They are house broke. Basically white prairie dogs are what Keith Crew has been raising at the Prairie Homestead near the west entrance to the Badlands National Park. He got his first white male prairie dog in 1966 from the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Frank Yort, Badland's Superintendent helped catch the animal north of Rockyford. Most of the white prairie dogs in captivity trace back to Lubbock, Texas and the people there got them from Keith Crew 20 years ago.
Prairie dogs have only one litter of five pups a year.
The gestation period is only 21 days, but the pups don't come out of the ground until they are 44 days old, are somewhat grown and have already been weaned. In South Dakota they appear somewhere between May 6 and 20. To get into the business of selling prairie dogs Keith jumped through many hoops. He first got a Zoo License. Then his operation is inspected by a local Veterinarian every four months.