Chinchilla Community Forums
Breeders => Breeding 101 => Topic started by: LindyLu on February 10, 2010, 10:29:03 PM
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Yesterday I read in a chinchilla book that chins can not get pregnant between June - October. . .is that true? They are only fertile between November - May ??
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Not here, ;) I have had kits born in every month I think. ::nod::
Most chins breed twice per year, and like to give birth in spring & fall, or there abouts.
I'm pretty sure if I put a female & male togther in June I'd have kits by Christmas. ::nod::
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I agree with Debbie. We have babies all the time. Now large breeders with near 1000 breeders will tell you that overall they have less births during certain times of year based on lighting. However, chinchillas that have lights on a timer and no exterior windows don't know the difference.
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Hmm. I wonder why the book would print that. I don't have lights on timers. Just the bedroom window. I keep the blinds at a tilt so the chins don't get direct sunlight, but they know when it's light out and when it gets dark. I just don't understand how it would be possible for a chinchilla to know what month it is.... lol
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If you use natural light you will probably find you have more babies born during certain months. Chinchillas (and all "wild" animals) know the seasons by the length of daylight. Longer days in the summer, shorter in the winter. In the wild they tend to breed during certain seasons to give their babies a better chance of survival. Chinchillas will follow that pattern somewhat if you don't control their lighting. We have our lights on a timer so our chinchillas get the exact same amount of "daylight" year round.
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Oh Okay. That makes sense. Well if they won't breed between June - October, that would be good. It could prevent breed back if Daisy gets pregnant this Spring.
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And don't believe all your read. Many books are out dated, and those little pet books you get at the pets shops are the worst.
Mine have only ever had natural lighting from a window, and the lights on when I'm there in the evenings.
If you are putting a pair together it really doesn't mater when, they will breed when they are ready. Most right away on the first heat. Some gals will keep the males away until they feel it's right, some will mate when ever he wants.
Getting them to mate has never been a problem for me, it's what they do best LOL :D
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Yeah.....I'm not trying to get them to mate though. I just wanted Dewey to stop pouting and be happy....have a friend. He refused males, so a female was my only real option. I'm prepared to deal with kits - just not YET.
My DH and I are going on our honeymoon cruise in 111 days... so it would be a bad time to breed!
(We were married in late September, but he'd just started his 1st Teaching position, so we couldn't take any time off. We booked a cruise for early June...as soon as school gets out!!)
I'd like to get the chins together within the next few weeks...but just to avoid labor during our vacation, I may wait another month! (maybe 2!)
My brother is going to be coming into my home to take care of the pets everyday while we're away, but only once a day. No need to create more responsibility than necessary...(or more stress/worry on my part! I've never left my chinnies for more than 2 days!)
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Well in that case I would probably let them some run time together.If they do they do, if they don't they don't, but they'll really have something to look forward too every day.
Oh Congrats. ::nod::
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You think it's okay to let them run together now? I've been keeping them apart because the female is still young. I don't know her weight yet - but I have a scale arriving in the mail TODAY! If she is over 500 grams, I figured it was fine to go ahead and let them be together. But if she's under that, then I should probably not let them get the chance to mate until she is!
Dewey really wants to mate - I can't tell yet if Daisy is interested or not. Dewey does a tail swish and a little whimper squeaky sound and waddles up to her on his hind legs....real romantic! I haven't see her do anything "out of the ordinary" to indicate her interest in mating. Do females do anything in particular....or is it usual the male who does the work of romancing?
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::silly:: Anytime a male and a female are together, it is a breeding situation.
I like the way you put that: or is it usual the male who does the work of romancing?
I guess the men consider it work, but find it rewarding. A male chin will do the "Swish, Swish Tail" dance for days until the female is in full season and will accept his advances ... guess that's why he only takes about 15 seconds to get her pregnant ... he's to tired from pleading with her for days. :D
:blush2: Jo Ann
P.S. They give birth year round, but most big ranchers prefer to have the kits born about the same time each year, so they do not put them together until a specific time that is convenient for their purposes/schedules. Most do it at the same times of the year. When you have herds of between 1,000 and 4,000, it is best to 'schedule' the times of delivery as close to one another as possible.
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If he is doing the swish, she's in heat and I'd wait 5-10 days. It's hard enough trying to get them to bond, if she is in heat all he wants to do is mate. Could stress her a little too much for the first date. ;)
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Thanks. After tonight I KNOW she's in heat. I took her out for her free run and to clean her cage, and I noticed a white mess coming from her vagina. I got a tissue to wipe it before setting her down to run, but when I wiped it was like a mucus plug came out. A white blob of mucus! I know they haven't actually mated yet (their cages have about 1.5-2 inches between them)...so I can only assume she's in heat. I'll give her a few days before we try running together. I also plan to WEIGH her this weekend...I'll keep ya posted on that too. :) Thanks for all the help & info. I'm sure I will continue to utilize this forum in the future!
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::silly::
... I got a tissue to wipe it before setting her down to run, but when I wiped it was like a mucus plug came out. A white blob of mucus! I know they haven't actually mated yet (their cages have about 1.5-2 inches between them)...so I can only assume she's in heat.
I've only seen mating plugs after a couple has mated.
::think:: She could have an infection (urinary or female type) ... it would not hurt to get her checked out. A mating plug looks like what is in the picture below. (It has been partially eaten by the chin.) It is solid and looks like wax.
Oh BTW the cages are not far apart enough ... they need to be a minimum of 3" apart.
::wave:: Jo Ann
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There is a heat plug too, you don't see them often as they are mushier than the mate plug.
here is a good shot of a full mate plug. Yup looks like a plug for something LOL
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Oh this didn't look like that. It was white in color, and mushier looking (those look like wax, hers looked more like a white booger!) I thought it was normal for them to have white mucus come out while in heat...? Maybe I should make an appointment for her.
I'm looking for a new vet anyway, could be a good chance to get to know one. My current one isn't bad....but he's SO BUSY it takes DAYS to get seen (and if he sees you "on emergency" he charges an extra $200). Plus I was really disappointed in his care for Schroeder. My 2 yr old white mosaic got diarrhea and quit eating. I called the vet and he just told me to give him vasoline. A week later I took Schroeder in to SEE the vet, and he just told me the same thing! He felt him and said he felt constipated and said I should give him "cat lax" (petroleum jelly). I ended up on this forum board, desperate for better advice... bought like 3 different kinds of laxatives and vitamins + "chinchilla life line" and several other "natural" laxatives...(juices, almonds) .... was force feeding him for 4 weeks before he passed away. To this day I don't know what happened. I don't know if he had a pre-existing disease or if he just ate something he shouldn't have or maybe got an infection? No clue.
This is my 2nd vet already though. I've only been a chin parent since last June...but my 1st vet told me to feed Dewey "roughage" since he doesn't eat hay. I found the new vet and thought he was great during a wellness visit...but obviously he didn't come through for us when somebody got sick! Good Exotic vets are hard to find!!!
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I set up my new scale today. It's hard to get an EXACT reading because the chins wouldn't stay still...they were kinda wiggly, so the numbers were bouncing around...I just averaged it out.
Looks like Dewey is about 550 grams
and Daisy is about 420 grams
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::silly:: Most of the older breeders (25 to 50 years of breeding) will tell you that a female should be a minimum of 500 grams before she is put into breeding, 600 to 800 grams would be even better. I've found that works out pretty good ... maturity and size give them a good start on carrying kits and delivering them successfully. Size also refers to size of the birth canal ... the birth canal size comes with age/maturity and weight as well as bone structure.
As a general rule, the female is the larger of the two. When a small female is mated with a large male, there is always a chance of the kits being to large for the female to deliver. Something you might want to think about. I will not mate a large male to a small female.
You always want to strive to improve each generation ... the larger the size is one improvement that is very important.
::wave:: Jo Ann
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I have certainly thought about this and would prefer to keep Daisy a few inches away from Dewey until she is AT LEAST 500 grams. Dewey lost his previous mate during child birth (and 1 of his kits too)... I'd hate to repeat the experience for him. (This was with his previous owners - they had their hands full with other chins and hand-raising the 2 surviving kits, and decided to give Dewey away to a good home so he'd get more attention. He came to me and I've been trying so hard to make sure he has a good life).
I weighed Daisy again this morning and the scale actually stopped for a moment on 428 grams. =0) Yay! She's gaining!
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How old is she? Most of my kits are 400 grams by 4 months... I am not an older breeder as I have only been breeding and showing for 4 years but personally, I don't breed any females under 600 grams and of all my breeding females, my average is around 800 grams (My lightest is ~650, most are 700-800, and a couple are 1000-1100 g). Breeding a female who is too small can potentially lead to some serious problems. If her pelvic opening is not large enough, she will be unable to safely deliver kits. I don't know how old she is but if she is over a year and only 420 grams, she most likely will not grow much anymore and not a chinchilla I would consider breeding. It would be a huge risk to her life.
Reading about your vet's advice for Schroeder, I would definitely look for a new vet. Cat laxatives are not good for chinchillas. A chinchilla who is in ileus (a slowdown of the digestive tract) and in danger of going into G.I. stasis should not get those oily cat laxatives. Not only do those lipid-rich cat laxatives slow down gastric emptying, it also contains a lot of sugar (corn syrup and malt syrups) which can cause bloat, a bloom of Clostridium bacteria, and further G.I. upset. Once a chin develops bloat along with G.I. stasis, it is a very difficult road back to recovery. If they don't get frequent handfeedings, motility drugs, subcutaneous fluids (and water offered via a dropper), abdominal massages, and simethicone (infant gas drops), they often do not recover... it is an around-the-clock treatment, often for up to a couple months until they are completely better.
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Daisy is about 7 months old. I think. I got her at the beginning of February, and the guy I got her from said she was 6-8 months old. She seemed small to me, so I assumed she was only about 6 months... maybe 7 months by now.
I think I need to figure out a way to get more accurate scale readings because the scale numbers jump around too much to really know and the chins don't sit still, they are constantly jumping off!
I think what I am going to do is get a pot from the kitchen with a lid, and weigh that by itself, then weigh the chin inside the pot and subtract the weight of the pot with from the total. I HOPE a lid on a pot will keep the chin from bouncing away!
I think I have been coming up with light weights because I could swear the first time Dewey went to the vet, he weighed like 800 somthing....and there is no way he has lost 300 grams....so I'm thinking it's inaccurate and I need a better technique!
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Squirmy chins can be hard to get weights on! If the chin is in a small container (or even his dust bath!), he might not be as squirmy... (you could get his weight when he stands still between rolling, haha). With my scale, I just plop my chins on it and use my hands to keep them on the scale. Some chins are so squirmy though, that I have to put a small box on the scale, tare it, and then put the chin in the box.
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yes that's what I have to do to most of mine, put them in something that's been tared off first. Just hold my hands around the sides of them till I get a reading. I use a small plastic bucket.
Yes she seems a little small and young to put into breeding yet. I'd wait. ::nod::
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So....using the pot with a lid helped keep them still and get the scale numbers to STOP bouncing.... turns out their weights are even lower than I thought!
Daisy is 400 grams even
Dewey is 531
Do I have dwarf chinchillas or what?! Are these weights "normal"? Is there a healthy way to help them BOTH put on weight?
Like I said, I could have sworn Dewey weighed over 800 grams at his first vet visit. (Maybe that scale was off or I heard wrong?) It seems impossible he could have lost 300 grams because he LOOKS the same size... but for so long I wasn't weighing the chins. I guess it's entirely possible that he lost weight the first few weeks he came to live with me....(He saw the vet within the first 2 weeks of being here)....maybe due to stress. He may have also lost weight a few months later when he had a cold & needed eye drops. Maybe it's possible he lost weight after Schroeder died....(not necessarily mourning him, but just the natural difference in his surroundings)...or maybe when he went through his depression before I got Daisy, he lost weight. I have no idea!
Guess I will keep a much closer eye on their weights from now on! And if anyone has any healthy ways to help them gain...let me know! Dewey is kinda tough because he doesn't eat hay! He only eats his Mazuri pellets, and occasional treats. One of his FAVE treats is shredded wheat. He also loves papaya. But he's not big on raisins or apples, hates rosehips! Yesterday I gave him a cheerio, and he took 1 bite out of it and then threw it out of his cage!
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I would think if he lost 300 grams you would notice. I think you heard wrong or their scale was way off.
Most males are good at 600 grams. Some chins are naturally smaller.
Though some of us have bigger animals, that doesn't mean the smaller ones are unhealthy.
If he seems normal in every way don't worry.
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Okay. Thanks for your reassurance! :)
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It depends on when you breed them. For your answer no it is not true. :)