Ebay Eggs Horror Story

[Mysty]

In the right circumstances I have no doubt that beardie eggs can be safely and somewhat ethically sold locally.

However this is not one of those cases. Points of failure include:

1. Seller having a surplus of eggs because the incubator is full - did not prepare enough space considering no. of adults mated.

2. Seller advertising on ebay which does not allow animal sales.

3. Bad attitude - seller states in the listing thag he is selling eggs because its a shame to chuck them in the bin.

4. Lack of buyer checks - he asks me (posing as buyer) if I have an incubator but on receiving no reply still sends his mobile no. and address for collection.

5. Willing to put eggs in the post - there is no guarantee that they will arrive before 2 days of laying and that the embryos will not be damaged by being transported.

6. Also offering to sell hatchlings under 6 weeks. We're talking 2 weeks.

So yeah, no offense to responsible breeders but this breeder's attitude to his animals and dismissal of basic ethics makes me sick.

To clarify, all eggs for sale were intended to be hatched (not for feeding as someone suggested ) and were otherwise destined for the bin.

 

[Rankins]

Ahh, some of that wasn't mentioned in your original post. Sounds like the guy might need an attitude adjustment. But I recommended overnight shipping, two day shipping would probably kill the eggs. Selling 2 week old babies isn't too big of an issue if you have experience with them. Breeders don't have much trouble raising babies so others could do it also. It's still better to wait at least a month before selling them though. If he"s not screening the buyers experience level he shouldn't sell them that young. That would likely not turn out well, and it's a crappy thing to do to a baby lizard.
Thanks for the thoughtful post, it clarified a few things that we didn't know.

 

[LinusTheOrange]

Would the mother dragon eat the extra eggs? If they will, that would have been a good suggestion to the poster who had a dragon that kept laying infertile eggs a couple of weeks back, and was concerned for her health. Drats! I wish I had known that had a chance of being an option, would have helped the owner out alot, esp since they have calcium and protein.