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Author Topic: Breeding, Buying, and Indecision  (Read 3327 times)

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animalluver

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Breeding, Buying, and Indecision
« on: September 18, 2011, 07:51:01 AM »

Last year I purchased my second chinchilla, being worried about my first being lonely. But my first hated my second so they currently live in separate cages. The point of the second chin was so the first wouldn't be lonely, but now they both are. I know its hard for females to get along, so I was thinking I might try to get a boy? Or, I would take the second female to a breeder to see if she got along with another female BEFORE the purchase. The problem is, I am only "allowed" to have two chinchillas. The first chinchilla I got started out being sweet. She would leap into my arms when I opened the cage. Now she doesn't even want me to pick her up. Should I try and sell my first chinchilla? As a breeder, or a pet (she is almost 3)? I want her to have a better life than I can give her, because I often am really busy and don't have time to try and get her to run or play. Also, the male I am looking for for the second female is just a baby. I know he really shouldn't breed until he is one, but since he is a baby does that mean they WON'T breed if I put them together, or that they will but won't be READY? If the latter is the case, should I just have them live separately for a year? If it would be advisable to get a female for her, should I get a baby or one who is her age? If I get a baby, will she try to establish dominance or will she take care of it like she would one of her own babies (she is a little over 1)?
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hayandraisins

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Re: Breeding, Buying, and Indecision
« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2011, 06:04:00 AM »

It worries me a little that you don't have any time for your first Chinchilla but are talking about getting a male and breeding them, surely if you don't have time for one you will have no time to properly breed and care for several Chins at one? Do your Chinchilla's still interact between the cages? Have you tried introducing them again? Not sure if pairing Chins is the same as buns where it doesn't matter on age/size etc.
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Jhenderson27

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Re: Breeding, Buying, and Indecision
« Reply #2 on: September 19, 2011, 07:23:39 AM »

I would advise against breeding, if you dont have the time now, you surely will not have the time when babies are born and they require a TON of time.  Breeding is not something to take lightly, there are many happy moments and there are also the unhappy moments, if you are not attentive to the situation, more of the latter can happen.  Continue trying to pair up your females, it is not the flip of a switch, it took a couple months for us to get our first 2 paired. 

As for the young male and older female, just because they are opposite sex does not mean they will be freinds, she could bully him, hurt him or kill him if she wanted, or vise versa.  please think long and hard before you make a choice as your there to protect them.
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dianah

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Re: Breeding, Buying, and Indecision
« Reply #3 on: September 19, 2011, 10:34:26 AM »

i agree, breeding is not a good idea if you're short on time. also, getting a boy doesn't mean he'll get on with either. what i would suggest as a better plan of action would be to try and bond the two chins you've got. chinchi and fluffy took over 2 months to introduce and he wanted to kill her until the last week. then they wouldn't even have a dust bath without the other. similarly, spock and mae, i started the intros in april and they're still living separately. they could probably go together full time but i'm super cautious because she's tiny and is missing a leg. what have you tried? maybe we can help?
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animalluver

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Re: Breeding, Buying, and Indecision
« Reply #4 on: September 19, 2011, 04:06:17 PM »

The breeding thing makes sense. I've been trying to introduce the two for over a year. I worked every day for about two months, but it's gotten spread out over time. If the two were trying to kill each other dianah, what did you do? Keep putting them together? I don't want to believe my first could kill my second, but about a year ago I let the two run together and she bit the second one (no injuries, just a fur-slip).
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Squirrel_Butt

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Re: Breeding, Buying, and Indecision
« Reply #5 on: September 19, 2011, 05:14:40 PM »

Unless you know exactly what you are doing, I would not reccommend breeding.  Besides that fact that the male could be killed by the female, some color combinations can produce seriously flawed or dead offspring. Keep in mind that although it is rare, pregnancy complications can arise.  If the mother suffers distocia (kit stuck in birth canal), she requires immediate vet attention if she and the kit are to survive. If you are not there and that rare situation occurs, you could lose them.  That kind of loss will no doubt leave you feeling responsible.  That feeling of guilt combined with the already powerful feelings of loss will make it a pain that will shatter you to the core.  Before seriously breeding chins, talk to many people who have done it already.  The only reason I have my own kits is that Raisin was pregnant when I adopted her. I found out when I brought her to the vet later that week.  Even then I was not sure she was going to survive.  Females should not be bred until they are at least 8 months old. Raisin was 7/1/2 months when I adopted her and she was already 2/3 pregnant.  I had to give up my social life to be with her, to make sure she was going to be ok during delivery.  I was quite fortunate that she delivered without any problems.  Before you do anything, really think it through. 

Sorry I know this was long.
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hayandraisins

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Re: Breeding, Buying, and Indecision
« Reply #6 on: September 20, 2011, 01:47:00 AM »

Is bonding Chinchillas similar to bonding rabbits? Does anyone know then can advice based on my rabbit bonding experience
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AnnieHank

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Re: Breeding, Buying, and Indecision
« Reply #7 on: September 20, 2011, 04:13:48 AM »

I wouldn't intentionally set out to breed chinchillas unless I had a stay at home job to be honest. I was told my two wouldn't breed and I took that at face value but two litters later it was apparent that wasn't quite true. Annie doesn't really like being a mother, she did the bare minimum, fed them (giving out all the time) but spent her time trying to get away from the kits both times. If you do decide to breed, you have to be aware you could need a few cages. Then there's the hassle of what to do with the kits? Will you be able to find good homes for them? They can breed for a very long time and that can mean a lot of kits to rehome. Breeding can be lovely but my god is it worrysome if you're new at it and I found rehoming the first set of kits incredibly sad. When I finally decided that Annie had enough and got Hank neutered, he died from complications. A few months on and I'm still heartbroken. There's just so much that can go wrong. I really wouldn't recommend it at all.
If you're having trouble introducing two chinchillas, breeding will only multiply that as there are many more chinchillas to the mix.
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dianah

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Re: Breeding, Buying, and Indecision
« Reply #8 on: September 20, 2011, 08:57:40 AM »

The breeding thing makes sense. I've been trying to introduce the two for over a year. I worked every day for about two months, but it's gotten spread out over time. If the two were trying to kill each other dianah, what did you do? Keep putting them together? I don't want to believe my first could kill my second, but about a year ago I let the two run together and she bit the second one (no injuries, just a fur-slip).

separated them as soon as he went for her (he wanted to kill her, she didn't want to kill him back), had breaks between meets, tried different arrangements - taken them to a different room (that made a huge difference as chinchi thought the chinchilla room was his room and that was it, there were also all these new things to explore), scattered chews around, put sand baths around. swapped fur/poo/toys/houses between cages, shared dust baths.
some chinchillas never get on.

however, have you thought breeding through? if you manage to bond a boy and a girl, you will have to separate them just before birth so the girl doesn't get pregnant straight away as this is not a good thing. so now you've got two cages. then you'll have kits, at 8 weeks you have to separate boys. they cannot got in with the dad unless you have a completely separate area where they cannot smell or see the girls. if you don't, then the dad will have to stay separate and the boys can stay together until they're 4 months old, then you'll have to separate them too (what if you've got four?). girls can stay with mum (provided they get on) but obviously you cannot put dad back. you may not be able to reintroduce dad back to mum after the separation. most people have 2-3 litters a year. chinchillas can have up to 6 kits although 3 is more usual. this is just the framework should everything go well.
if you are too busy to spend time with your adult chinchilla, will you be able to hand feed the babies every two hours, day and night for up to eight weeks? i got about half an hour sleep between each feed, thankfully i only had to do it for three weeks and my work was very understanding. my kits were accidental (fluffy was supposed to be a boy) and it was extremely stressful to go into that room wondering if you're going to find a dead kit or not. they all pulled through but i looked like i'd been hit by a bus.
this is also a longterm commitment, someone had mentioned that their 18 year old was pregnant. where are the kits going to go? is your vet experienced in performing emergency c-sections on chinchillas? are you prepared for the mother to die through pregnancy/birth complications? are you prepared for kits to die? i am not being mean, but these are all very common possibilities and you need to know before you make that decision.
also, do you know the history of your girl? i think the standard is to make sure there's no genetic problems spanning through past five generations.
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animalluver

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Re: Breeding, Buying, and Indecision
« Reply #9 on: September 21, 2011, 05:30:21 AM »

Both my chins are girls. The second is a pure ebony, and the first is hetero beige, I'm not sure what her parents are. I'm not going to get a boy, in any case. Do you think if I put the two together in a new room the first wouldn't go for the second? If she did would I be able to stop her in time?
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dianah

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Re: Breeding, Buying, and Indecision
« Reply #10 on: September 21, 2011, 09:00:03 AM »

i meant genetic health conditions rather than colours. say your chin's perfectly fine but her great grandma suffered from malocclusion, the kits would have a chance to have that too.

well, she probably will go for her. to start with. i have always managed to get to them on time but a lot of people use towels to throw over them if there's any trouble. i made the mistake of thinking that if i put them in a pen - small space, easy for me to intervene - it would be safer. but they were so freaked out about not having anywhere to escape that the 'playdates' lasted a few seconds before i had to separate them. then i took them into the new room as the chin room had places i could not get to easily if it kicked off so i took them into the bedroom and it completely changed. instead of going straight for her, they explored the room! have clothes on the floor, chews, few rolled oats in places - things of interest. they would 'bump' into one another while exploring and it would usually freak them out or they would start chasing. but it very much changed from being 'i'm going to kill you' to 'oh look this is new, i didn't get to do this before you arrived'. then i started doing cage swaps. at first only a couple of hours during the day, then i did one or two full night ones so they would get used to each other's smell without being in the same cage with them. and then, i felt brave and cleaned put them in together. had to take him out after two seconds. tried a couple of times the day after, it was ok for a little longer. the day after, they groomed faces. after half an hour of that, i left, i was quite happy that they were ok together.
remember they will chase and they will do stuff that may look wrong (mounting etc) but some things are acceptable and some are not. i'm generally not happy if there's prolonged mounting - if they mount once, get told off and then stop that's ok, too much chasing and more than one or two fur slips. barking usually means that things are gonna kick off as well. also, if you've never seen two chinchillas groom one another, it does look as if they're outright biting each other (which they are but there's fur in the way!) so maybe look it up on youtube or something just so you know that that's a good sign rather than bad!

it's not an easy thing - not for me, definitely because you do worry but if you succeed, they're going to be very very happy :)
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