I've been considering breeding hamsters for years now (we ended up breeding cockatiels for a time instead) but after several recent experiences with Petco and Petsmart, I really want to start taking a more serious look into it.
My reasons are not for entertainment, I am genuinely interested in changing things in my area. Small pets are quite popular here (likely because we're a college town). Rescues are very difficult to come by and with 2 local pet shops supplying every species of hamster, there are no breeders to be found anywhere near.
So far our experiences with these shops have included a parakeet who died within a few hours of coming home, another clearly dying parakeet spotted in their enclosure, hamsters on the sales floor with wet tail, hamsters on the sales floor with obvious eye infections, and hamsters who dropped dead of no apparent reason within weeks of coming home.
We currently have 2 robos I purchased from a pet store but after seeing the reality of those shops and where the animals originate from, I'll never support them again. Even if I have to drive hours to pick up a pet.
Our locally owned pet shop even stopped carrying hamsters due to the condition they were in when they arrived (kudos to them for doing that much).
I have very little experience with WWs and zero experience with Campbell's or Chinese so I'm leaning towards Syrians and/or Robos. I'm just having a terrible time finding Syrian breeders and absolutely no luck finding Robos.
If it helps, I'm located in southeast Kentucky but I do occasionally visit family in Eastern Louisiana as well as the Joplin, MO area so any breeders who may be located between those areas and Kentucky would be a possibility as well.
I won't be jumping into this unprepared so any other information anyone wants to link me to would be great! I've been doing a lot of googling and reading past threads here so it's been a great resource.
Just have to locate some new friends!