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[Mindy.Chin]

So I am a first time Chinchilla owner, and I just bought my first chin last week. The woman I bought her from said she was around two years old. She also waited until AFTER I paid her the money to inform me that she has been housed with a male for the last three months, so there is a possibility she could be pregnant. But I fell in love with little Mindy the first time I saw her, so I am willing to learn what I need to know in order to make this first-time mommy experience as easy as possible. I will admit, I am a little worried because I have never had a chinchilla, let alone a pregnant one. But I have been doing nothing but constant research since I brought her home.

Any advice for a first time chin owner who may potentially have a first-time mommy?

[AnnieHank]

A few things come to mind; firstly I would double check that the wires of the cage are small enough for kits. I bought a new cage for my chins when I knew there were kits on the way and I'm very glad I did. When they were about 2 weeks old, I put them back in their old cage for a few minutes while I cleaned the new one and one of the kits got his head stuck in the wires. He got himself unstuck after a couple of minutes but he cried like a baby for quite awhile after. If he'd been any smaller, he would have made more progress through the bars and I dread to think what could have happened. The cage had been sold as a cage for chinchillas/ ferrets. You basically need a cage with very small mesh to make sure they can't get any part of themselves through.
If you see her sitting or lying in one particular place of the cage, she may be close to delivering. My girl always stands upright but when she was about to deliver, she had her feet rolled up under her and she lay on her side a bit too. The night before she delivered, she was drinking tons of water. This is normal but we hadn't heard of it before and thought she was too hot or sick.
I would say that looking after normal healthy kits isn't too much different from looking after a normal healthy chinchilla. They need to be checked on more regularly and weighed regularly to make sure they're putting on weight. They can't control their heat as well as a normal chinchilla so you need to be careful that the room isn't too hot or cold and there are no draughts. Mom and babies can't get dust bath until about 10 days after birth. Apart from that, mom generally does all the work.

Good luck with your new chinchilla and enjoy!

[Squirrel_Butt]

If you notice any complications, contact the vet IMMEDIATELY.  You might want to bring her in to be seen before delivery just to get checked out.  An x-ray can be done to confirm the presence of kits too.

[Mindy.Chin]

Yeah, I was planning on taking her to the vet here sometime this week when I get paid. Is there any warning signs that she is going to have the babies soon that I should look out for? I've been researching, and all I've been reading is it is hard to tell if a chin is pregnant... How will she act when the babies are soon to arrive? I have a spare cage with smaller wire spacing and only one level prepared (I have a two level, but I don't want the babies wandering up the ramp and accidentally falling off) , I would like to move her into there before the babies arrive..

[AnnieHank]

She will probably start to move around a lot less and may lie on her side. A few hours beforehand, she will probably drink a ridiculous amount of water.

Also, as she gets nearer to delivering, her nipples will become elongated but this can be a bit difficult to see with all her fur. You could try weighing her and see if she's putting on a lot of weight quite quickly, then that is a good sign she is pregnant. However, unless she is comfortable being handled, this might cause her undue stress. I place mine in a small carry container to weight them. It's not extremely accurate but over time, it will give me a good idea of whether they're gaining or losing weight.

[Mindy.Chin]

Okay, she is still a little skittish about her new home, and I am not trying to push her too fast. She isn't quite used to me at all, so I will have to figure out a way to get her on to something... I've noticed she sleeps more other chinchillas I have seen (She isn't even that active at night..), and she has been eating quite a bit. I'll just keep a very steady eye on her, and probably keep doing alot of research.

[Mindy.Chin]

Also, we had a bit of an incident today...

My boyfriend decided that he wanted to play with her (Despite my protests due to the fact that she hasn't completely settled into the new home yet), While I was supervising nearby to make sure he wouldn't handle her too much. And before either of us saw what was coming, she bolts out of the barely open gate-and straight into the storage room of the basement (I.e, the storage room has many scary, dangerous things like a furnace, and random abandoned clutter, Which is why I take her to the bathroom for playtime). So only thinking about the life of Mindy, I had to quickly grab her. I grabbed her as gently as I could (As she was mid-run when I caught her) and scooped her up, to return her to the cage. I then proceeded to install a tall chin-proof baby gate to prevent this from happening...

Long story short, could the stress and my grabbing her have made her abort any possible kits? I was more concerned for her safety then the possibility of kits..

[AnnieHank]

I've heard that stress can cause them to abort and I guess it depends on the chinchilla. When my girl was a few months pregnant, both her and her mate got pneumonia. They had to be put on antibiotics for ten days and she had to get hers twice a day. She has never been comfortable being held and we've handled her as little as possible since we got her two years ago. We tried to hold her very gently to give her the antibiotic but she wiggled and squirmed and made it as hard as possible so it ended up being a very sad and stressful almost half hour long ordeal for ten days. Despite all the stress, she delivered two normal kits a few weeks later.
If you're worried, I would take her to the vet but personally, I've found them to be quite a bit more resilient than people give them credit for.

[Mindy.Chin]

Yeah, that is comforting. She isn't used to her surroundings and isn't used to being handled, so I am trying to save vet visits for extreme emergencies, because I am sure a vet visit right now would be incredibly stressful..

And she has not been laying on her side, but when she is resting I have noticed these twitches in her sides, and I dismissed it as some kind of muscle twitches (you know, like horses do sometimes... I'm not sure if they do that to, but that's what I thought.) And yesterday I noticed it was getting worse. I researched it last night and now that I think about it, it kinda looks like babies kicking a little bit. It is not incredibly noticeable though, you kind of have to watch her for a couple minutes to see it. She seems to notice it to, every time it happens it stirs her from her sleep. And she really isn't very active at all, even at night time.

New update: The kicking is getting a little more noticeable, and I was laying next to her cage feeding her little treats while she was sitting on the top level. As i looked up at her I noticed I could see a little bit of her belly, and noticed one nipple was rather long and very noticeable. How long are the nipples supposed to be? If she wasn't pregnant, would I be able to see them at all?

[AnnieHank]

Sounds to me like she's about a week or two off. You can't see their nipples when they're not pregnant or breastfeeding and I think you can only see the babies move from about 2 weeks before.

[Mindy.Chin]

Okay, then I guess I should get a thermometer in the room to make sure it isn't too cold for the babies, and I should probably move her into the baby cage soon...
Thank you very much for the advice, you all have been very helpful. I'll be sure to post updates/pictures of the kit when he/she arrives!