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[cookjl124]

A little bit about my husband and I

we adopted chinchillas from a Rescue in Buffalo NY about a year and a half ago. We picked two out of the four chins available.  We assumed the sex by their size…. So we called the larger on gracie and the smaller one yoda.  I doubt they were ever socialized by their original owners or ever let out because they don’t like to be touched or picked up… we don’t know the sex of yoda to this day because he will claw his way out of any pick up.  And we don’t want to traumatize him.  We found out the sex of Gracie after she had a seizure right in front of us during play time so the next day we went to the doctors and he said that her blood sugar was high according to the tests... so that may have caused the seizure... and gracie was an intacted male, we were told that the males we neutered when we adopted them.  I was told they were about 8yrs old when we adopted them so that would make then 9-10 years old.  We just moved into a house and they have a huge enclosure  in the basement  about 20’ x 12’ that yoda and gracie can enjoy.  The funnies thing is yoda can squeeze though the 1” bars… it is so astonishing to see him do that… and he roams around the basement checking things out… so for now we only let them out when we are with them… but I got some mess wire that I will put along the bottom to stop the sneaky little bugger…

Anyways this is my family of chins.  They are pets only and we will not breed them… I have no clue of their lineage and diseases they may have. 

Im pretty sure gracie is a standard but yoda has darker coloring compared to gracie… so I think hes a dark standard. 

I would like to start a herd over the next year but where do I start.  They only advice ive been given is to buy the most expensive stock I can afford to start our herd.  Where should I get my starting stock from?

My goal is to get a violet male and have a group of vc females… bv-vc, white-vc, beige-vc, dk ebony-vc.  I have been using the chin calculator and I would like the combinations to be simple so I don’t get over my head trying to figure out what the babies are once born.  What do you think the best pair would be to start out with?

I probably will get the male and one of the above females to start and add females as we can afford them.  There are not many breeders in ny and I don’t think there are any shows up here either.  The closes would be ohio and pa.  but I would love to come to a show in the near future.

so please point me in the right direction.

[jbcstratton]

If you are interested in breeding you need to do research and more research.  Breeding chinchillas is not all about cute little kits.  Feedings every two hours round the clock for moms who don't get milk or pass away, dead kits, or other problems.  If you then decide to breed, yes you need to get good stock, go to a show, you can usually pick up animals there.  I would start out with more simple combinations like standards or whites or ebony before you get into the more recessive mutation colors.  Others will tell you the same thing.  All chins do not get along and fights can break out any time and you could wake up with one or more dead chins.

[dianah]

i agree with j. if you've had your chins for nearly two years and cannot even manage to get one of them to let you see if it's a boy or a girl, you probably wouldn't be able to keep a baby that needs to be kept alive alive as it's not that easy to make them eat if they don't want to eat! or, treat a mum with mastitis which involves fairly long periods of holding the chin and massaging the inflamed area and applying a warm compress. or getting them to take medication - baytril in particular is extremely bitter. 
why do you want to breed?

[cookjl124]

wow dianah that is extremely rude. 

Just because i dont want to tramatize my little boy doesnt mean i cant accomplish the task... ive worked very hard with yoda.  and everytime i try to pick him up it puts us back a week or two... so its never been that important to me to if he were a boy or girl.  we assumed when the he was caged with 3 other chins for 8yrs with no pregnancies and that gracie was actually a male that the four of them were all males and the rescue was misinformed.  she didnt feel comfortable finding out if they were males or females when we picked two of them out so we didnt make a big deal about it.   Im not trying to breed them.  im trying to be informed about becoming a breeder.  are you a breeder?  if so why did you become one? I have seen many of posts where people are breeding pet store chins... why dont you go harrass them.  and by the way, a very nice lady gave me some good advice about how to calmly get yoda turned over and i was able to see what i already presumed that he was a male.  But i dout he will come to me anytime soon.   

thank you jbcstratton

i do realize that its not just about cute kits.  and i will continue to research before i make any solid decisions either for or against a chin herd.  thats why im ask questions first and acting second.   

[dianah]

i'm sorry, i didn't mean to be rude, sometimes it's difficult to get intonation across in writing. you are keeping two rescue chinchillas together not knowing what sex they are. they could be a couple. if they are, they will breed. you have no idea of their history. sometimes, a bit of stress can prevent a lot of heartache in the future.

i am not a breeder. however, i did raise four kids. these were accidental - i had two 'male' chins, the one that turned out to be a girl was sexed by two breeders as a male. by the time i found out she was a girl, there were three little babies and she was pregnant with the fourth. my boy was neutered and died two months later following a reaction to the anaesthetic during the a surgery he needed following the complications he developed after his neutering.

the first litter were triplets and fluffy had mastitis. this meant that i had to force feed three kits - one of them who was absolutely refusing to try and survive - get fluffy's mastitis better and manage chinchi's infection. i got about three hours of sleep in the first week. now fluffy has teeth problems and i am absolutely terrified that it could be genetic and hence some or all of the kits could be affected.

my question why you wanted to breed was asking what your interest in breeding is. different people breed for different reasons.. shows, perfecting colours, some people breed just to sell. i do not harass people. if you go through other posts i have written, you'll find out i'm actually trying to be helpful.

[dianah]

just an afterthought given that you have two boys: it is a good idea to check boys' penises for hair rings on a regular basis. if they do get one, the symptoms can show quite late.

[chinclub]

While it is important to get good animals the idea of "buying the most expensive stock you can afford" is ridiculous!  Breeders price their animals differently and I have seen animals priced way above what they are worth many times.  Don't go by the price tag.  What you need to do is find a good breeder somewhere in your area and get them to mentor you. An oldtimer is best, but someone who mentored under one of them is great too. When I started breeding many years ago that is what I did.  I found a great breeder and he spent many hours in his barn with me showing me chinchillas, explaining quality, and general herd management. He was mentored by Ralph Shoots and most of his animals were from Ralph's lines.   I have never spent more than $200 for a chinchilla myself and those were the violets.  Even when buying from the large ranchers with rooms of trophies I still didn't spend the kind of money I have seen others spend.  I have since produced many chinchillas that won ribbons and sold females that went on to produce grand show champions and I don't price any chinchilla above $200. 

My first suggestion to you is go to as many shows this season as you can.  Visit the Empress and MCBA websites and look for their show lists.  When you go sit in the front row.  Take a camera and a pen and paper.  Take lots of notes!  This will help you to understand what you are looking for.  Then go shopping. 

Don't get so complicated with your colors.  Your quality will come from you standards.  If everything in your herd is a mutation or a carrier you are never going to be able to keep any babies for breeding.  If you do your herd quality will go down no matter how much you spend on quality animals. You always need to go back to good dark standards to keep the lines up.  I had an awesome line of Violets that could go up against any violet and hold their own.  My secret was to breed my Violet males to 100% standard girls (the best of the best).  Those babies bred back to a Standard Violet carrier. These carriers were show quality and could have been shown next to regualar standards just fine. (some carriers loose size and fur quality ...don't use those) So 2 carriers together.  It took 2 years for the first true Violet to be produced but he won Color Class Champ.  So did the second and the third. 

Long story short, don't trust a price tag, and find a good breeder to mentor you...and go to those shows!  And please don't hesitate to ask your questions here.  I think breeding chinchillas can be a wonderful decision.  Yes it is hard, and expensive, and heartbreaking at times..but the rewards are wonderful!!!

You are on the right track asking the right questions and I wish you all the luck!

[cookjl124]

thank you for all the advice.  I'm in information overload.  But i think i now have a better understanding of why i shouldnt start directly with violets and breeding them with other complicated mixes.   Based on the shows coming up I wont be able to attend this year because my husband needs at least a month ahead of time and the april may shows for next year we'll have to play it by ear because im having a baby in march.   

[chinclub]

Congrats on a new baby! You will have your hands full.  I managed to start my first chinchilla herd right at the same time I had a baby too.  It made for a hand full of work!!!