Breeding Chinchilla Size

[Shogun87]

Hi,
I was wondering whether anyone could give me some info regarding the size of the breeding chinchilla? I know and understand the importance of health and temperament, but know little about the importance of the size. I have found a male chin I'm completely in love with but am wondering whether or not he is too small to breed.
Thanks

 

[tunes]

You'll get different answers to this from different people. I generally won't put anything into breeding that is less than 600 gm. I do have a male here who hovers right under or on that mark, depending on the day, but he throws exceptional nice kits so I will use him. I just think there are plenty of good sized chins out there, that I don't really need to breed midgets.

If I had an exceptional male that was 450 gm? No, I wouldn't use him. That's a personal choice though. I know there are people who rant and rave that it's fine to breed 450 gm males and females, but it's not something I'm going to do, even if their fur is out of this world.

 

[arf2184]

As tunes said, its mostly personal preference. As far as showing goes bigger is better, but ONLY if the fur quality is superior too. I aim for 700-850g adult weight in my offspring. Giant chins (900g+) tend to be slow breeders.

Remember that size and weight are not the same thing. We use weight a lot of time when referencing size, but this is only because its hard to get an idea of how big an animal is without actually seeing him/her ('smaller than a melon but bigger than a grapefruit' just doesn't cut it). Weight can give you a pretty good idea of an animals size most of the time, but not always. I have a female that weighs in around 560g. When put side by side with my 700g girl, she's the same size.

 

[ppsamm]

sorry if I am hijacking ppl thread....how much does male and female size affect on the size of the offspring?

 

[jags]

In most part I agree with Peggy but if I have an exceptional male that has everything and I mean everything but size I will sometimes use him. He still must be over 500 and look bigger than his weight to be used. Most times there are males just as good and have size so it happens very seldom. Just my opinion but I think the female has more to do with the offspring's size. A over whelming very large percentage of kits out of small females end up small even when the sire is very large.

 

[weew]

I breed by weight, 600gram, is about 10 months old.

 

[VolunteerChin22]

I breed by weight, 600gram, is about 10 months old.

Weight is not necessarily correlated with age. A chin that is 3 years old could weigh 600gs, 500gs, or 1000gs. I have a 6mo female that weighs nearly 600gs. and she is too young to breed. Age should be considered and then weight when deciding on breeding an animal of quality.

 

[AmandaDi]

I just wanted to add that I have a breeding pair where my guy is not what 'most' would want him to be size wise, and every one of the kits he and his dam produce are very nice sized! So I am one of those who do not always count out a guy just bc he is on the smaller size. If I bred him a few times and noticed the kits did not grow out well, I would pull him, but in this case I have no intentions of pulling my smaller guy! Additionally, I have no intentions on showing him bc I do think size matters there.

 

[Anne-Lise]

I try to keep at 600g + but I have a male now that is smaller than that. I have seen his parents and grand parents and they are all exceptionally georgeous, so I'll see what comes up....

 

[ppsamm]

Weight is not necessarily correlated with age. A chin that is 3 years old could weigh 600gs, 500gs, or 1000gs. I have a 6mo female that weighs nearly 600gs. and she is too young to breed. Age should be considered and then weight when deciding on breeding an animal of quality.

One of my females changes in their weight as they aged.
She was 650(3yrs ago) > 720(2yr ago) > 550 (present).

Do you all put her on breeding now?

 

[VolunteerChin22]

I would wonder what factors were causing such weight change - change in food? stress? sick? before I worried about breeding her. Some chins fluxuate but I mean from 720 to 550 is a large drop imo...

I would say that in my females I wouldn't breed less than 600gs with 700+ being more ideal. Males I don't think bigger is neccesarily better because smaller males are usually better at doing their job and getting away from tempermental females. I also have a smaller guy who threw the 600g 6mo old kit- I have him matched with a really large female to compensate...if he wasn't producing nice animals I'd pull him too.

 

[Rickman]

ppsamm - I've not seen or heard of any chin loosing weight as they age - usually the opposite is true!
If it was me, I'd be looking into a feed change or supplements to get that weight back up, but I don't know your selections in Singapore, and I imagine shipping is expensive!
Give it a while and if no improvement, a Vet visit is in order!

 

[ppsamm]

ppsamm - I've not seen or heard of any chin loosing weight as they age - usually the opposite is true!
If it was me, I'd be looking into a feed change or supplements to get that weight back up, but I don't know your selections in Singapore, and I imagine shipping is expensive!
Give it a while and if no improvement, a Vet visit is in order!

sorry it is a typo, the last weight was 650gm. She is a nonbreeding chin..
We probably stress her up while we pair up her with other females causes the weight loss. We hv mazuri for our chins.