Is $325 a good deal for a unregistered female Morkie?
I am going to be buying an unregistered mixed breed Morkie (Maltese & Yorkie) She will be small...maybe teacup...I've heard there's no such thing...but just emphasizing she will be small. She's up to date on her shots. Do you think $325 is too much for her...or is it a good price?
2009-02-26T08:44:34Z
I've looked at shelters...there is nothing but older dogs of this kind. And when I look at supposedly reputable breeders....they too have the mixed breed dogs...of course they are certified but they want around $1000 for them if not more.
And I'm not sure that's true that mixed breeds cant be registered. I've read this on a website:
Mixed Breed Dog Clubs of America (MBDCA), founded in 1978, stresses obedience and companionship and requires all dogs registered to be spayed or neutered. Their conformation competition, obviously, cannot judge mixed breeds against breed standards but, in the interest of responsible ownership, they evaluate physical soundness, good health, and personality. Dogs registered with MBDCA can earn championships and titles.
First, of course she's unregistered. You can only register a purebred. Secondly, I think that's way too much money to spend on a mixed breed dog. You can go to any shelter and rescue one instead of paying that kind of money.
A "morkie" (jeez, what a name) cannot be registered because it is NOT a breed. It is a mutt. A fancy mutt perhaps (for argument's sake only), but still a mutt. A cross between any two or more breeds of dogs is a mutt. Would you pay $325 for a mutt?
Better yet though -- perhaps you could look for a dog or puppy with a rescue group or pound where you'd be saving a life as well as getting a new pet. I'd much rather pay the $325 to a deserving rescue group for a fully vetted puppy (shots, spayed/neutered, etc.) than to some disreputable and/or amateur breeder advertising "morkies."
**ADD** In reply to your added comments. The group you've listed is a MIXED BREED GROUP. If you're happy with registering your dog with a mixed breed group -- that's great. They are not AKC or UKC. Basically the group you list is a "fun", "get together" kind of group for people who own mutts or mixed breeds. They emphasize obedience and agility training because they cannot emphasize or even address breed standards. Mutts do not have standards. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, it's probably a very good thing for its members. But it's a meaningless group as far as showing, breeding, etc. goes. The titles the dogs win through the group are pertinent only to the group -- not elsewhere.
From your comments, I don't think you've given rescue even half a chance. Which is a true shame. You could find the love of your life through a rescue group. But you won't give it the time you need to find an appropriate match. There has to be more than just the pound/shelter in your area. There must be other private rescue groups as well -- they are literally everywhere.
Have you looked through www.petfinder.com? You can search by location as well as breeds and you may find the breed mix you're looking for. You could also google search yorkie rescue groups or maltese rescue groups in your area. But I wouldn't limit yourself to those breeds (maltese and yorkie) if I were you when looking at rescue groups -- you may find a little guy who's personality just blows you away and yet the lineage may be completely unknown. Please rethink rescue.
Go to: http://www.petfinder.com/ You can search available dogs by location, breed (or leave that blank for a better search), gender, size and age.
OR to find a rescue in your area go to this page and put in your zip code:
http://www.petfinder.com/shelters.html
Here are just a very few of the listings that came up when doing a search on Petfinder for animal: dog, size: small, age: baby, location: Dallas, TX -- and they're all precious:
So as you can see -- there are plenty of rescue puppies available in your area if you take the time to research. And this is just through Petfinder. I have no doubt there are others. Another idea: talk with local vets -- find out if they know of rescue groups and such they can put you in contact with. It would be so much better to do this than to simply line the pockets of a disreputable breeder.
Any "designer dog" breeder will charge a lot more than they deserve. There's no reason to spend many hundreds of dollars on the initial price of a mutt when you could easily go to a shelter and find the same kind of mix with the same kind of unsatisfactory-for-breeding genetics for much less. Why? Because buying a mutt from a breeder is encouraging the breeder to keep making more puppies to sell to the kind of people who fall for the "designer" thing (not the kind of people I'd want to trust with a live animal, honestly; when I think of designer things like clothes and jewelry, I think of pretty things that are cool one moment but later go out of style, and that's never how a dog should be thought of). Adopting from a shelter is saving a life, and when you pay the adoption fee and free up a cage, you help make it possible for the shelter workers to care for the other animals during their time there and take in another animal who has nowhere else to go.
If this was a litter that can from a dog that was rescued, the puppies are altered, all vaccinations, and come with an extensive contract, has had an extensive vet check (not just a wellness check, but a patella, heart, liver, etc check), and the parents are now fixed, then I have no problem with it.
Anything else is supporting a small scale puppy mill/backyard breeder and I cannot condone that.
For the health problems that this puppy will be prone to due to the bad breeding, $325 is nowhere near a good deal. My puppy mill/BYB dog had $2500 in problems her first year. My friend's Lhasa mix from a BYB has had $5000 in liver surgeries (complications that are COMMON in BYB dogs).
If you like small dogs, why wouldn't you buy a purebred from a good breeder? What's more important, health or price?
"supposedly reputable breeders....they too have the mixed breed dogs" No RESPONSIBLE breeder sells mutts. Reputable does not = responsible. Michael Vick was reputable in certain circles.
This ad also states that the puppy is 7 weeks old! Yorkies and Maltese need to be 12 weeks old before they leave mom. That should be a HUGE clue that this isn't someone who has even a clue of what they are doing.
I understand the desire for a puppy, but rescue groups do not always list ALL their dogs online. Have you turned in applications? Have you spoken with numerous rescue groups? No puppies in the Dallas area?
How bout the litter of Westies here: http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=13068263
And what looks like a Yorkie x Poodle puppy here: http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=13066074
Another potential Yorkie mix puppy: http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=13066073
A baby chihuahua: http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=13128759
A Shih Tzu x Pug puppy: http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=12945896
A Shih Tzu puppy that suffers from the Liver Shunt I mentioned earlier is up for adoption: http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=12177307
I guess what it comes dow to is the type of person you are. The type who waits for the perfect mutt puppy from a shelter/rescue, or the type who gives money to someone who fills up the shelters by breeding recklessly. I know which type I am.
http://www.petfinder.com (shelter/rescue animals) http://www.ytca.org Yorkie Rescue http://www.pbrc.net/breeding3.html to learn about what responsible breeders ACTUALLY look like http://www.americanmaltese.org/ Maltese Rescue
Any mixed breed is not worth more than the price of shots - $30 - $50.
Just because a registry was made in order to cater to the ignorant people of the world does not make it legitimate nor does it make the papers "real". Only purebred dogs should be registered and only then by reputable kennel clubs.
There is no such thing as a reputable breeder that intentionally mixes breeds. Any that do this are puppymills or back yard breeders trying to make quick money with no care for their dogs.