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[skiblits]

I run a reptile rescue and I recently agreed to take in a pair of chins. The previous owner had wanted to breed them and lost interest after they had both turned a year old and failed to produce offspring. I have done a ton of research to make sure that I have them housed propperly and I just finished building them their own air conditioning unit for their room. I do need to know if I need to separate them. I don't mind the idea of raising baby chins and in fact I really enjoy the idea. I used to breed gerbils  as well as breed a variety of parrots so raising young is not a new thing to me. Do I need to worry about them breeding if they haven't done so already? I have been reading up on breeding just in case the female happens to already be pregnant i want to be fully prepared
 Would it be best if I got the male neutered or is that too risky? I have had male gerbils neutered before once they were over a year old so that they could stay with their mate. I don't want them to get depressed if I separate them since they have been together for most of their lives. I know other animals can go through and secure depression when separated from their cage mates and I want to make things as stress free as I can. Despite these guys coming in as a rescue I have decided to keep them. This is my first pair of chins and I have fallen in love with them. They have their own chin proof room to run around in and I would love to build them a big custom cage just as I have done with my other pets.  Thanks for your help.

[GrayRodent]

Congrats on your new chinchillas. That would be neat if you could breed but I would try to avoid it with those two unless they both come from reputable breeders and were sold with breeding in mind. Typically pet chinchillas are not kept for breeding because they are inferior quality or may come from a line that has congenital defects that can be heartbreaking to pet owners if they manifest in the kits.

If you've established both are good breeding quality and you wish to breed, certainly do the research, and make sure you have the appropriate cages (1/2" x 1/2" bar spacing maximum, low ceiling, no shelving, etc.) for when it is closer to time or your kits will escape and die, fall and get injured and die (both which I have observed on the board) or starve. Since you have experience raising small animals I doubt you'll be prone to as many n00b mistakes as I've witnessed here. Another suggestion would be to have the female examined by a vet to make sure she is suitable for breeding. Sometimes you'll get one with not enough pelvic separation and be at risk for CPD related issues. Also calcium supplements are usually recommended for pregnant and nursing chinchillas.

As far as separation goes I'd say the best thing you can to is try it and see what happens. Some chinchillas will do just fine and others will go absolutely haywire. It is going to be stressful but you'll just have to weigh them and keep close track of their food consumption each day. If they go anorexic it's gone too far. (Chinchillas should not be allowed to stop eating for more than 24 hours or they can develop irreversible GI stasis.) If they just turned a year I'm hopeful they'll be able to separate. Chinchillas should not be bred until after 1 year. Older chinchillas are going to be more set in their ways. Another option is to try to get them to pair with another chinchilla of the same sex.

Neutering is risky and very invasive. The gonads are not the protruding parts you can see but are deeper inside. I've helped others on this board with nursing chins back to health after surgery. I've observed the procedure is generally survivable but not always and usually intense care and syringe feeding is required to get them to recover. It must be done by an expert veterinarian and you may have to travel to find one. It should be a last resort IMO.

[kageri]

Chin breeding can be unpredictable.  Some will mate within days of being put together and some breeders I've talked to have pairs they've mostly given up on because they only produce 1 or 2 litters over 5-10years together.  Pairing them up young seems to actually delay when they'll breed instead of increasing the odds.  As they get older they are more likely to try it.  Some don't reach full growth and maturity until 2 years old.  Especially certain color and show lines.  Since you don't know their background I would not breed them on purpose.  There's a chance the female is pregnant though.  You should start weighing her and if she makes a steady exponential increase in weight she is probably pregnant.

The easiest way to keep them would be to make 2 cages side by side, leave a small gap because they can breed through wire, and that way they can still see each other but not mate.  If that doesn't work the least risky thing to do is give a same gender friend to one or both.  However since you have a vet who can neuter gerbils they can probably neuter chinchillas with less risk than the average vet.  Still if you decide to try it I would suggest having some oxbow critical care and feeding syringes on hand.  Chins who go through such stress also have a high chance of self mutilation and they can get rather violent over medications.  Chins fur chew easily when they feel irritation of some kind and sometimes they take it farther than that.  Pain killers or antibiotics prescribed after surgery to reduce the chance of infection and self mutilation may be tricky to give.  Most people report by the 3rd or 4th day they get them out for meds they start biting.  Aika left some teeth mark bruises on our hands starting at day 2 of 10.  Luckily they forgive easily and will stop biting shortly after you stop medicating.  Again you also want to be weighing them for possible problems.

[GrayRodent]

When a cat or a dog chews on their surgical site you normally fit them with an e-collar. That's a problem with chinchillas because they need to eat many times during the day to keep their bowels in check and they can't eat with it on which makes it somewhat impractical. Also that gap between cages is a minimum of 2 inches. If you've ever seen a male chin clean himself you'll know why that is real quick. For all chinchilla owners I recommend weighing your pets at least once a week and keep logs.

[skiblits]

Thanks a ton for the help everyone! My boyfriend has fallen in love with the chinchillas as much as I have. I did contact the person who gave them to me and he said that he naught them fro. A breeder in the UK while he was over there with the army and naught them with papers to breed these two specifically but of course he can't remember the breeder or find the paperwork. He told me that he had lost interest in breeding them a few months after moving back to the USA. I would really like to try my hand at breeding. I have a low long cage already set up and I am starting to weigh my female every night during their play time outside of the cage. Is there such a thing as too much play time? I'm a dog trainer by day and have a lot of paper work and puppy report cards to do  at night so I save it until evening time when the chins are up so I can be in the room with them and keep an eye on them as they play. They get a minimum of 2 hours to run around but usually get 5 hours as I'm working from about 8pm-1am every night accept for Friday night.

[kageri]

As long as the temperature is comfortable so they won't over heat while running for a long time and they are not getting stressed out about their surroundings you don't have to restrict play time.  If they pick a spot to hide indefinitely and especially to hide and bark from they are probably not settled in enough or too stressed at being out of their cage so long.  If the cage is in the room and not a blocked off part of the room you can leave it open and if necessary put some type of steps to the door so they can put themselves away when they have had enough.  chintastic makes some wood steps for cages.  They list ferret and critter nation steps but should be able to do a custom job.  However they had a recent tragedy and while the site says they would start taking orders now he hasn't answered my email.  I did get a response in oct. but they weren't taking orders then.

Some people do think chins under a certain age (usually ranging from 6-12 months depending who you talk to) should have limited activity and no wheels so they put more in to growing.  Personally I think if their diet is properly balanced they can bounce around all they want.  It's not like wild chins are restricted and exercise builds good physical and mental health in every other animal and human on the planet.  Freely running around is also different from some animals where we are telling them to do an activity that might stress their bodies over and over again.

[GrayRodent]

I do agree that there aren't any set limits on playtime because chinchillas are typically self-regulating. Of course they must have constant access to their food and water if you're going to let them go for more than an hour. I do feel that exercise wheels can effect the growth rate of kits because typically rodents of all kinds will over-exercise on them. I also feel access to the wheel should be restricted if you have a sick chinchilla that has lost weight. My chinchilla did take close to 12 months before his growing leveled off and I provided him with a wheel then. It made it a lot quieter for me at night too and I probably should have done it earlier. Anyway that is from what I understand and animals may vary as well. My chinchilla doesn't obsess over his wheel like some do.