ICYMI ... a dog owner was mauled to death by his own pit bulls in Compton, California, last Thursday, though his body wasn't discovered -- bloody and lying in his backyard -- until Friday.

Big Gemini Kennels -- a popular pit breeder with a huge following in the Los Angeles dog community and no association to the mauling -- tells TMZ ... the victim of this horrible incident appears to have perhaps taken on more than he could handle by trying to herd so many dogs together. That's BGK's view here, anyway.

Big Gemini tells us they feel like trying to manage 13 dogs -- even with some of them being puppies -- is just far too many. Not just that, but reports from the County that this man appeared to be feeding all the dogs when he died stands out as another red flag to BGK.

We're told that giving them food like all at once may have exacerbated the issue ... and maybe even sent the dogs into a frenzy.

It should be noted ... Big Gemini doesn't have all the info investigators do and is basing their findings on news reports and other publicly available info. With that said, the company's pretty sure there were a few dogs too many here with all of them running around the property when the body was found.

BGK tells us feeding so many dogs at once can lead to heightened food aggression ... and they theorize two adult dogs were probably fighting over some chow when the breeder tried to break things up. At that point ... they suspect all the dogs might've turned on him.

Instead of housing all the dogs in one location in his backyard --- among a variety of kennels -- Big Gemini Kennels says this man should have considered splitting the pups up ... feeding just two or three at a time instead of all 13.

The dogs have since been euthanized ... a move Big Gemini says is necessary because they could have gone on to attack their future families. FWIW ... BGK tells us they believe the puppies could have been rehabilitated ... but they also note, it might've not been worth the risk of these dogs hurting another person. That's how L.A. County felt about it.

Big Gemini goes on to tell us people have been asking about the risks of pit bulls attacking people in the aftermath of this viral new story ... but they emphasize people should fear people more than the dogs themselves -- as they note, it's all about how the dogs are raised.