Father and Babies

[cfhussain]

Our female chinchilla gave birth 7 weeks ago now and the babies (3 of them) are coming along nicely, so too is the male who was neutered 2 weeks ago and is almost his usual self. Soon we need to move the male babies into the father's side of the cage, and the divider will seperate the female chins from the males to prevent any more small surprises!

We are a little bit concerned by the behaviour of John (dad) with the male babies when we have put them in his side of the cage. Sometimes John chases them a bit and they are obviously considerably smaller than he is. When he is outside the cage during playtime with the babies he is fine with them and only in the cage does this behaviour occur. Is it just a matter of persisting with this, we won't have much of a choice in a couple weeks time the male babies will have to be separated (once weaned of course) from the mother. Any advice appreciated.

 

[Jazicat]

The father may not except the babies as cage mates. I would consider getting another cage if you can. We have three boys in three cages because they are too aggressive to be together.

 

[tunes]

Though it is rare in my experience, there are males who don't get along with the little ones. I would be very careful about caging them together if dad is being territorial in the cage. What happens when he chases them? Is fur flying? Are they squeaking? Is he just chasing them off of a favorite spot?

Getting a male castrated doesn't necessarily take away the dominant side of the male or the drive to breed. Be cautious about keeping the cages too close together with the female cage. It could cause issues between dad and the kits if you are able to cage them together.

 

[seachin]

I would be cwutious and get a new cage. However, if you must keep them in current caging sitution, I would consider switching sides. Have someone watch them all, thoroughly clean both sides and switch the sides so there less likelihood of being territorial due to the new environments.

 

[Dreamlite]

If the male is fixed he can always live with the mom and daughters and the sons can live apart. I have a male who doesn't like kits but once they are 4 or 5 months old they get along great. Each chin is different.

 

[cfhussain]

We were told that we should keep the father and mother apart until 6-8 weeks after the operation as he is still capable of producing little chinchillas. Though that is the plan, we will be keeping the parent chinchillas and will have to give the babies away.

Re: tunes
No fur flying, John just barks and chases the baby around the cage. The baby appeared scared but approached John afterwards anyway, rather than staying clear.

I like the idea about switching the sides of the cage. We do have a cage that is a suitable size for baby chins so if it comes to that we will have to put the male baby chins in there. Thanks for advice