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[JerseyDoll2013]

Hello. I have a day newborn chinchilla. Her mother Jersey was always thought to be a boy, because thats what I was told from the breeder. Long story short, last night when I go to play and feed them, I discovered that Jersey's intestines was coming out. And a good amount. I was suprised she was still alive. I also saw a flat rodent looking thing ( definitely dead) that still seem to appear to be halfway in a sack. I rush to the exotic hospital and was told she was a female and that was a baby chinchilla and the best option was to put her to sleep. Sadly, and many tears  later, I gave them permission. This morning however, I wake up to a cry and at first thought it was my other two. When I noticed it wasnt them, I turned around a saw a baby chinchilla on the floor. Alive!! So I call the vet again and ask them how to take care of it but the information Im getting still feels unsure. They couldnt tell me what kind of milk, just evaporated milk ( whatever that means)
 
Please please tell me what to do. I lost my Jersey and I dont wanna lose her. The guy in the store gave me milk thats really for puppies. How long do I have to wean her? Please, any advice would be appreciated.
 
Thanks,
       Dominique

[Snickerdoodlesmom]

Hello,
I am so sorry for your loss. I found this formula online:
"Chinchilla Milk Formula Feed
1 part evaporated milk
2 parts cooled boiled water
1 tiny pinch of probiotic such as Avipro Plus
1 tiny pinch of Critical Care powder
1 tiny pinch of Nutrobal (calcium and mineral supplement)
The above milk formula can be liquefied and presented via a syringe using the Hand-Feeding Method suggested. The formula must be at a temperature of 99°-100°F and only reheated once.

Very young chinchilla babies that are depending entirely upon hand feeding for their nourishment, must be fed every 2-3 hours, giving them one-half of a syringe of formula and upwards depending on their age. With older kits the feeding can be spaced several hours apart and 4 feedings daily.

When a chinchilla kit has had all of the food it wants it will appear to resist being offered any more by pushing the syringe away with the forepaw. Stop feeding at this stage as over-filling a kit's stomach can not only lead to digestive problems such as bloat but also cause juvenile mortality!

Formula can be made up and stored in a refrigerator for 24 hours before a fresh supply must be made. Take out the amount of formula you need and warm only once to room temperature." from http://www.chinchillachronicles.com/weaning_a_chinchilla.html.
I'm not sure if that is accurate, but I believe it is a reputable site. Best wishes for you and the kit!

[GrayRodent]

I'm very sad to hear about what happened. There are several possible causes for that that breeders sometimes face. There is always a risk of complications with pregnancy and some of those risks can be assessed by a veterinary exam before attempting to breed. I do understand that in this case breeding was inadvertent which is something I see a lot here.

The kit is at risk because it was separated from the mom for many hours. This may cause some serious complications to the digestive system and issues with malnourishment. If it is still taking in food tomorrow then you have cleared one hurdle. Beyond that the risk of loosing a kit is still very high when you don't have a nursing mom even when you do everything right so I advise you don't get your hopes up too high and not to take it too hard if your kit doesn't make it. It is going to take aggressive care and a proper feeding schedule to compensate for that problem. That means you can't miss any feeding times, your food must be at the precise right temperature, and your feeding must be carefully regulated not to overload the gut.

It is also very common for baby chinchillas to escape from the cage because the bar spacing is too wide to contain them. You may want to read up on housing a growing chinchilla kit properly so that it does not escape and cause injury to itself. Falling even 24" can be fatal to a baby chinchilla. The ideal cage is a low, one level cage (about 12"), with 1"x1-1/2" bar spacing and wire floor (1/2"x1/2" or less) wire spacing. It should have kiln-dried pine bedding. Do not use a heating pad but keep the room temperature somewhere around 70F. (That is at least my understanding of it but I am not a breeder so I might not be right about everything.)

I know that some breeders have recommend kitten formula (for cats). However I don't know how effective it is. Usually chinchilla kits don't survive when the mom dies.
Here is an account of someone who had success with hand feeding kitten formula and adjusted the mixture as the kit got older. Of course your vet might be able to help you as well.
http://www.megalink.net/~zep/feeding.html

[JerseyDoll2013]

Thank you for the response!

I hope he doesn't... I'm lucky to have him since Jersey is no longer with us. He seems to be doing fine but its too early to tell. He's noisy whenever i handle him, and/or just wants to sleep. He moves around alot too. My sister, who is a tech, told me to get kitten formula. I have no way of telling if its the right tempature though i've been testing it on myself first. He doesnt care for the bottle but will let me sqeeze in acouple of drops every two hours. His eyes are open, yet now they are shut. He's poop and urinate. I hope all of these are a good sign. Im keeping him with me, no matter if i already fed him. I read somewhere that if i have a male chi-chi that he could possibly step in as the mother but that made no sense to me. Also, Ive had the chinchillas for atleast 8months minimal. They were a year old when i adopted them. Do they breed only at a certain age?

[GrayRodent]

They can breed at about 8 weeks and they are not discriminate about chinchillas they breed with which means that it's important to separate males from females as soon as they are weaned. Otherwise you will have inbreeding and females that may be too young to carry the kits to term. Females should not be bred until after a year of growing.

I suppose a male chinchilla can help with the grooming and stimulation the baby needs apart from the nursing and may increase its chances of survival. Unfortunately introducing chinchillas does not always have a good outcome and if the adult doesn't like it the kit won't have a chance in defending itself so hopefully a breeder of chinchillas will remark about this soon. Otherwise I wouldn't try it.

As far as getting the right temperature of the formula I suppose testing it on you is probably the best way and to just make sure it's stirred well so there aren't places that are scolding hot (if you're using a microwave) that can cause injury. I know it's easy to do and it's just a sad thing when that happens so please be careful.

I'm glad you have someone you can talk to about the details of the care. Pooping and urinating is always a good sign unless the poop is liquid or gooey. Licking up the food is also a good sign. Chinchillas should be able to open their eyes freely as soon as they are born.

[JerseyDoll2013]

Hi guys...
 Unfortunetly, the baby died this morning a 1 am in my hands. He was doing fine 15 minutes before. I picked him up and sat at the computer doing more research. Then I noticed he was moving any more.... Tearing me up, I really wanted to save him. I even performed CPR for 5 minutes, screaming at him to come back to me.... I dont handle death well and after losing Jersey Im just torn...

His poop was liquidy... I tried though, I really did.

I think Deanie can tell. He still has Trunks but he seems a little depress in the cage. I so wanna call and cuss the breeder out! And yet, I still blame myself. If I only double-check they're sex, she'd be alive and well. The messed up part is that I did one time to only demonstrate how you tell if its a boy or girl. I only showed him with one chinchilla and i happened to grab the boy. When i think back to that day I tell myself" if only I picked up Jersey instead of Deanie I would've known!

[GrayRodent]

I'm sorry the kit didn't make it. It was a very slim, perhaps non-existent chance it would have pulled through because of the effects of not having proper nutrition for those hours before you found it.

It is not uncommon for breeders to be mistaken about sexing chinchillas when they are very young because they look very similar. In fact my first chinchilla was full grown and the owner told me he was a she and I found out some days later when I observed him grooming himself. You could blame yourself but blame implies fault and fault implies negligence. I would think it to be reasonable that if a breeder or owner says it's a male that it would be and I would expect that the breeder made an informed judgement, although inaccurate, that was still reasonable. Owning pets or livestock is a messy thing and experiencing sickness and death, even untimely problems or injuries, is all part of the experience of having animals around. No one can do everything right all the time and be prepared for every contingency so please don't feel too bad.

[JerseyDoll2013]

Hello again! Wow. this has been a couple of crazy days for me. Why?

Deanie just had two kits! What I dont get is that after I had to put Jersey down I double checked Deanie and Trunks to make sure they were both boys! I promise you I was 100% both boys and saw their peckers and everything! Now Im doing more research. I always had a spare cage so i've already separted them from Trunk who is only 8 months.

 I felt like it was my  fault with Jersey and her kit because with all my experience with rodents ( just never chinchilla) I still should've looked at them to make sure of their sex. Lesson learned. Though this time, Im taking the kits to a vet to get their gender!

[GrayRodent]

I'm not sure if the vet is going to know anything until about 6 weeks but we'll see. The adult males "pecker" can actually extend upwards of 2 inches. The females have a urethral cone that looks very similar but it doesn't extend. As you may have researched you'll have to put the mother and babies in a cage that is safe for them. There should be no shelving in the cage which could interfere with nursing if the mother decides to use it to evade the kit. The male will be upset by the separation and should be kept in a separate cage a few inches away from the other cage until the kit is weaned. You do want to separate them ASAP because the female goes into heat after labor and can breed again.

[GrayRodent]

Another thing to consider is how the pair will take the separation. Best case scenario is you have a male, female pair of kits that you make two same-sex pairs with once they are weaned. Kits are still very fragile and you may have to take a wait-and-see approach for about two weeks to see if they both survive.

[JerseyDoll2013]

Well when I came home from work and went into their room I noticed Trunks fur sticking out in all places and some was all over the cage. After i saw the kits, I assume she was fighting with him which she's never done before. Trunks is way smaller than her and my guess is around 8 months old. When I went to grab him to separate he ran to the bottom of the kennel, where Deanie started chasing him all over till I finally caught him. Is that normal?

I do think I should buy yet another cage because the one they were in sits up too high from the floor and has a good inch and a half gap between bars. I put them in my old cage that is really a rabbit cage with a bottom that has 6 inch of plastic all around so they cant reach the bars, (yet).

[GrayRodent]

It is possible she was fighting because the male could sense she was in heat and she didn't want to have anything to do with it. I'm glad the kits were uninjured.

You have to be very careful with plastic since it is known for causing bowel obstructions in chinchillas that chew it. Hard plastic can really tear up insides. A regular wire rabbit cage like those used on farms should work fine if it has 1/2" x 1" rectangular bar spacing. I hope your kits will thrive this time around. You have a much better chance this time.

[JerseyDoll2013]

The other cage is ( metal) but I saw the one baby try to jump through the bars which made me decide to put them in this one. However, Im buying a new cage. I will need another tall cage anyway.

[chinclub]

Babies can slip out of an opening that is 1 inch square.  You will need a cage wire that is 1/2 x 1 inch to be baby safe.  You also need to go ahead and mark your calendar 111 days.  She is probably pregnant again if she was in a cage with a male when she delivered.

The secret to telling the gender of a baby is to take the part that looks like a penis and try to lift it as it you are pointing at the chin's belly.  If it will lift and you can see a space of skin between that and the anus you have a male. If its just a bump that wont lift and it is almost touching the anus it is a girl.

Here are pictures http://www.lowcountrychinchillas.com/sexing.shtml

I check the day I find the babies and then I check again right before I list them for sale at about 5 weeks.  I have been at this for over 15 years and still sometimes the little guys seem to change sex on me.  I learned the hard way (I also sold a wrong gender once)  to check and recheck. I now even check n front of the buyer and so them as well.    It is an honest mistake.

[GrayRodent]

Yes I did not mean to type 1x1/2" x 1 but 1/2" x 1". It is typically the wire spacing you find on a rabbit cage. I'm sorry for any confusion this may have caused. (I changed the previous post as well)