2 Sudden Baby Deaths

We have never lost any babies in over two years of breeding and suddenly today we had two that suddenly died. They seemed fine when they were checked on only a few hours before. There is no diarrhea of the siblings and they were both from different litters. Every other chinchilla seems fine. I am at a loss as to what to do. There has to be a reason for this, but I'm not finding anything in my research and the vet can't think of anything either. Any help would be appreciated.

There doesn't have to be a reason. Sometimes it just happens. Or, there could be a reason but you'll never figure it out. It's part of breeding. Consider yourself lucky it hasn't happened before now.

How old were the kits?

Stress, change in feed ( new bag ), neighbor spraying for weeds... the possibilities are endless...

You mention the siblings not having diarrhea. Did the two that died have diarrhea?

There are a lot of possibilities, but more details would help. What you give for food, water, treats, etc.

I agree with Peggy you are lucky if you have bred 2 years and not had any deaths sometimes it just happens

I'm so sorry. It has to be really hard to loose babies. What colors were they? I agree with Tabitha that more info would help.
E.

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you guys, I've been having computer problems.
The babies that died didn't have diarrhea either. They were not related in any way. One was a male standard and was 4 days old. The other was a male light ebony and he was one day old.
We have not had any more deaths since those two died.
We feed Mazuri Chinchilla food, it was not a fresh bag. The mothers never get any treats. They get hay every other day. The hay is a mix of alfalfa and timothy and was also not new. They always have food and water available. Their room is kept at 66-68 degrees.
No conditions had changed in our chinchilla room. The only thing that was new for the babies is that the night before they died I ran the vacuum in their room. The parents are so used to it that they don't even react to the sound of the vacuum. I was wondering if maybe the vacuum scared them or maybe put something in the air that harmed them, but I'm not sure that makes sense because one died the next day in the early afternoon and the other died late in the evening, several hours after the other one. I can lower it down to within a couple hours of when they died because I check on them so much (especially when we have new babies). Both the mothers were first time moms who are a year and a half old. The standard was in a litter of 3 and he was the smallest. The light ebony was in a litter of two and was smaller than his sibling. I have ran the vacuum in the chinchilla room since they died and all the remaining babies are doing great.
We had a necropsy done on the second baby that died, the one day old light ebony. The vet couldn't find anything physically wrong with him. We will always have a necropsy done on any baby that dies without a known cause from now on. We are very fortunate to have a very knowledgeable exotics vet practically down the street.
The vet told me pretty much the same things some people said on here, that we have been very lucky so far and sometimes things like this just happen. Sorry I kinda freaked out. We had gone so long without losing any and then we lost two in one day. I knew it was inevitable that one day we would lose a baby, but since it was two in the same day I was so worried that it was the beginning of losing many more. I have accepted that I will probably never know exactly why the babies died.
Thank you, everyone for your replies. I hope this answers everyone's questions.

Since both babies were the smallest of their litters, I think it was just bad luck to lose both on the same day. The 4 day old standard male was probably not getting enough milk. If a kit dies during their first 48 hours of life from unknown causes, there was absolutely nothing you could do. Hopefully your luck turns around.

I am sorry about the babies. Hopefully no more die. Did you get the results from the other baby?

Tab- Why do they just die?

mychinchillas said:

Tab- Why do they just die?

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It could be for a lot of reasons, but there's really no telling exactly why they die. Sometimes they just didn't get enough nutrition in the womb, sometimes they are premature (this can happen in a full term litter because chinchillas have the ability to get pregnant twice due to having two cervices), or it could just be failure to thrive.

I'm not a breeder but have 3 kits by accident and we didn't even know mom was pregnant, but we use Mazuri in a 25# bag and freeze it in 5# bags, we give hay everyday, alfalfa while pregnant and timothy other wise, but this did cause the deaths and the vacuum wasn't it. It's just nature and unfortunately it's cruel sometimes but it's not your fault.

I got up one morning to this chirping, in a couple of hours there were 3 kits chirping, we had to get another cage, clean everything well, then move everybody, so we started with way more disruption than a vacuum.

FredEthel, freezing pellets isn't advised because when they come out of the freezer condensation forms and that creates moisture in the pellets, potentially leading to mold. much better to just store them in an airtight container in a cool and dry location. i buy only enough pellets for a couple months worth at a time, to ensure they stay fresh until they are used up.

Interesting, Hmmm. Is it because chinchillas are more of an exotic animal? Or is that just prone to baby animals in general? Sorry for the questions.

with any animal you are breeding you need to pay close attention to the genetics and bloodlines of that animal, to ensure you are not breeding animals that have possible genetic problems.