Why Buy from a Breeder? Why Buy from Dorman Exotics?

Breeder pricing may sometimes be a little higher than an animal you get from a pet store or someone who just happens to have 2 pets and lets them breed.  There are many reasons to buy from a reputable breeder and it is always good to ask questions and make sure you are buying from someone who is knowledgeable and cares about their animals.  When you buy from a pet store, you do not know where the animal came from.  More than likely, it has never been handled much and is not very tame.  You have no guarantee that the animal is not inbred and doesn't have genetic health issues.  When you purchase from a random person who happens to have a few babies available, more times than not, you will find that the person does not have lineage on the parent hedgehogs.  Good breeders ensure that they are not inbreeding and not breeding genetic defects into their lines.  Hedgehogs do not have a great survival rate with their babies, so some matings are unsuccessful.  Tenrecs only breed once a year.  It costs a lot of money and time for a breeder to acquire tame animals with good lineage, get regular vet visits, feed the animals properly, house them properly, maintain proper temperature for them, maintain a USDA-license, educate potential buyers, provide follow-up support for buyers, be a member of IHA, hold all of their babies daily, stay involved in the community, stay educated about their animals, have successful breedings, and give any kind of health guarantee.  This is what Dorman Exotics does and these are the types of questions you should be asking of any breeder you may choose to buy from.

Our Purchasing Policy

When you buy a hedgehog or lesser hedgehog tenrec from Dorman Exotics, you are getting a baby that has been handled regularly.  We keep full lineage and give a lifetime health guarantee against Wobbly Hedgehog Syndrome (with a WHS-familiar vet-proven necropsy).  If there is a problem with our lines, we want to know about it.  We do not anticipate having these types of issues, but if your hedgehog should develop WHS, we will offer you a replacement hedgehog (or a refund if none is available) after receiving the necropsy results.   With the tenrecs, we do have limited lineage on some, due to the new bloodlines that were imported in 2010.  The tenrecs have a 30-day guarantee against genetic defects or illnesses that were contracted while in our care.  This must be proven via a vet report.  The guarantee does not cover neglect while in your care.  We will work with you to ensure you understand how to properly care for your new baby and will provide support after you get your baby home as well.

All of our babies are sold as pet quality and not to be used for breeding purposes, unless you are approved by us to breed the animal.  If you wish to breed, we want to work with you to ensure you get a breeder-quality animal.  These are typically animals with more recorded lineage, specific personality traits, etc.  We may have different pricing on breeder-quality animals as well.

Our Deposit / Holding Policy

Deposits may be made online via PayPal or in cash.  All deposits are non-refundable unless something happens to the hedgehog or tenrec and we are unable to provide you with a suitable replacement animal.

We require a $50 non-refundable deposit to hold any available hedgehog or be on our waiting list for first-priority on an upcoming litter.  For the tenrecs, we require a $100 non-refundable deposit.  We are unable to hold any hedgehog or tenrec without a deposit.  If you are on our waiting list and we have a suitable baby for you, we will notify you via email and you will have 24 hours to respond before we may offer the hedgehog or tenrec to the next person.  Should you respond after the 24 hours and the animal becomes unavailable, we can move you down on the waiting list to be offered the next available animal.  We understand that these things can happen.  Should you change your mind, we will remove you from the waiting list and keep your deposit.  Because breeders are often looking for specific traits or lines, we will at times give breeders higher priority in choosing a baby.

The remaining payment on the hedgehog or tenrec is due at the time of pickup.  Pickup must occur by the time the animal is 8 weeks old.  If you are unable to pick up the hedgehog by the time it is 8 weeks old, you will need to pay for the animal in full and we will continue to hold it (up to 12 weeks depending on available space).  If full payment is not made by the time the hedgehog is 8 weeks old, we may allow someone else to adopt it and move you down on the waiting list.  If we are shipping a hedgehog or tenrec to you, we must receive a full payment for both the animal and the shipping cost before we will ship out the animal.  We reserve the right to hold the baby a little longer if we feel it is not ready to go for any reason.

Our Refund / Exchange Policy

If you find that the hedgehog or tenrec is not working out for you, we will offer to exchange the animal.  All exchanges must be made within 30 days.  If you decide for any reason that a hedgehog or tenrec is not the right pet for you, these are our pro-rated refund amounts:

Return	Refund
Within 7 days of purchase date	100% x (purchase price minus deposit)
8-15 days after purchase date	75% x (purchase price minus deposit)
16-30 days after purchase date	25% x (purchase price minus deposit)
After 30 days	No refund, but we will accept the animal back in good health

Shipping and other delivery costs are non-refundable.  This return and exchange policy does not apply to any hedgehog or tenrec that is returned to us unhealthy or injured while in the care of the buyer.  Also, hedgehogs and tenrecs do not do well around cigarette or other smoke.  If you or someone else smokes in the environment where the animal will be kept, we will not exchange the hedgehog because it is likely that another hedgehog or tenrec would not do well there either.  These animals are extremely sensitive to scent.

We strongly encourage you to take your new hedgehog or tenrec in to the vet for a wellness checkup within 72 hours of bringing him/her home.  This will allow the vet to get familiar with your new pet and discover any potential health issues right away.  We recommend annual wellness checks (or more often if problems arise).  We offer a lifetime guarantee against Wobbly Hedgehog Syndrome (WHS) on hedgehogs and will replace your hedgehog (or issue a full refund if we are unable to provide a suitable replacement) upon receiving a necropsy report from a WHS-familiar veterinarian.

If you are unable to keep your hedgehog or tenrec, we ask that you would first contact us for help in finding a new home.  We will do our best to help you find a good, loving home for your pet.  We strive to find permanent homes for our babies and do not want to later find them for sale online or in an animal shelter.

These policies do not apply to other products purchased from our store.

Our Hedgehog Pricing

This is a general guideline of how we price our baby hedgehogs.  We may occasionally have retired adult hedgehogs that we are trying to re-home.  They will be priced much differently.  All hedgehogs come with lifetime health guarantee against Wobbly Hedgehog Syndrome and 1lb of our food mix.  As we have more colors or patterns available through our breeding program, we will add them to this list.  Shipping fees will be our cost.  We do  not profit on shipping.  We may be willing to drive up to 2 hours to meet you part-way if you are not in the Des Moines area.  There will be a gas charge for this.  Also, if you choose to pay the bulk of your balance through PayPal, there will be a $5 charge to cover the processing fee.

Color	Price
Light-Medium color quills	$150
Dark quills with light face mask	$165
Dark quills with dark face mask	$175
Pattern
Small-medium ammt of pinto	add $5-25
High pinto (over 50%)	add $25-50
Pinto face, blaze face, split face	$225-275
Other
2nd hedgehog bought @ same time	$50 off

Our Tenrec Pricing

This is a general guideline of how we price our baby tenrecs.  We may occasionally have retired adult tenrecs that we are trying to re-home.  They will be priced much differently.  All tenrecs come with a 30-day health guarantee against genetic defects and illnesses contracted while in our care and 1lb of our food mix.  Shipping fees will be our cost.  We do  not profit on shipping.  We may be willing to drive up to 2 hours to meet you part-way if you are not in the Des Moines area.  There will be a gas charge for this.  Also, if you choose to pay the bulk of your balance through PayPal, there will be a $5 charge to cover the processing fee.

Details	Price
Pet only (no lineage or IHR #)	$700
Breeding male (lineage & IHR #)	$1200
Breeding female (lineage & IHR 3)	$1000
2 or more same-sex pet	$1100 ($300 off)
3 or more same-sex pet	$1500 ($600 off)
2 for breeding	$300 off
3 or more for breeding	larger discounts available

Cage Packages

We have two cage setups available for purchase.  The Basic Setup package contains the essentials to get you started with your new hedgehog or tenrec.  The Complete Setup has everything you need for daily care  and bath time.  We recommend the complete setup for hedgehogs and the basic setup for tenrecs.  For more information about the individual products that we offer, please visit our Supplies page.

Description	Individual Price	Basic Setup	Complete Setup
Package Price		$75	$95
Bin-style Cage (w/water bottle & feeder silo)	$45	*	*
Cake-Topper Wheel	$35	*	*
Small Nestbox (w/fleece)	$7
Large Nestbox (w/fleece)	$10	*	*
Litter		*	*
Food silo		*	*
3 cat ball toys			*
Shampoo			*
Poop Scooper			*
Cuticle clippers (for trimming nails)			*
Toothbrush (for bath)			*