Things you may not be aware of when deciding to buy a monkey..but you really should know
Monkeys are primates, and as such are not like rabbits or rats where you put a male and a female together and they breed. Pairing monkeys is no different to trying to find a boyfriend for your teenage daughter who, also being a primate, is certainly not going to go off with just anyone.. It can take YEARS to pair up Marmosets in particular and you’d better have a lot of monkeys to pick from…
Then – once they are paired up not all pairs will breed… some will coexist happily but never produce babies…
And so you can see that in order to produce babies a breeder must have a lot of monkeys, and take a lot of time to get them to pair up ( some just won’t ) and then to get babies is another roll of the dice.. So its a very expensive very long drawn out process and not a license to print money by any means..
( These very high costs are why the average price for a Marmoset baby is from $3,500 to $4,000..Those $500 ones you see on social media are just ways for you to fund people who have never seen a monkey, and who you will never hear from again if you pay them. )
Monkeys tend to have babies when they want and not when any of us want.. and so for all of the above reasons the average breeder will not always have animals available and so you need to be time flexible, work with your chosen breeder and prepare well ahead..
Breeder /brokers buy in babies from other breeders and sell them, and so they can have monkeys available more or less when you want one because they will buy it to re sell it to you . Many are reputable however some may not be, and the problem with that is that you don’t necessarily know where the monkey came from… you don’t know if the breeder they got it from was even licensed and inspected and you don’t know any history of that monkeys family, how hardy the babies are, if there have been any problems etc.. Please understand we are not saying anyone in particular does this just that it’s well know that it happens….
And so a baby is not a baby is not a baby, just like a human primate – how well the parents are looked after and how well the babies are looked after makes a huge difference.. They are very vulnerable and if a facility is not adequately clean or testing the monkeys regularly, or nutrition is not right then their rate of infant mortality can be high, and as well as immune compromised babies, they can even be selling diseased babies or ones with parasite infections to the broker to sell on to you. Sadly this happens very regularly…
A reliable breeder and a reliable broker will take account of all this and be very transparent with you. But be aware that the impulse buy because you want a baby now could lead you to be exposed to some of those people who’s morals come second to getting you a baby from wherever they can just to make the sale…
How do we know this ? week in week out we give free advise to owners irrespective of where they bought the monkey – we talk to other reputable breeders and brokers and we see the same patterns emerging again and again. “I was going to wait but this person had one right now” .. and they have a sick or malnourished or even deceased baby”.
Talk to people and ask the questions – genuine breeders /brokers are happy to answer your questions.. also talk to people who have bought from them before.
But above all bear in mind that if you set your demands too tight , for example “I want a female and I want her at the end of May” then your options could be seriously limited and you could end up regretting that decision because of who your choices forced you to deal with ….We advise you consider the option “I have chosen the breeder / broker i want to work with and I will take a healthy boy or girl in the Spring when they next have some”.
That can radically change the outcome of your experience as a monkey owner…
Kimberly & Steve Gunn
Monkey Business SWFL llc
http://facebook.com/marmosetmonkeysfl