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[PSV]

Hello there!
Recently (9Th of August) my female gave birth to 3 super cute male kits: 2 Beige as the father and one standard grey like the mother.
Starting that day I weighted them nearly daily to make sure they are eating.
I weighted them 9 times by now counting the notes I did after each weight check.

Regardless: these were the weights of the kits when they got born (12 hours after actually)

Kit1: 51g
Kit2: 47g
Kit3: 48g

Now, after 12 days from the birth:
Kit1: 70g
Kit2: 60g
Kit3: 78g (Yes he's a fatty! )

The one that worries me most is obviously kit number 2 who gained only 12 grams in this period.
He is quite active, runs alot, he experiments on chewing wood, wood chips and hay but I'm still worried about his weight.
Could someone give me a chill pill or some advices if needed? Thank you in advance!

Oh by the way:
Female became a b***h starting 4-5 days ago and is really aggressive with the male which I had to move (the poor guy) in a different cage (way smaller obvioussly).
All was good at the beginning, the male was quite getting along with the female and the kits but now she's very aggressive to him.
I have tried putting his cage inside hers to See if they get along in short sight but she instantly started to bite the bars and guess what? : she even broke one bar O.o
Should she stop when the kits are separated from her (7-8 weeks old) ?

Thanks in advance!
Kind regards,
Vic

[dianah]

i think the weights are good. as long as they are putting weight on steadily, it's good. generally you'd expect them to put on 1-2g a day in the first few weeks (and lose a couple in the first 24 hours) so the baby's still on track. as long as he's nursing, is active and putting on, it's good.

the father should have been away from the mom. they go into heat straight after giving birth so there's every chance she's pregnant again - this is not great for her as she's nursing at the same time, you may want to give her additional nutrition (extra vit c, calcium, rolled oats and alfalfa hay are good). if she doesn't want him around, don't let him near her.

the male kits need to be removed at 8 weeks, girls can stay with mum (but obviously not that). if there's more than one boy, they cannot be housed together in an area where they can smell and/or see a girl.

[PSV]

Thank you so much for the fast response!
I forgot to mention... I knew that there was going to be an afterbirth mating so I purchased another cage (the one where the male is now) specifically for the birth moment so I can avoid a mating.
The male and female (after she gave birth) were sepparrated for 5 days. As far as I read she's in heat and able to get pregnant again upon the next 3-4 days after birth. I took one extra just to be sure.
The cage was inside the big cage so that the male can interract with the kits and get used with their presence. The poor bastard did interact well with the kits, the female seemed unsatisfied though

Regarding the vitamin stimulation I purchased some vitamin C pills for babies which I broke into four peaces. 1 quarter I gave to the female the rest I ate it and damn it was good!
I have to do some google translator search for Alfalfa because I don't know what does it mean.
I am giving them alfalfa hay all the time due to the unlimited stocks. The breeder that I bought them from is buying around 100 kilograms after each harvest (there are around 5-6 harvests every summer and he's keeping it in really good conditions.

All 3 are boys so the poor mother will have to suffer the separation at it's full.
Once again thank you for lifting the rock over my head

P.S. Please pardon my poor/bad English. It's all I learned from TV series so my vocabulary isn't that wide.

[dianah]

good well it looks like you've got it all under control. just one thing, are you definitely sure they're all boys? because ladies have bits that look like willies. i kept checking mine like a lunatic just to make sure!

[PSV]

Honestly I'm not 100% sure since I did a single sex check the day they were born.
One thing I'm completely positive about: they're all three the same gender (same distance between the willie and the poo dispenser )

[dianah]

i find the better way is having a look between the bits and see what's there. if you gently pull the skin next to the willy away from the bum, if it's a boy, there's a piece of skin between the bits that will lift up. if it's a girl, there's a slit and nothing will lift.

with babies, especially, the space between is very small. i lost my boy after i had to have him neutered (he had to have another surgery due to infection and had a reaction to the anaesthetic) because his friend turned out to be a girl rather than a boy - she was sexed by two breeders and i did check too and thought there was a large space between.

here are some really good pictures

http://www.chin-chillas.com/sexing_your_chin.html

[AnnieHank]

Going ever so slightly off topic, looking at those pictures for sexing chinchillas, I'm actually wondering are the feet on those adult chinchillas normal or are they a bit raw? I'm only asking because that's what my chinchillas feet look like, that's why I changed from wire bottom to wood. Their feet still look like that and it was worrying me a bit but if that's normal, I can cross that off my list of things to worry about. (Long long long list!!)

[dianah]

some chinchillas do have feet like that even if they don't spend time on wire mesh. i think the older they are the more common it is. i think the ones on the pictures are pretty normal.

what you need to be aware of is callous looking things or one leg being fine, the other with patches of dry skin, any scabs and cuts.

[Debbie.nl.ca]

I start trying dad with mom on day 7, some will take 10-12 days before they let him back. She's boss over that decision.

[PSV]

Now, after 3 weeks from the birth she still can't stand him. Yesterday I released them both in the living room and she still chases him and hops on his back to bite him.
I guess that if she doesn't stand his presence in the living room introducing them in the same cage will be overkill and probably damaging for the kits.

Slightly off topic question: Chin mom keeps loosing weight since the birth. She's still in the "safe range" I guess: 520 grams but she still drops daily 3 to 5 grams.
Before she delivered she had 800 grams. Around 600 the second day after she gave birth.
I am aware that she is nursing but I am a bit worried.
She doesn't show any sign of illness whatsoever. I'm checking her teeth, ears, teats, anus, droppings and everything seems quite normal.
The only change in her behavior, besides the chin dad hatred is the fact that she's "barking" quite often. While I was hearing her only when she was sleeping and it wasn't a daily routine, now even when she's awake, when she's hiding she starts "barking".

I hate the fact that the imbecile vet that I asked if he ever treated chinchillas nodded when I asked claiming that he even made surgeries on several.
When I took my chins to him he replied: "Oh! I thought you said chihuahuas. Where did you got these from?". Funny guy huh? I was like " VET RAGE MRGL MRGL!!!"

[Debbie.nl.ca]

"Oh! I thought you said chihuahuas. Where did you got these from?"

     

she might take him back later but you may have to start from scratch with the intro's. Some get funny like that. Either she's afraid he'll hurt the kits, or she hated the whole thing and blames him     Is she being a good mom?

[PSV]

Yes she does look like being a good mom. She still tries to clean them even though they became tiny fur poo machines, She still nurses on time, at least this is what I can see. I just reinstalled the stories in the cage because she was constantly jumping around trying to get up (I wonder where since there were no stories left). Now she climbs, stands a bit and gets back to the kits to keep them warm. The reason why I installed them is that I wanted to prevent unwanted injuries for the mom or even a misscalculated jump from which she could drop on one of the kits.
Still, the stories are unreachable for the kits which I consider safe.
I'll supervise the action tonight from 3 to 3 hours to make sure that she takes good care of them.

As for the blame remark, I was thinking the same thing to be honest. As said, I saw the dad being in the same cage with the mom and kits taking good care of the little furballs while the mother was never showing an objection. Maybe she had a bad dream about delivering once more and went berserk
One thing I noticed and regardless if they are rather primitive they are not stupid animals. (let's be honest, they crap allover the place and they do not learn the meaning of the word "no").
She probably had a bad experience with the birth and all the changes (starting with the smaller cage and everything inflicted) that made her change her attitude towards the male.

I just hope that after I'm donating the kits she will become friendly with the male again.