Ethical breeders in the US

Maz

Maz

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US hamster owners are often seeking information about official or ethical breeders so here is some information - it seems to be just for California but I've contacted the owner who may give us some more up to date information. Am aware it can be very hard to find a good breeder in the US and sometimes people prefer to use a breeder than get a hamster from a pet shop - ie supporting good breeding practices.

californiahamsterassociation.com

California Hamster Association

Promoting excellence in hamster care and keeping
californiahamsterassociation.com californiahamsterassociation.com
 
I know a few as well. I will try to take some time this weekend and add them to this page.
 
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Many of them are listed under the California Hamster Association link above :-). There are also people who call themselves breeders who maybe don’t breed pedigrees so the only breeder listings we allow are those who are pedigree breeders and part of an official organisation like the CHA. Or the equivalent in Canada.
 
I FOUND ONE.

(If wondering, if you look in the top right corner, you'll find that they are registered USDA breeders)
 
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Sorry - they're not ethical breeders :(. They are licensed yes, but they are large commercial breeders - they type that sell to large pet shops. It's pretty bad actually.

There's some info about USDA breeders here. The only real ethical breeders in the US that we could accept being linked, are those part of a verified hamster association like the California Hamster Association (which lists it's own ethical breeders) or the Ontario Hamster Club.

This article is from the California Hamster Association.

"USDA licensing is for large-scale breeders -- mostly commercial breeders. If you sell more than $500 in animals per year, you need to be USDA licensed."

"The USDA specifies that an adult syrian (over 10 weeks of age) needs a minimum of 15 square inches of floorspace (100 square centimeters). That’s a 3 x 5 inch rectangle (12.5 x 7.5 centimeters) and totally inadequate.. "

"The minimum USDA space for dwarf hamsters is about half that for syrians."

 
No need to apologise :-) There are very few ethical breeders and they don't breed for profit but to keep the species in tact and for temperament usually.

In the UK, the NHC breeders will maybe only have one or two litters a year - they might keep one of the litter of the best "type" for breeding again and they rehome the others for an adoption fee. Whereas commercial breeders breed back to back to have plenty to sell. It's awful really and not good for the Mother hamsters.
 
I would avoid Nantucket hamstery that is in Illinois. The hamster that’s in my profile picture died from a tumor and there is a Reddit page which discusses other bad hamsters cases of hamsters people have got from them. Definitely not ethical.
 
I would like to suggest that adopting a rescue hamster is also a viable solution. Zelda was surrendered to a local pet store and there are two hamster rescues (Westchester NY and one in Connecticut) that are local resources for me. When Zelda transitions, my next hamster will be a rescue.
 
Absolutely - there is a separate section with a list of rescues 😊
 
Pumpkinthahamster said:
I would avoid Nantucket hamstery that is in Illinois. The hamster that’s in my profile picture died from a tumor and there is a Reddit page which discusses other bad hamsters cases of hamsters people have got from them. Definitely not ethical.
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It looks like they've taken all of their pages down, so I'm assuming they are no longer in operation. We purchased our first hamster from them a few months before some of the reddit threads, and he died suddenly after 3 months (you can look up our diary on Wally). Of course, many people on this forum have had hamsters with unexpected health problems, but I was a bit suspicious having gotten it from an "ethical" breeder. I'll never know if the Syrians from there were being ethically attended to in recent years, but it's interesting to see your post. We went to a pet store after that, but I think in the future I'd go rescue. As you know there are no other ethical breeders near Illinois, and while hamster adoption posts seem more rare here (I've found them hit or miss to find in our area), they do pop up.
 
I'm sorry - I didn't know Wally was from there. I haven't heard about the issues with that particular breeder until now. Thank you for the info. I see they are still listed on the California Hamster Association site so maybe someone had better point this out to the California Hamster Association.
 
Maz said:
I'm sorry - I didn't know Wally was from there. I haven't heard about the issues with that particular breeder until now. Thank you for the info. I see they are still listed on the California Hamster Association site so maybe someone had better point this out to the California Hamster Association.
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Yes! I don't think any of this info was out there when we purchased him. I didn't do a deep dive since hearing this, but at a glance the info seemed to start popping up just after Wally had passed away, but they were around for quite awhile before that with positive feedback. I did notice that around the time that Wally passed, their site stopped getting updated with pics of new hamsters. I wonder if something happened to make things deteriorate with the owner. I don't know that we will ever know, but it could be that they were doing ethical work to a point and then lost the ability to stick with it, or just had some bad strokes of luck and quit. I don't want to make assumptions with knowing so little; it was just interesting to see Pumpkin's post, because I had always been surprised about Wally's outcome, having come from (as far as I knew) an ethical breeder.
 
I had found Nantucket hamstery through California Hamster Association website and thought it was so cool there was an ethical breeder in Illinois (where I am from). But learning that it isn’t sucks.
 
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And my hamster Hiccup, from them was a very shy hamster who screamed when the lady first brought him out to me to give him to me. He was a ghost hamster. He was okay with being handled but was so shy. Vs my past pet store hamsters who were kept in awful conditions who were handled often by employees who were more used to being around people and being held. It’s got me thinking of nature vs nurture for hamsters.
 
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