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[sashasmommy]

how do you tell when a female is in heat?

[Debbie.nl.ca]

The males go crazy,  but if you only have females you may notice her area has opened some with a whitish discharge.

[Jo Ann]

   Chinchillas are very clean, so you will notice her cleaning herself more often ... several times a day.
She will be slightly swollen, with a slight discharge and usually a tiny dot of bright red blood can be seen below the discharge.

The male will be very excitable and usually doing a mating ritual known as the "Swish, Swish Tail Dance".  He will be swishing his tail back and forth, then do a little hop-hop, swishing the tail and repeating the little hop-hop.  If you can see his face, often they will even look like they are smiling!  He will do this off and on until the female says yes. 

Of course, she will not say yes until she is in full season, in the meantime, she may become annoyed by the constant asking and spray him a few times.    

He may become over eager and try before she says yes, then they will usually end up in a little scuffle ... no blood, but usually a little fur flies.  If you see biting or blood ... separate them.

I'll post pictures of a female in season.

Hope this helps!

    Jo Ann

[sashasmommy]

And I am assuming their cycle is much like a human's right? Are there any books out there about their reproduction? Im completely fascinated with this..way more interesting than any of my other animals. (Ugh..imagine dogs with two uterus's!) All the books I have right now are...not very credible and definatly written on a 2nd grade level.

[Jo Ann]

    There are two books that I recommend  "After 40 Years Alice Kline Talks About Chinchillas"  by Alice Kline.  You can find this one at: http://www.mutationchinchillas.com/  and click on General Store.

And "The Joy of Chinchillas" by Betti Cogswell, RN, Lani Ritchey, and Roxane Beeman -these are chinchilla researchers and the founders of The California Chinchilla Association.  You can find this one at: http://www.cachins.org/  and click on Store.

These two books will give you almost all the information you need/want on chinchillas.  They may cost a little more, but they are worth their weight in gold when you need them.

I have found most of the little books on chinchillas that are out there, are full of mistakes, some that would even kill your chin.  Most of these are written by people that have never even owned a chinchilla ... people that have gotten most of their information from the internet ... and if you look around enough ... you will know that is not the place to get the information!

    Jo Ann

[sashasmommy]

very cool thanks! ive gotta order those