Some questions about my kits

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Tigris

Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2018
Messages
7
Hey so I have a couple different questions about my kits:

1. I noticed that one of my kits is kinda shaking at times. I am pretty sure that he can't be cold because my room temperature is appropriate for chinchillas and neither the mom or the other kit are shaking. Is he just scared or is it a disease or something serious?

2. They were born yesterday, one weighed 58 grams and the other 55 grams. Today I weighed them again and the smaller one was 56 grams, the other was still 58. Is it okay if the bigger one didnt gain any weight? I know that he is on the larger side of newborns but should I be concerned if he doesnt gain any weight tommorow? He seems fine and he has a lot of energy (he runs around the cage without a problem).

3. I know mastitis (not sure if i spelled it correctly) is a common problem and I would like to know if its really obvious if the female has it? Can you tell its something wrong by just looking at the nipples? My female nipples seem fine but sometimes she makes a weird noise and starts pushing the kits away. Is that normal?

4. My kits are scared of being handled and they keep trying to get away. One of them even tried to bit me. I promise you that i handled them correctly but they still looked so nervous. Is that normal? Did they miss their mom?

5. Okay the last question. Can you sex kits on the first/second day? I am no expert but I tried today and I am pretty sure they are male and female. I would just like to know if its even possible to sex them that early?

Thank you for any answers and I am sorry if some of the questions seem stupid but I already had one kit before these two and he sadly did not make it so I am very paranoid that something will go wrong with these two too. I will probably post my story with chinchillas on the forum some time in the future so you can read it and understand my paranoia.

Any help is appreciated <3
 
1. Hard to say without seeing it, but I do know that kits can't regulate their body temp as well as adults. It is possible the kit is a little chilly depending on how cool you are keeping the room. For kits I would say don't let the temp go below about 15C, although adult chins can handle colder kits can't. They are also still newborns so it could just be getting is coordination down.

2. It's not uncommon for it to take a day or so for the milk to come in, so the kits may stay the same or even lose a little in the first day or two. Try to weigh them at the same time everyday because things can cause the weight to fluctuate, like if they just ate or not, if they peed or pooped, etc.

3. I've never deal with that myself, but it's pretty obvious. The nipples will be hard and painful and she likely wont allow the kits to nurse at all, and may even attack them. Kits are born with all their teeth, so it's very possible the kit bit her and that is why she pushes them away.

4. They are going to instinctively try to fight and get away, they are prey animals. You need to earn their trust, being picked up is very unnatural, in the wild being picked up normally means being eaten. Just keep handling them and they will get use to it once they learn nothing bad happens.

5. Yes you can sex kits at birth, but being so small it's hard, even experienced breeders sometimes get them wrong that early. You have about 8 weeks before you need to worry about separating any male kits so they don't breed with the females, so I wouldn't worry too much about it just yet.
 
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