Huge surprise!

[cfhussain]

Our supposed male chinchillas have managed to give birth to 3 chinchilla babies. Basically the female was id'ed male by RSPCA and we, incorrectly it turns out, assumed that was correct! Well it's day 2 for the 3 babies, we did not expect this but have useful contacts and seperated the male chinchilla from the female with babies immediately (thankfully our cage has a divider), but have many questions. We have allowed the parent chinchillas out seperately for playtime, though the bath was removed for the mother. The babies had a quick venture out last night also as we were told that it can be positive to have contact with them. The questions are more about confirming things we think we know:
1. When can father and mother be reintroduced? (1 week we were told that the female could breed again in 4 months time if we allowed them to stay together)
2. When can we let the baby chinchillas feed the pellets, hay and so forth?

And any other advice. I'm sure i'll think of more questions.

Thanks

 

[Stackie]

If you put the parents back together, they are just going to keep making babies. I would not put them back together, but if you plan on keeping the babies, you can put boys in with dad and girls in with mom so they still have company, but aren't constantly reproducing.

 

[Dragonflye]

I agree with Stackie and would keep the male and female separated. It can be hard on mom to keep having babies.

You can just leave the hay and pellets out for mom and the babies will start to munch when they are ready.

 

[Dreamlite]

You don't want to breed rescues so please keep them apart. Kits will learn to eat from watching mom.

 

[cfhussain]

Our cage has 3 levels, and two halves which we've enforced to keep mum and dad seperate. We've put the food on the middle level on both sides so mum and dad will see one another when they eat, but this does mean it is out of reach of the baby chins (though apparently one of them was climbing up the side of the cage a few hours after birth!

Btw i forgot to mention we weighed them last night, and will again tonight. Last night they weighed 48, 49 and 50 grams. So all evens really.

 

[Amethyst]

we were told that the female could breed again in 4 months time if we allowed them to stay together

Hopefully you meant she will be ready to breed again in 4 months... because the female can actually breed again right after giving birth. It's called breed back and so a mother chin can actually be prego while nursing a litter, it's a survive thing, they are rodents and prey animals after all, but it's very bad for the female.

 

[cfhussain]

I wrote the original message in a very messy way having read it back. I meant exactly what you said, that if we were to allow John and Cookie to remain together during this week that in 4 months time Cookie could be giving birth again. We don't want that, we didn't want or expect babies this time either. My main question is when the right time would be for John and Cookie to be together again. Poor John is alone on one side of the cage for now. Also we're uncertain about the diet of baby chins, we have standard chinchilla pellets and then hay and roughage that John and Cookie feed on.

 

[Stackie]

I My main question is when the right time would be for John and Cookie to be together again.

Never, if you don't want them reproducing again. She can get pregnant again at any time really. It is just not worth the risk to let them be together. You can look in to getting him neutered by an experienced chinchilla vet if you really want them to be together. Like I said earlier, you could pair them up with same-sex offspring so you're not putting dad at risk by going under for surgery (and saving some money).

 

[Zoaea]

Yea with three babies odds are you have at least some females and some males, Just keep a pal for both mom and dad of the right gender (make sure it is the right gender this time ahah!)

There is a good FAQ on here for kit questions like when to wean and how old to separate male kits and pictures to help you figure out the kit sex. If you do end up with all girls, you could think about neutering the dad.

If the dad is acting desperate to get to the mother its simply because she is breedable and he wants some... fun. =\ He'll be a bachelor fine until the kits are weaned and you can put the males with him.

 

[halfstache]

If you don't want more babies just keep them separated. While you could have one of them fixed there is always the chance that after so long of a separation they may not bond again. In my mind that is not a worthwhile wager with the danger of surgery being so high.

 

[cfhussain]

Thanks for responses. I had two quick questions:
1. I breeder told us that after 10 days the parents can be together, but the responses here suggest that there is still a chance they could mate again. Just want confirmation on this point really. Is it just that the likelihood of them mating drops significantly, but there is still a chance of them mating after a week - 10 days?
2. We want advice on helping Cookie to support 3 chins, I read that cranberry and water (50/50) is good for helping Cookie provide milk sufficient for 3, any other advice on this point is welcome.

Thanks

 

[Godins Chinchillas]

My 2 cents. Don't put them together. She will breed again and quite honestly having triplets will take a toll on her. My moms who have triplets get 8 mos to a year off. Do the responsible thing and keep them separated. Period! Who cares if the male is lonely. He'll get over it. You are going to drive the female into the ground.

Sorry if that is blunt but that's the truth.

 

[Dreamlite]

As soon as you put them together they will mate. Could be the same day or next week. No one knows for sure. Its not fair to ask her to raise 3 kits and have a male bugging her and wind up pregnant and nursing. If a female has triplets I always wait till the kits are weaned and the female gains any weight lost back before I reintroduce the male again. If these chins are from a rescue they should never be bred due to genetic issues they can carry. You got them as pets. Keep them as pets. Every litter you have runs the risk you will kill the female with birthing complications. If you love them, keep them apart. The male will adjust.

 

[MyzarandGemma]

Once the weaning period is over (8-10 weeks), if you have any males then they can keep papa John happy and he won't be alone! Also, any females can stay with mama Cookie! It's a win-win for the parents so they won't be lonely.

However, DO NOT put Cookie and John back together. They will and can immediately breed again and that could potentially KILL your female. It takes a lot to give birth. Ask any new HUMAN mother if she would want to get pregnant again a week after giving birth. I am sure she would have some words for you.

 

[cfhussain]

We were never going to put them together if they were going to breed, the point was the difference in opinion we were receiving. No problem with the separation, they've been apart since the birth, and we're weighing the babies every day. We've let the babies join John for a brief period of time but he didn't pay much attention to them.

We're looking for advice on neutering now as we appreciate the problem we now have. Basically we know we're going to have to give up 3 of the chinchillas we now have. We will obviously be waiting until after 2 months to go through with that, but doesn't hurt to consider this now. We want to keep John and ideally Cookie as well. Has anyone here had a chinchilla neutered?

 

[EBB]

How exciting and scary to discover kits when you didn't even know you had a female. I had a very similar experience with my first chinchilla. I had only had her about a week when i noticed something moving in her little wooden house. I thought it was a mouse and prepared to kill it. When I lifted it up the house, i saw a beautiful ebony kit. It was really cool and i was excited, scared, and anxious to figure out what the next step was.

As far as baby chinchilla diet, keep feeding your female her normal food and she will wean the babies and help them learn to eat it. a little alfalfa helps stimulate milk production and give more protein, but most of the hay should still be something fairly grassy, like timothy or anything you wold give a horse. don't dust the mom for a week or so to help prevent infection.

As far as putting the adults back together goes, it's obviously your choice. What you want to consider is the agreement you made when you bought them. If it was from a shelter then perhaps you signed a contract that said you aren't to breed the rescues. If so, then you should honor it. If not, perhaps you can see what the babies turn out to look like. Take the babies and the parents to a breeder or rancher who really knows how to evaluate quality and see whether they themselves would continue breeding your animals.

The whole breeding of rescues is an interesting topic, and definitely has two sides. I say when all else fails seek help from an honest, easily approachable source that is well educated and more experienced than yourself. Usually these sources give the best advise and don't just preach at you lol

Good luck and if you need any help i'd be happy to offer as much advice as i can

 

[Godins Chinchillas]

You can dust mom right away. You don't need to wait a week.

 

[ticklechin]

Take the babies and the parents to a breeder or rancher who really knows how to evaluate quality and see whether they themselves would continue breeding your animals.

So you feel its ok to just breed for beauty? How about them nasty little genetic issues that could be present in these rescues, those don't bother you? I know there are those on this forum that will breed anything that looks good but as a pet owner, I think that sucks when I am the end owner and gets stuck with a genetic mess.

 

[cfhussain]

We won't be breeding them again, we were shocked the first time and have learnt a lot in a short time so that we can raise all 3 babs. They're doing very well, but one is growing slower than the others. Apparently 2-4grams/day is good, two are growing 3/day consistently, but the other is either 1 or 2 grams. We've taken to separating them every now and then, letting the 2 bigger ones meet John in his side of the cage. Any other advice.

 

[Zoaea]

So you feel its ok to just breed for beauty? How about them nasty little genetic issues that could be present in these rescues, those don't bother you? I know there are those on this forum that will breed anything that looks good but as a pet owner, I think that sucks when I am the end owner and gets stuck with a genetic mess.

There is a strong merit to what tickle says, IDK if malo or heart issues are recessive or dominant but either way it crushes you as a pet owner when your animal dies at only 1 or 2 years old. My second chin had a massive heart attack at 9 months old, basicically just as I was really bonding strongly with her, she died in my arms as we rushed to the vet, very traumatic. =(

It does sound like the OP doesn't want to breed, so sorry if that's a bit off topic.