Breeding age

I read about it in various articles. I read about it on different aph forum. Breeders and aph owners on one american forum goes mentall over that.

Here's a question for Irish breeders: what in your opinion (based on experience) is the best age for female to retire from breeding ??

The golden question.........I like it.

Well, now here's one for debate (or argument depending on who you're dealing with). It doesn't matter what people may say or offer as opinion, the facts speak for them selves. These animals once had an average life expectancy of 3, then it rose to 4 and then 5. That figure also depended what side of the world you lived on. In America they reported hogs living to 10+ while in mainland Europe they where hitting 6 soooooooo as they CAN live to over 10 but may die when they are 3, how can you make a call on it? It's not possible, so at this point you would get your 'don't breed after 2yrs because it's life may be 2/3 over' people jumping in, which is a fair point but one I don't personally agree with. As we have seen an increase in the life expectancy then the breeding age should in theory, have risen, which it has.

One question I often asked myself was were the hogs, the original ones we took into captivity, were they kept correctly? Funny isn't it, the more we learn & the better we keep them all round, the longer they seem to live for. This not only raises but answers some questions in it's self, I think so anyway. We now know husbandry in general has been incorrect for many years so obviously played a role. Some books that have not reached 10yr mark yet are out of date and advice on a set up which IMO would shorten the life of your animal significantly BUT these went to print because this is what people believed at the time to be true, a little like the world being flat.........we believed that once.

If you're breeding a long time and you noticed within some lines you're averaging on 8yrs, then you could breed to 5-6 years and allow the old girl to live out those days in peace BUT some people say NO don't breed before 6months or after 2yrs or will stretch that to 4yrs and I know of a few who'd come in here and argue with me till the cows came home but it's all opinion.

At the end of the day when you have an animal in your possession who's life span is so varied how in gods name can anyone make a sure call. Guide lines yes, but then that's when you come up against your never after 2 or 3yrs.

Look at it this way, women can reproduce in their 60's, does it mean it's a good idea, no it takes so much out of the body and causes more physical stress but that woman could die the following year or live to 100. It is a fact however the older the animal the higher the chance of seeing problems but again this is a personal choice so regardless of what decision you come to, it should be based on the information you have gained from studying these animals and not what some 'high horse' people say you should do.

geee... you're everywhere

I'm more then happy that finally someone approched this subject with open mind. It's true what you say that most people would say that 2/ 2,5y is max and don't go beyond.
IF longer lifespan means slower ageing process then female should be definately able to go preggo longer.
I'll tell you in 10 years time what I know about breeding age :P

Since you're the only long time hedgehog breeder I guess I got my answer ;P

It's my job, Tony will tell you too, we go cross eyed keeping the forum in check

And a great job you do too