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Do not buy a wallaby
from someone who is unwilling to show you their breeding premises (or at
least photographs). Never buy a wallaby from an auction, especially if
it is a baby. Who knows how much stress it has endured on the way to market,
how recently it has been fed? Who bred it? Who are you going to call for
advice when you need it? And forget any guarentees. Most of the time there
is no information regarding the seller or the care of the animal attached
to the crate. While there are a lot of honest decent people who take their
animals to auctions and take special care that they are well looked after,
it is hard to sort the wheat from the chaf in an auction environment. The
sale numbers come up and you bid and what you get is purely luck of the
draw. A lot of the sellers don't want you to be able to track them down,
they just want to take your money and run.
Male
joeys are usually cheaper than females but there are draw backs. All joeys
like to play fight when they are little and it is so cute that it is hard
to resist indulging them and play fighting back with your hands. Female
joeys, even though they remain tame and affectionate, lose interest in
this kind of play as they grow up. A male joey's interest in play fighting
escalates as he gets older and he will not understand when you no longer
want to play with him when he weighs over 30lbs and wants to jump on you
and affectionately pummel you into a concussion every time you visit him.
If you want to use your tame male joey for breeding later on, never play
fight with him and discourage him with a sharp NO! if he attempts it. If
your wallaby is going to be strictly a pet, then have him neutered at least
several weeks prior to the breeder sending him to you. The cost of the
neutering will almost certainly add to the price of the joey. Spaying is
not necessary with female wallabies. Like all females, they are sweet and
reasonable at all times (how can you tell that this was written by a woman?).
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