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[shai]

hi i have 4 chinchillas: 1 adult male (4 years old) 1 adult female (3 years old) 1 "teenage" male (6 months old) 1 baby male (3 weeks old)
my question is how big should the cage be if i have 4 chinchillas?
mine is 1 meter tall, 69 sm long and 45 sm wide
should i make it longer?
i'll post a pic later on...

[shai]

here is how the cage looks like:
http://i30.servimg.com/u/f30/12/90/64/66/15141510.jpg
i'v added the branch 2 days ago...

[Sweetnessheart]

I have a question...

 Do you have your female in the same cage with all of the males?  If you do, you definitely need a separate cage for her unless you want more chinchillas and inbreeding to take place.  The adult male and teenage male will mate with her and when the three week old baby gets around 12 weeks old he will begin to try.

I do like the look of your cage.  The branch adds extra climbing and chewing places.

[ABC Chinchillas]

I agree you need to pull the female out with the baby and when the baby is 8 weeks old separate him from momma. You CANNOT have more than one male in the same cage as females. they will fight and kill each other over her. And chinchillas are animals they have no concept of relations they will mate with their, mother, sister whatever. At 8 weeks you can put the male in with the other males but you cannot leave the female in

[BrightEyed]

I also agree with the previous posts.  The mom and baby should be separated and the baby should be weaned around 8 weeks. You do not want any fighting or mating.

[shai]

my question was if my cage is big enough for 4 chinchillas not what i should do if i have 3 males and 1 female....

[Debbie.nl.ca]

The cage should be large enough for 4 , but 4 what's makes a big difference.

I gotta tell ya I got the shivers reading your post, and was thinking geez she's not going to put the chins listed in the same cage??? 

Maybe you should have said it a tad clearer, you wouldn't have rushed us all out so 

[shai]

i'm a boy not a girl and i just asked how big does the cage neads to be for four chinchillas

[Sweetnessheart]

I am sorry :-[  if I jumped on you for having males and females together.  I didn't fully understand your first question. 

I have several sizes of cages.  The one that I have 3 chinchillas living in is 2 feet wide by 2 feet deep and is 3 feet tall with several shelves.  They seem to have room to jump and play just fine. 

I also have a cage that is about 5 feet tall and 28 inches wide and 18 inches deep with a lot of shelves for jumping.  The chinchillas is this cage are very happy.  They can have their own space and not bother anyone else.

I think your cage is fine for four chinchillas.

But I have always heard the more room the better so if you have space for a bigger cage that would be something to consider!   

[shai]

ok thank you

[Debbie.nl.ca]

So sorry Shai I should have checked  please foregive me.
Granny Doyle is getting old ya see 

[Abby W.]

Did I misunderstand, or are you intending on breeding these chinchillas?  Because it does sound like you are going to put all of them together in one cage.  They would definitely breed in that situation.  And it could cause huge problems with infighting, as the males would compete over the female, even fighting to the death; and inbreeding of the babies with the mother, which could also cause serious health problems for the offspring. 

If I misunderstood what you were saying I apologize.  But if you are planning on having them all in one cage together, then you should definitely be aware of the possible problems that could come up.

[shai]

my chinchillas aren't that agressive so there wasn't a problem untill now. and my parent's friends are going to adopt the teenaged chinchilla so it's going to be just "mommy, daddy and the baby"

[Abby W.]

OK, just so you are aware, you will need to separate the baby from Mom at 8-10 weeks old, or else he might mate with her and produce inbred kits, which is not good.  Also, I would be careful about leaving Mom and Dad together all the time.  Females go into heat again immediately after having a baby, which means she could already be pregnant again.  This is called a breedback, and is not generally a good idea. It is really hard on the health of the mother, because she has to put her energy into rearing her already born kit, AND into growing another one.  This could cause health problems for her, including a lack of calcium (which can lead to seizures), unhealthy weight loss, and even heart problems. 

Since she is probably already pregnant again, I would monitor her weight very closely, if I were you.  And start giving her a supplement to her normal food.  Calf manna is always good for nursing moms, because it provides good calcium.  Also, adding some healthy calories to her diet would be good, like some rolled oat, or a grain supplement.

You should count 111 days from when this last kit was born, because that would be her due date for another one.  If you are pretty sure she is pregnant, I would recommend separating her before she has the next one, and keeping her separated for several months, so her body has time to recover before she breeds again.

Good luck and please let us know if you have any questions!