Prairie Dogs are wonderful little balls of fur from the south western part of the United States. They are rodents that live in burrows in the ground called towns. Prairie Dogs are very social animals, living in family groups, and greeting each other very affectionately. It is no suprise to me that these little critters can make wonderful pets, as their social nature is very sweet.
There may not be very much personal information here for a while as I am just recently able to come in to personal contact with them. Until then I can tell you what I do know and lead you to trusted Prairie Dog people that have more experience than me.
There are Prairie Dog breeders out there, but it is more rare than common. The reason most Prairie Dogs in the pet trade are wild caught is because of a deal that was made with farmers and ranchers. You see a lot of farmers and ranchers believe that Prairie Dogs compete with their live stock for grazing. There are a few other conserns like the Prairie Dog's tunnels. They are worried that their live stock might injure themselves by Prairie Dog tunnels that may cave in. Like I said there are many other conserns.
Anyhow, a few people got together, and made a deal with these farmers and ranchers. (probably not by the farmer's and rancher's choice) It was agreed that if they came in and harvested so many number of baby Prairie Dogs each year, the ranchers and farmers wouldn't exterminate the Prairie Dog colonies. (towns)
One of the most known people that harvest Prairie Dogs each year is Lynda Watson. If you get a pup from some one selling Lynda Watson pups, you can be sure that it was caught humainly, vet checked, dipped, and checked for parisites.
We just recently found out about another method of Prairie Dog extermination that we had to share here. We can't even express the cruelty of this product. Again we are amazed at the ignorance of human beings. Little Critters hopes this goes on a thousand web sites so that this company can get a thousand E-mails about how terrible this product is. Prairie Dog Killers
If you'd like to do something to help:
I think that Prairie Dogs actually have an interesting story. I guess the first thing you should know is that most Prairie Dogs in the pet trade are wild caught. That's right "wild caught." I find this amazing in it self that a born wild animal can have such a wonderful, close, and even very affectionate relationship with humans. It is a well known fact that when taken care of properly Prairie Dogs "love" their humans. In the wild Prairie Dogs as a way of greeting and knowing one another, will not only sniff and communicate...they will also kiss, groom, touch, and love on one another. (among other things) When you bring a Prairie Dog pup home with you they will treat you as one of their family. Touching, kissing etc..
I did use the word exterminate in one of the previous sentence, which brings me to my next point. Though it doesn't have much to do with the actual "care" of Prairie Dogs I still feel it should be mentioned the different methods that are used to exterminate Prairie Dogs, and harvest them for that matter. The biggest thing I can think of is "The Prairie Dog Hunt." Actually there should be a lot of information there about the hunts and other methods of extermination.
Something else that Little Critters would like to bring up is humane capture. When looking in to a Prairie Dog as a pet, you should ask loads of questions. One of those should be "How was the Prairie Dog Captured?" A humane capture should be done by using a trickle of water down the hole. This causes the Prairie Dogs to come out. There shouldn't be "flooding" of the hole. At some points in the season brokers may use a little bit of natural soap. This is ok. One of the methods that has now been approved legally again is the vacuum method. This is a cruel and inhumane way to capture pups. If your broker says this is the way he/she captures walk away quickly. You'll find the best description of what Prairie Dog pups go though during vacuum capture here.
Information on this coming soon!
Housing should be taken very seriously when dealing with Prairie Dogs. Their cage should be their sanctuary, and it's your job to make sure it is as safe as possible. You're looking for a cage that is 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch spacing or no bigger than 1/2 inch by 1 inch spacing. The reason for the spacing is so that your Prairie Dog can't fit it's face in between the bars. The will chew, and rub their noses, and eventually rub them raw. Most times they will just lose the hair causing "cage nose," but they can rub soars so the spacing requirements are important ones. The second thing to address is flooring. Prairie Dogs have zero depth perception. They can and WILL fall off levels. It is very important that they have "full" levels as apposed to shelves. They will not only fall off shelves, but at times have been known to get their toes cause in the mesh flooring as they fall. Many suffer broken toes, and even loss of toes. (NOT pretty) We think it's best to have a wire mesh floor on the bottom of the cage, just because it's easier and cleaner to deal with. The other levels of the cage however can be covered for comfort. You can cover them totally or just add blankets etc... for them to play and sleep in. If you have a new pup especially, throwing an old T-shirt you have worn in is a wonderful idea. It has your scent on it so will help the Prairie Dog get to know you even while they are sleeping. You also want to make sure you have the bare essentials as well. A water bottle and food bowl should go without saying, but I'll add it anyway just in case. You should get two large dog crocks to place in the cage as well. One should be filled with soft cloth materials for bedding. One should be filled with safe litter such as Yesterdays News, or Feline Pine. There shouldn't be a lot of coaxing to use the litter box as Prairie Dogs have different chambers in their burrows in the wild for bathroom, food, sleeping, rearing young etc etc...
Sexing a PD is pretty easy if you know what you're looking for, so this will be a short paragraph. Note that the two "spots" on the male Prairie Dog is farther spread than the female. I think it's a little easier to sex Prairie Dogs when they are young as the fur is obviously not as prominent.
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We also wanted to show a picture of a pregnant female. The thing that is interesting about this, is that pregnant females start to turn white around the nipples.
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