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[angiepreston72]

I have a question about rotational feeding for those that have had the pleasure of quads...I had a quad litter on November 10th and have had to keep the kits in sets of two and rotate them as they are viscous little kits when all four are together! The weights are now 145, 155, 159, and 175 grams. I started with 2 hour rotations and now doing 4 hour rotations...at what point do you think its safe to go to 6 hours?

[GrayRodent]

Although I'm not an expert on this one article that I read said chinchillas should be off their milk at 2 weeks. Looks like it's been three weeks now.
Don't immediately switch their diet as that can kill them. You're going to have to develop a strategy to gradually change their diet to prevent serious digestive complications.
So before you do anything different please answer these questions:

1. Do the kits have constant access to hay and pellets?
2. If so have they shown any interest in eating the hay and pellets? (If there is any)
3. Are you able to sex the kits?
4. How long since you've been doing 4 hour rotations?
I hope someone who has experience with this will comment soon.

[angiepreston72]

Thanks for responding. I will answer your questions and hope some others join the conversation. I do think they need milk longer than two weeks. I know all my kits are nursing well into 6-8 weeks if not longer. I have been breeding for a while, but this is the first quad litter that I have had to rotate. My last quad litter didn't fight over milk and I just supplemented to help mom out. But here we go with some more info...

1. Kits have constant access to hay and pellets and also drink from a water bottle.
2. They eat the hay and pellets, but I grind the pellets up adding dried goats milk and baby rice cereal (JAGS mix) and they also eat that in addition to being with mom for 4 hours.
3. I sexed the kits when they were about 3 hours old. There are 3 girls and a boy.  I do know the male needs to come out of the girls cage when ready to leave mom...actually all the kits have found homes so that is not an issue.
4. I did 2 hour rotations for week 1 and 2 and then 4 hour rotations for week 3 and 4. I am starting my fifth week today.

I was planning on finishing up the 4 hour rotations at the end of this week and go to 6 hours because the kits still need time with their mom even if they are mostly on regular food, but not sure if it would be OK to move them to 6 hours this soon or if I should wait longer. I am also hand feeding the kits that are away from mom, and all of them take the milk eagerly so they seem to need it, but also I know I need to start weaning them as mom would do. They just turned 4 weeks yesterday.

[GrayRodent]

That's great you have experience and have found homes for all of them. I'm very glad to hear they have already started on solid foods. I don't have experience with raising chinchillas but someday I would like to. It has also been my experience with raising farm animals that babies will always go after milk with a vengeance even when they are being weaned, although 2 weeks does seem suspiciously early to me too.