If there was no fighting or fur flying or humping, they were just playing.
I know that there is a 2 week isolation time period but I guess my husband didn't listen when I told him that.
The "two week rule" is different with different breeders. Isolation is just that ... no contact between chinchillas and not even being housed in the same room or on the same floor of the building.
Isolation can be anywhere from 2 weeks to 9 months ... depends on the breeder. The isolation period is a safety precaution that one chin is not going to infect the other chin/chins with something brought in from another herd. This can happen with the best of breeders ... rare, but it does happen. Why such a big difference in the amount of time? It depends on the experiences each breeder has been through. Most feel if there is any illness, it should show up within the two week period ... and with most chinchilla-related illnesses, this is true. But ... there are the rare ones and the 'unknown' ones.
Several years ago, I purchased 8 chinchillas from a well known breeder ... one of the chins I purchased was just purchased by this well known breeder from another breeder that was going out of business. This particular $500 chinchilla became ill after being with me for only 2 days ... I took it to the vet ... 3 days later and a $700+ vet bill, I had a dead chinchilla on my hands. After the autopsy, I found out the chinchilla has a stomach wart ... a stomach wart that is cause by an airborne virus ... one that is usually found in goats ... and never before found in chinchillas. It has a gestation period of 9 weeks to 9 months, before it becomes apparent. Soooo it was definitely sick before I purchased it .... and ... due to the fact it was caused from an airborne virus, it could have spread to the other chins in my herd even though they were kept in different rooms, they were still on the same floor of the house. For the next 9 months, I quarantined my own herd ... I did not want to take a chance of it possibly spreading into the chinchilla community ... adding no more chinchillas and allowing none to be adopted ... I watched them carefully, fearing each day that one would fall ill ... after a very l-o-n-g 9 months, there were no signs of any of the other chins being infected. And, yes, I quarantine my new chins for 9 months and on a different floor of the house. It was an expensive lesson to learn, but the tole it took on my nerves was worse than any price that could be paid. Anyone that knows me well knows how I am about my chins ... they are like my children, all 100+ of them.
The "two week rule" can also refer to the
introduction period. With many breeders that have ranch runs, the male is allowed to run back and forth in an area separate from, but attached to the cages containing the females he will be put in breeding with. This is a time they all have to familiarize themselves with each others scents before opening it up to the actual breeding time. This is not the same as the isolation period. Many breeders
isolate for 2 weeks and use the
2 week period of time as an introduction ... often times it gets confused by those that are not familiar with the system.
Jo Ann
