”
Theroux is the general manger of St. Albert’s Paradise Pets and one of the hundreds of private pet breeders in Alberta. It’s a hobby that’s taken over his life, with animals clambering about almost every room of his home.
“It’s the reward of being successful,” he says, when asked why he does it. “You never know what’s in the egg until it actually hatches.”
From owners to breeders
Theroux’s home is actually pretty clean and quiet considering its population. The geckos and snakes chill out under rocks in the aquariums that line the kitchen, living room and basement. The rats live in big bins in the basement, two or three adults per bin. In one of them, a momma rat stretches over a pile of thumb-sized babies so they can suckle.
Crystal Nielsen says she and Theroux spend about five hours a day cleaning and feeding all the animals, which is why there isn’t much smell. “If you walk into most breeding houses, you need a gas mask.”
Linda Trachsel’s acreage near Riviere Qui Barre is a little more chaotic. There’s a clatter of claws and paws as you open the front door and a mob of happy, yippy purebred chihuahua and rottweiler pups, each smaller than a rugby ball, rushes to meet you, eager to sniff your shins and chew your shoes.
The owner of Armoso Kennel, Trachsel calmly carries on a conversation as she cleans up a spot of dog pee on the floor. “They’re always underfoot,” she says, and they’re always into something. “They are perpetual three-year-olds.”
“Rrrr!” go the rottweilers, as they savage the front rug.
“You guys leave my carpet alone,” she says, as she hauls them away. “No, no, no!”
They’re back at it a few minutes later.
Trachsel says she got her first chihuahua from her dad when she was five. “They’re awesome little dogs, and very much misunderstood.”
She went looking for a second one, but found all the dogs in her area were sub-par. One breeder suggested that she try breeding her own dogs if she felt she could do better, so she did.
That was 25 years ago. She now sells about 12 to 20 dogs a year, and occasionally takes some to pet shows. “In 25 years, I haven’t found the perfect dog yet. That’s what I’m aiming for.”
Nielsen says she loved reptiles as a kid, but her mother was terrified of them and wouldn’t let them in the house. “When I got out on my own, I kind of went nuts,” she says, laughing. As for Theroux, he loves all pets, but is allergic to most of the ones that aren’t reptiles.
While they do breed rats as pet food, Nielsen and Theroux mainly breed leopard geckos when it comes to pets. These palm-sized tropical lizards are known for their bumpy yellow scales, black spots, and white bellies.
“They’re one of the few species of gecko that has eyelids,” Theroux says, as the one on his arm blinks for the camera, “so they’re quite personable.” They also store fat in their tails, which gives them a noticeable bulge near their butts.
These geckos also come in scores of different patterns and colours. The jungle carrots have orange tails, for example, while the snake eye raptors have two-coloured eyes. Snow enigmas are black and white and have a strange genetic quirk that makes them run in circles.
No mood lighting required
Gecko breeding involves putting two healthy parents with the colours you want into the same tank and letting them go at it.
“It’s not a very nice, gentle process,” Nielsen says. The male will smell the female and shake his tail noisily into the cage’s substrate. The female runs, and the male pursues, grabs, bites and mates. Three to four weeks later, the lady lays one or two eggs, buries them, and moves on.
At that point, Nielsen excavates the eggs, places them on a bed of wet dirt, and puts them in an incubator that looks a black mini-fridge.
“You want the to incubate for the longest time possible,” she says, as that encourages healthy development. You also need precise control over temperature: you get females at 27.2 C, and males at 30.5 C.
The eggs hatch after one to three months, after which Nielsen stores the geckos in separate heated and furnished bins until they mature for sale - you want to keep the males separated so they don’t fight, she explains.
Hopefully, you’ll get the kind of geckos you want. You can stack the deck with your choice of parents, Theroux says, but what you get comes down to luck of the draw. “That’s part of what’s so fun about breeding. You get this male and this female, you breed them and see what kind of babies come out.”
Purebred dog breeders must be members of the Canadian Kennel Club, Trachsel says, and must adhere to its code of practice.
You start with a female, she says, and study its traits to determine its flaws relative to the international standard for that breed of dog.
Once the female is in heat, you pick a male that has traits that address the female’s flaws, put them in the same room and hope the lady shows interest in him. “It’s always the female coming to the male. It’s never the other way round.”
Pregnancy lasts about 60 days, and involves risks such as calcium deficiency and hypoglycaemia. Mothers may need C-sections to give birth.
Some die in the process. Trachsel casts a sad glance towards a photo on the wall of a plump, tan-coloured chihuahua next to a rose bush.
“Cassie,” she says. “She was overdosed on anaesthetic during a c-section. She and all of her puppies died.” Other puppies may have to be put down due to crippling deformities or genetic disorders. “It’s devastating.”
Live dogs need numerous health checks, vaccinations and certifications, Trachsel says, as well as months of house-training. Potential owners undergo rigorous interviews and must provide character references, as the dog must match the owner’s temperament. “They’re not suitable for everybody.”
Ethical breeders
Neither is pet breeding.
Shawna Randolph of the Edmonton Humane Society recounts the 2009 case of an Edmonton owner who had some 42 dogs and cats breeding in one home. “They were living in deplorable conditions in their own filth,” she says, and had severe health problems. The owner was later fined under the provincial animal protection act.
It’s important to make sure that your pet comes from a responsible breeder, Randolph says.
“A responsible breeder is breeding for the purpose of the betterment of the breed,” she says, which means raising healthy animals with good genes and attitudes. They will be registered with a breeding organization, be open with their health certificates and breeding facilities, and will encourage you to spay or neuter your pet.
Pet breeding is not, and should not, be about making money, says Ian Kanda, president of the Edmonton Reptile and Amphibian Society. “These are living animals. They’re not baseball cards.” A skilled breeder might make enough to cover their considerable expenses, but no more than that.
Theroux, Nielsen and Trachsel say they stick with it to spread their love of animals.
“I love my dogs,” Trachsel says. “I love talking to people about them, and I love educating people about them.”
She doesn’t have any plans to stop breeding dogs soon. “The dogs are my life,” she says. “I don’t know what I’d do without them.”
Notes
- And the dogs kept peeing on the floor. Pretty sure one of them crapped on the floor too. Ew.
- Was disappointed that they didn't need to play Barry White to get the geckos to do it.
- The rat breeding colony they had was pretty cute. They had a bunch of big tubs, each with rats at different stages of development, each with a squeaky wheel and a little house. The little ratlings were all like pinky sized.
Most people keep one or two pets. A cat. A dog. Maybe a lizard.
Adrian Theroux has two dogs, three tarantulas, four chinchillas, 25 fish, 30 geckos, 200 African soft-haired rats and a pair of axolotls - about 350 pets in total, all crammed into a one-storey bungalow in St. Albert.
He used to have 40 pets in an apartment, he explains, but he whittled it down to two. “Then Crystal (his fiancé) and I got together and it exploded again.”
Theroux is the general manger of St. Albert’s Paradise Pets and one of the hundreds of private pet breeders in Alberta. It’s a hobby that’s taken over his life, with animals clambering about almost every room of his home.
“It’s the reward of being successful,” he says, when asked why he does it. “You never know what’s in the egg until it actually hatches.”
From owners to breeders
Theroux’s home is actually pretty clean and quiet considering its population. The geckos and snakes chill out under rocks in the aquariums that line the kitchen, living room and basement. The rats live in big bins in the basement, two or three adults per bin. In one of them, a momma rat stretches over a pile of thumb-sized babies so they can suckle.
Crystal Nielsen says she and Theroux spend about five hours a day cleaning and feeding all the animals, which is why there isn’t much smell. “If you walk into most breeding houses, you need a gas mask.”
Linda Trachsel’s acreage near Riviere Qui Barre is a little more chaotic. There’s a clatter of claws and paws as you open the front door and a mob of happy, yippy purebred chihuahua and rottweiler pups, each smaller than a rugby ball, rushes to meet you, eager to sniff your shins and chew your shoes.
The owner of Armoso Kennel, Trachsel calmly carries on a conversation as she cleans up a spot of dog pee on the floor. “They’re always underfoot,” she says, and they’re always into something. “They are perpetual three-year-olds.”
“Rrrr!” go the rottweilers, as they savage the front rug.
“You guys leave my carpet alone,” she says, as she hauls them away. “No, no, no!”
They’re back at it a few minutes later.
Trachsel says she got her first chihuahua from her dad when she was five. “They’re awesome little dogs, and very much misunderstood.”
She went looking for a second one, but found all the dogs in her area were sub-par. One breeder suggested that she try breeding her own dogs if she felt she could do better, so she did.
That was 25 years ago. She now sells about 12 to 20 dogs a year, and occasionally takes some to pet shows. “In 25 years, I haven’t found the perfect dog yet. That’s what I’m aiming for.”
Nielsen says she loved reptiles as a kid, but her mother was terrified of them and wouldn’t let them in the house. “When I got out on my own, I kind of went nuts,” she says, laughing. As for Theroux, he loves all pets, but is allergic to most of the ones that aren’t reptiles.
While they do breed rats as pet food, Nielsen and Theroux mainly breed leopard geckos when it comes to pets. These palm-sized tropical lizards are known for their bumpy yellow scales, black spots, and white bellies.
“They’re one of the few species of gecko that has eyelids,” Theroux says, as the one on his arm blinks for the camera, “so they’re quite personable.” They also store fat in their tails, which gives them a noticeable bulge near their butts.
These geckos also come in scores of different patterns and colours. The jungle carrots have orange tails, for example, while the snake eye raptors have two-coloured eyes. Snow enigmas are black and white and have a strange genetic quirk that makes them run in circles.
No mood lighting required
Gecko breeding involves putting two healthy parents with the colours you want into the same tank and letting them go at it.
“It’s not a very nice, gentle process,” Nielsen says. The male will smell the female and shake his tail noisily into the cage’s substrate. The female runs, and the male pursues, grabs, bites and mates. Three to four weeks later, the lady lays one or two eggs, buries them, and moves on.
At that point, Nielsen excavates the eggs, places them on a bed of wet dirt, and puts them in an incubator that looks a black mini-fridge.
“You want the to incubate for the longest time possible,” she says, as that encourages healthy development. You also need precise control over temperature: you get females at 27.2 C, and males at 30.5 C.
The eggs hatch after one to three months, after which Nielsen stores the geckos in separate heated and furnished bins until they mature for sale - you want to keep the males separated so they don’t fight, she explains.
Hopefully, you’ll get the kind of geckos you want. You can stack the deck with your choice of parents, Theroux says, but what you get comes down to luck of the draw. “That’s part of what’s so fun about breeding. You get this male and this female, you breed them and see what kind of babies come out.”
Purebred dog breeders must be members of the Canadian Kennel Club, Trachsel says, and must adhere to its code of practice.
You start with a female, she says, and study its traits to determine its flaws relative to the international standard for that breed of dog.
Once the female is in heat, you pick a male that has traits that address the female’s flaws, put them in the same room and hope the lady shows interest in him. “It’s always the female coming to the male. It’s never the other way round.”
Pregnancy lasts about 60 days, and involves risks such as calcium deficiency and hypoglycaemia. Mothers may need C-sections to give birth.
Some die in the process. Trachsel casts a sad glance towards a photo on the wall of a plump, tan-coloured chihuahua next to a rose bush.
“Cassie,” she says. “She was overdosed on anaesthetic during a c-section. She and all of her puppies died.” Other puppies may have to be put down due to crippling deformities or genetic disorders. “It’s devastating.”
Live dogs need numerous health checks, vaccinations and certifications, Trachsel says, as well as months of house-training. Potential owners undergo rigorous interviews and must provide character references, as the dog must match the owner’s temperament. “They’re not suitable for everybody.”
Ethical breeders
Neither is pet breeding.
Shawna Randolph of the Edmonton Humane Society recounts the 2009 case of an Edmonton owner who had some 42 dogs and cats breeding in one home. “They were living in deplorable conditions in their own filth,” she says, and had severe health problems. The owner was later fined under the provincial animal protection act.
It’s important to make sure that your pet comes from a responsible breeder, Randolph says.
“A responsible breeder is breeding for the purpose of the betterment of the breed,” she says, which means raising healthy animals with good genes and attitudes. They will be registered with a breeding organization, be open with their health certificates and breeding facilities, and will encourage you to spay or neuter your pet.
Pet breeding is not, and should not, be about making money, says Ian Kanda, president of the Edmonton Reptile and Amphibian Society. “These are living animals. They’re not baseball cards.” A skilled breeder might make enough to cover their considerable expenses, but no more than that.
Theroux, Nielsen and Trachsel say they stick with it to spread their love of animals.
“I love my dogs,” Trachsel says. “I love talking to people about them, and I love educating people about them.”
She doesn’t have any plans to stop breeding dogs soon. “The dogs are my life,” she says. “I don’t know what I’d do without them.”
Notes
- And the dogs kept peeing on the floor. Pretty sure one of them crapped on the floor too. Ew.
- Was disappointed that they didn't need to play Barry White to get the geckos to do it.
- The rat breeding colony they had was pretty cute. They had a bunch of big tubs, each with rats at different stages of development, each with a squeaky wheel and a little house. The little ratlings were all like pinky sized.