What makes a cavy worth its price?
Note to those about to read this post:
I'm kind of tired of writing vanilla postings; I felt the need to write what I REALLY, TRULY feel about a topic. If you don't like this post, it's probably because you're one of the people who charges high prices for cavies, and you're offended by being called out on it. If you like the post, high-fives to you! ;-) If a professional cavy blog is what you're wanting to read, you've stumbled upon the wrong one; mine is far from professional, as am I, and that's the way it'll remain. Sure, most of my posts will remain more vanilla than this one (for the sake of keeping readers), but it's nice to occasionally show my true feelings and emotions toward a topic. I'm a person, not a robot; and I'm not always looking to appease others, sometimes I'd just like to write in my own style. There's a reason I'm not one to write articles: I'm just not professional enough (or focused enough, heh) to write stuff that's all work and no play. This post is a bit *ahem* satire in nature.
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So, I look around at caviary websites and caviary FBs; I look at yahoo group cavy classifieds; and I look around at cavy shows (although it's been awhile since I've been to a show). Prices vary -- greatly, and depending upon variety, breed, and the region breeders are located in. From what I've noticed, cavy breeders seem to charge more in the South and East than they do here in California, at least in the part I'm in (Northern). Most breeders around here aren't willing to pay $40+ unless that cavy is damn special and has some wins notched in its belt. Funny that it works that way, being as hay is WAY more expensive here in Northern California than it is in the South or back East. $15 is cheap for Orchard grass around here; and god forbid Timothy hay is that cheap! It's typically ~20 buckeroos. It depends on the season. I don't know about the price of pellets in other states, but we have been using King LifeLong Combo feed (the pigs love it; we love it) and it's around $17-$18 for a 50lb bag. From what I've read around, others around the country pay about the same price as us Californian cavy breeders, for cavy feed.
But still, I feel that anything over $50 for a cavy who lacks show wins, isn't proven, and not fully pedigreed, is absurd. The hell makes a cavy worth that much if it's just a baby whose pedigree is incomplete, or totally lacking? So what if its coat is insanely nice or if the ancestry lines make the gods smile down upon it; there are many top breeders who raise wonderful cavies and whose prices don't make the wallet plead dollar rape. In my opinion (but if you ask me, it's a fact *wink, wink*), it comes down to greed: some breeders are piggier than others when it comes to money, honey! Got 'em $$ signs in the eyes, getting hella excited thinking about the fatter pig wallet, and totally digging the fact that their minions are willing to shell out the Jacksons. When it comes to the hairless hippos, 'you be shellin' out 'em Benjamins, baby! Oooh yeah!' 100-dolla starting; near 500 dolla highs. Hell yeah, that's a fat paycheck for a cavy whose hair decided to shy from the surface, thus rendering it hairless -- or nearly hairless, if it's a Skinny pig.
Seriously, though, why do some breeders think that their pigs are so special (and that their pigs' shit 'don't' stink) that they can get away with charging a lot for cavies whose quality is just as comparable to other breeders', of whom charge reasonable prices? From the guess I can hazard, their pigs poop just as much as other cavies; their pigs pee rivers like the rest of the Cavia porcellus species; and their pigs also snack on hair and give other cavies warrior wounds, like every other cavy out there. "But mine are quality cavies with top lines!" they shout from atop their high rocking horse. Whoop-dee-flippin'-do! I know of several top breeders who don't charge a leg, an arm, a prosthetic foot, and a brain.
"I have rare varieties. They're worth their prices." I have rare varieties, too, but do I think a Coronet Himalayan is worth $50+? Nope. Neither do I think a Skinny pig or a Baldwin is worth 100+. It's ripping people off just because you know they're naive enough to pay a bloated price for a cavy (when they can get one of equal quality for a reasonable price, if they do their research).
Obviously, I'm only speaking about what *I* think -- my opinion. Everyone has an opinion, but that doesn't mean I have to sit my ass in my computer chair, nodding, and posting, "Yes, everyone has different prices, and that's fine." Will my posting of this have any value to others? I doubt it, but at least I'm getting it out there, because, a.) I'm SICK and TIRED of keeping my opinions all to myself, and b.) I don't like seeing others getting ripped off. I'm definitely not the most moral person out there (by a long-shot), but at least I take others into consideration and realize that, in my own opinion, it is wrong to rip them off. That's for businesses to do; majority of them are greedy, corrupt, and only give two shits about dollar signs.
Sure, it's reasonable to price a cavy high enough to at least pay (or help to pay) for the caring of them. But come on, there comes a time when some prices are just too high, and you need to get your head out of your ass and think things through: Am I really being reasonable? Has my ego gotten too big? Am I ripping others off? And most of all: What crawled up my ass and made me think my pigs were so damn special that they're worth such god-awful high prices?
*now is the moment to shout at me from up on your pretty, sparkly rocking horse*
Okay, time to throw rotten fruit at me. Heh. :-P Kidding... obviously. Lest rotten fruit is thrown at me, I'll make sure to bring a shield for protection.
I plan to add more to this blog, along with correcting typos and grammar (I'm using an iPad and typing on an external keyboard; my laptop needs to go in tomorrow to be fixed, so it's turned off), but for now, I'm going to hide out in my cave. :-P I can already feel the rotten tomatoes being thrust at me from up top some rocking horses (from those who charge high prices, obviously -- breeders with fair prices are NOT at all being addresed in this post).
I'm kind of tired of writing vanilla postings; I felt the need to write what I REALLY, TRULY feel about a topic. If you don't like this post, it's probably because you're one of the people who charges high prices for cavies, and you're offended by being called out on it. If you like the post, high-fives to you! ;-) If a professional cavy blog is what you're wanting to read, you've stumbled upon the wrong one; mine is far from professional, as am I, and that's the way it'll remain. Sure, most of my posts will remain more vanilla than this one (for the sake of keeping readers), but it's nice to occasionally show my true feelings and emotions toward a topic. I'm a person, not a robot; and I'm not always looking to appease others, sometimes I'd just like to write in my own style. There's a reason I'm not one to write articles: I'm just not professional enough (or focused enough, heh) to write stuff that's all work and no play. This post is a bit *ahem* satire in nature.
-------------------------------------
So, I look around at caviary websites and caviary FBs; I look at yahoo group cavy classifieds; and I look around at cavy shows (although it's been awhile since I've been to a show). Prices vary -- greatly, and depending upon variety, breed, and the region breeders are located in. From what I've noticed, cavy breeders seem to charge more in the South and East than they do here in California, at least in the part I'm in (Northern). Most breeders around here aren't willing to pay $40+ unless that cavy is damn special and has some wins notched in its belt. Funny that it works that way, being as hay is WAY more expensive here in Northern California than it is in the South or back East. $15 is cheap for Orchard grass around here; and god forbid Timothy hay is that cheap! It's typically ~20 buckeroos. It depends on the season. I don't know about the price of pellets in other states, but we have been using King LifeLong Combo feed (the pigs love it; we love it) and it's around $17-$18 for a 50lb bag. From what I've read around, others around the country pay about the same price as us Californian cavy breeders, for cavy feed.
But still, I feel that anything over $50 for a cavy who lacks show wins, isn't proven, and not fully pedigreed, is absurd. The hell makes a cavy worth that much if it's just a baby whose pedigree is incomplete, or totally lacking? So what if its coat is insanely nice or if the ancestry lines make the gods smile down upon it; there are many top breeders who raise wonderful cavies and whose prices don't make the wallet plead dollar rape. In my opinion (but if you ask me, it's a fact *wink, wink*), it comes down to greed: some breeders are piggier than others when it comes to money, honey! Got 'em $$ signs in the eyes, getting hella excited thinking about the fatter pig wallet, and totally digging the fact that their minions are willing to shell out the Jacksons. When it comes to the hairless hippos, 'you be shellin' out 'em Benjamins, baby! Oooh yeah!' 100-dolla starting; near 500 dolla highs. Hell yeah, that's a fat paycheck for a cavy whose hair decided to shy from the surface, thus rendering it hairless -- or nearly hairless, if it's a Skinny pig.
Seriously, though, why do some breeders think that their pigs are so special (and that their pigs' shit 'don't' stink) that they can get away with charging a lot for cavies whose quality is just as comparable to other breeders', of whom charge reasonable prices? From the guess I can hazard, their pigs poop just as much as other cavies; their pigs pee rivers like the rest of the Cavia porcellus species; and their pigs also snack on hair and give other cavies warrior wounds, like every other cavy out there. "But mine are quality cavies with top lines!" they shout from atop their high rocking horse. Whoop-dee-flippin'-do! I know of several top breeders who don't charge a leg, an arm, a prosthetic foot, and a brain.
"I have rare varieties. They're worth their prices." I have rare varieties, too, but do I think a Coronet Himalayan is worth $50+? Nope. Neither do I think a Skinny pig or a Baldwin is worth 100+. It's ripping people off just because you know they're naive enough to pay a bloated price for a cavy (when they can get one of equal quality for a reasonable price, if they do their research).
Obviously, I'm only speaking about what *I* think -- my opinion. Everyone has an opinion, but that doesn't mean I have to sit my ass in my computer chair, nodding, and posting, "Yes, everyone has different prices, and that's fine." Will my posting of this have any value to others? I doubt it, but at least I'm getting it out there, because, a.) I'm SICK and TIRED of keeping my opinions all to myself, and b.) I don't like seeing others getting ripped off. I'm definitely not the most moral person out there (by a long-shot), but at least I take others into consideration and realize that, in my own opinion, it is wrong to rip them off. That's for businesses to do; majority of them are greedy, corrupt, and only give two shits about dollar signs.
Sure, it's reasonable to price a cavy high enough to at least pay (or help to pay) for the caring of them. But come on, there comes a time when some prices are just too high, and you need to get your head out of your ass and think things through: Am I really being reasonable? Has my ego gotten too big? Am I ripping others off? And most of all: What crawled up my ass and made me think my pigs were so damn special that they're worth such god-awful high prices?
*now is the moment to shout at me from up on your pretty, sparkly rocking horse*
Okay, time to throw rotten fruit at me. Heh. :-P Kidding... obviously. Lest rotten fruit is thrown at me, I'll make sure to bring a shield for protection.
I plan to add more to this blog, along with correcting typos and grammar (I'm using an iPad and typing on an external keyboard; my laptop needs to go in tomorrow to be fixed, so it's turned off), but for now, I'm going to hide out in my cave. :-P I can already feel the rotten tomatoes being thrust at me from up top some rocking horses (from those who charge high prices, obviously -- breeders with fair prices are NOT at all being addresed in this post).