Diane Kipnis, owner

   USDA Licensed Class A Breeder

I fell in love with dwarf hamsters while visiting a pet store with my family over 25 years ago. They had a great display with a homemade climbing structure and they kept climbing up to the top and jumping off over and over. My daughter and I were laughing so hard, and that is all it took. We started breeding them and joined the Rat, Mouse and Hamster Fanciers Club to learn more about them. We made lots of great friends and started showing them. We did very well over the years and stopped collecting ribbons because we had too many to display! I qualified to be a hamster judge, and was President of the club for 2 terms.

Unfortunately, interest in the club diminished when the original members retired, and not enough new and active stepped up to take their place. I am one of the few still breeding, but now I breed for pets, and this is how I get nice hamsters. It’s all in the breeding, you start with non-biters (because biting the judge is a disqualification) and you get non-biting babies.

I became a USDA licensed breeder and sold to Petco until Corporate decided that I was too small of a vendor to deal with. Now I sell mostly to Mom & Pop stores and families who come over to pick out a new furball.

We moved to the Santa Cruz Mountains in 2010 and had a custom room built for my animals. It is perfect for my critters! Come visit us, we aren’t a pet store, we are a destination!

In 2011 I started breeding Syrian Hamsters and Fancy Rats, so I changed my name from Dwarf Hamster Habitat to Furball Critters. A couple years after that I started breeding chinchillas, and that is where I am today. My husband says "No more critters!". I just smile.