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[taylorlove3]

Hello!  This is my first post and I am in great need of help!  My chinchillas -- I have two -- we were told they were both males, had a baby Thursday morning.  I've had them both for almost two years, and this was a first.  I googled a lot of info that said the mom chin would take care of everything.  Well, she is very aggressive to it, she pulls it fur, bites its foot, so much that she bit a toe off.  She simply will not tolerate it anytime it gets close to her. I took it away and bought a seperate cage for it.  I've been feeding it with a dropper a mix a goat's milk, water, and infant rice formula, which I read on another chin-type website. 

The daddy chin is great with it, but I really want the mommy chin to nurse.  I reintroduce her to her baby about four times a day, but she is so aggressive I am worried she will kill it.  Any suggestions?  Also, anything that I need to know to take care of this sweet baby?

Thanks in advance.

[GrayRodent]

How old is the kit now? Can you weigh it on a gram scale and provide a weight?

I'm not sure what to say about the mom not accepting the kit. I'm not sure if there is much you can do about that. I do know that hand feeding is your best option for the time being. Unfortunately hand feeding at such an early stage is not always successful so be prepared for the worst. Sometimes the female will not nurse a kit if she senses there is something internally wrong with it. I'm certainly not saying to give up hope but these are abnormal circumstances.

I hope someone comments soon who has experienced this. I have never bred chinchillas before.
I do know that keeping the mom and dad in the same cage will result in another pregnancy if it hasn't already possibly during a post partum heat. This can also be dangerous in numerous ways for the kit so it should be separated from the male.

Chinchilla kits don't need special bedding and do not need a heat source. The cage bar spacing needs to be 1/2" or less. 1" spacing is good for adults but a kit can escape through it. Also hold off giving a dust bath for up to 10 days for the female to reduce the chance of infection. She may also need extra calcium especially if she has bred again. I've found that grinding up a calcium supplement tablet and sprinkling it on the food is an inexpensive way to do this.

I hope everything works out well for you.

[jesse]

Hi, this may be a very stupid question, but since the mommy won't tolerate the kit and the daddy is good with it, and they both appeared to be males, is it possible that the chin you think is the daddy is really the mommy? I suppose there were other signs that led you to think what you did, but I'm not clear. I've never had a chin with a baby so I don't know what to expect.

[GrayRodent]

The nursing female's teats should be protruded past the fur line. Usually the fur will be missing where the kit has been nursing. The male is usually not hostile towards kits but can injure the kits during mating. For breeders who want to keep the family together it is recommended to have a place for kits to hide in the cage and get away from the male if need be.

[jesse]

Thank you. I'm looking forward to hearing from taylorlove3 what has happened. Chins are the best!

[Jessica Williams]

Use cats milk instead and to get the dad out of the cage. If the parents decide to mate, they will step on the baby , killing it.  The dad should always be separated as soon as the babies are born but not before because they assist with keeping the new babies warm while the mother is birthing the rest of the litter.  My suggestion would be to leave the dad with the baby for two months and continue to hand feed as well as put chin food in the cage since the baby will start eating it in about two weeks. But still continue to hand feed the cats milk until one and a half to two months.

[Debbie.nl.ca]

Check moms teats. They should be elongated and puffy in the surrounding tissue. If mom can not nurse they are both very confused right now.
I just had a kit a 3 months ago that it took the mom over 2 weeks to get any milk in.3 times a day I would hold a warm almost hot damp cloth to the mom teats and then manually try to express milk just like milking a cow. I gave her extra calcium and vit c.
I fed the kit 4-5 times per day letting mom look after him during the night. As her milk started to come in I weaned back to 3, then 2 then once a day with the hand feedings.
I will let mom have one more try, suspect she is already pregnant. If she has problems with the next litter I shall pull her from breeding.