Breeding Chinchillas

[D.Who]

Hi, I am wanting to begin breeding Chinchillas, I have been researching for nearly 4 years about it, and know a fair amount, I just have some general questions, I would like to ask, and of course any advice is welcomed!
I have 6 Chins I am going to be putting into breeding, some breeders say 8 months, and others up to a year, I am thinking personally I would like to wait till they are between 11 months to a year depending on the weight on the chins!
These 6 all have their pedigrees and come from good lines.
the pairs would be a Homo Beige male to a standard female
a Dark Ebony Male to a Hetero Beige Female
and a Pink White male to a Medium Tan Female
(Ebony and Tan are cousins and Beige are siblings, so please no pairing suggestions that involves pairing them!)
I know that vet fees can be outrageous for them, and am fully prepared, as I do also have three neutered males that are rescues, that are becoming old men already. (22, 19 and 19)
I already have a supply of condensed goat milk and droppers, and my cages are already baby safe, (I have three extra cages to the side for when kits are coming for the daddies to stay in, so mommy gets her time with kits and isnt over worked)
Any help is welcomed! (including constructive critism)

 

[tunes]

Since you are new to breeding (though not new to chins) have you had your chins evaluated by someone who is experienced with the qualities that are desirable when you breed chins? They can also help you with pairing them up. For instance, if one of your chins is a bit pinched in the neck, they might tell you to put them with a blockier chin. If one has a bit weaker fur, they might tell you to put them with a really good strong furred standard.

Check the FAQs and read through them. The one on kit care is definitely one to keep at the front of your mind when breeding. There is also one on the lethal factor and why to breed. It can give you some good insights into breeding for the right reasons.

One thing I would suggest, especially if you plan to keep and breed offspring, is to get a few more outside lines in. You have a very small pool to draw from, and you've already got several that are related. I've known people who only bought from the same breeder, or who only wanted to breed from a certain line, and they suddenly realized they couldn't move their animals around because they were all related.

 

[Vyxxin]

a Homo Beige male to a standard female
a Dark Ebony Male to a Hetero Beige Female
and a Pink White male to a Medium Tan Female
(Ebony and Tan are cousins and Beige are siblings, so please no pairing suggestions that involves pairing them!)

I understand that you really can't genetically pair any of the chinchillas otherwise...BUT you should never breed based solely on not having unrelated animals. You should breed based on individual qualities.

For example, your ebony to beige cross. Both colors are known to have red cast. Likewise, pw to tan...what is the purpose of kits with quadruple mute genetics? When you breed, you're to breed to improve. Which can be done with those colors...but not by someone who doesn't know what they're looking at/for.

As questioned, have you had these animals evaluated for strengths/weaknesses and if so, what were they?

As far as overall breeding...that's a pretty broad question. You have a good start on supplies. I know a LOT of Canadian breeders breed in large cages. This is a matter of preference but I personally feel big cages are often dangerous to breeding females and their unborn offspring. Having daddy bachelor pads is smart. Good job there. Aside from having the goatsmilk and droppers you'll also want your basic first aid kit stocked. Its not terribly uncommon for kits to be mutilated during delivery especially with first time mothers. May want to have a heat pad on hand if you don't already. You may want to be a bit more specific about what you still need to know.

 

[Dreamlite]

I would take the time and get them evaulated. Just cause those are the chins you have does not mean that thye should be paired. Look for there strengths and weaknesses. If they don't complament eachother then buy/sell/rearange to match. The color you are pairing are commonly not paired due to off colored coats. If you have specific questions please let us know.

 

[D.Who]

they have all been evaluated already!
my Ebony is on the tinier side.so the Ebony is with my largest female.
other than that, they all had good teeth, Nice thick coats were blocky and good quality chins! if they weren't up to par, they wouldn't be grouped for breeding
I've had a couple people tell me to take my Homo Beige to a show because he would do amazing!
all the chins, have at least one standard parent, so their kits if bred would definetley breed back to a standard.
The pairs are set up that way because I am wanting to breed for tans, beiges and tan whites. as I said any suggestions on who to pair or A good color match for a particular chin, (as I will of course be expanding my heard, as I go!) are welcomed!
The only Chin that did have anything slightly off was the ebony because he's just tiny for his age still.
Thank you Tunes, I had already read the FAQs and am still expanding out, this is just my start
Vyxxin, I will look more into the color probabilities of chins, I know some colors are big no-no's such as TOV TOV, and have seen the effects on some poor local kits. so would love recomendations on any pair suggestions you'd recomend! (as noted, I am getting a handful more, as my goal is 5 breeding pairs (not nesasarily in breeding, just owned by me) by the end of this year)
and will, definetley get a little chin-aid kit!
as well as my cages are 1.5 foot cubes, with one full half level (which can be removed when kits come!)
Dreamlite, Not meaning to sound mean at all, but would never sell one of my Chins (the kits of course are slightly different) there my babies, and I've gotten them all for their personalities just wouldn't put them into breeding if they were not suitable!
also as noted I want to breed for Tans, beiges and Tan whites.
A couple questions I came up with over the night
1) how often do you guys weigh your kits? (I was thinking twice daily)
2) I use kiln dried pine at the bottom of my cage, would that hurt the little newborns at all? should I switch to Chin safe fleece?
3)what should be in the first aid kit? I have clue-kote already in case of chapped feet as I call them
sorry for the late reply!

 

[greychins]

I have to agree with the others about having them evaluated if they're not already. The evaluations can tell you a lot. For example, one of my males has weaker neck fur, but is strong elsewhere, so he is paired with females that have nice strong necks. The idea being, the chins complement each other.

With not being really experienced in breeding, the way to help ensure quality is to breed back to strong standards. So, you want strong beige babies? Breed a strong beige to a strong standard. I'm not the most experienced out there, so my 3 males are strong mutations and 8/9 of my females are strong standards.

Breeding mute to mute can be, and is, done, but it takes a little more knowledge and a bit more knowing what you're looking for, as sometimes you can end up with a kit that is a "what-is-it?" I've seen people post on here unsure if they have a pink white or a tan white or a hetero beige or a light tan... that takes quite some genetics to whip up those possibilities. The advantage to starting out with basic pairings, i.e. white to standard, is that it's fairly obvious if you have a white kit versus a standard kit. With your pink white to medium tan, you could end up with (1) light tan (homo or hetero), (2) tan white (homo or hetero), (3) hetero beige, (4) homo beige, (5) medium tan (homo or hetero) (6) light ebony, (7) pink white (homo or hetero), (8) white ebony, (9) mosaic, (10) medium ebony, and (11) standard grey. I'd personally rather have a few less possibilities than the chance of producing a rainbow of color options when the babies come out. Not to mention, it's easier, when starting out, to tell what you have, when there's less available possibilities. This may be helpful for you --> http://www.silverfallchinchilla.com/genetics/ChinCrossCalculator.aspx

 

[D.Who]

Thank you greychins, the chin cross calculator is amazing, I actually have all my possibilities written down
I'm quite confident in telling chin colors apart, as I've had them for so many years
abeit identical chins are still quite difficult, will probally go with the tail trimming suggestion from a different post
Hopefully the post comes up soon, (can anyone tell me why it takes so long to upload my comments?) but I'm looking into breeding, tans, tan whites and beiges mostly.
and all my chins have been looked at, and have been according to the one chins weakness (yes they all have quirks i.e. one has very large ears!) but have been set up to help lessen the quirks, and hopefully get the colors i'm hoping to breed towards

 

[D.Who]

hey guys, just wonering if anyone has any answers to the questions I asked?

 

[aznmexaggie]

1) I used to weigh my kits daily and they'd gain an average of 2 g/day. I don't weigh regularly anymore though as I can normally spot any "off" kits visually... and I save the weighing for special cases when I'm monitoring/handfeeding a small or injured kit.
2)Kiln dried pine is fine. All my cages use kd pine.
3)I have so many items in my first aid kit but for kits, I have eyedroppers for handfeeding, small syringes for administering meds if need be, BluKote, and in the fridge I have a bag of powdered goat milk for making the dry supplement, and I keep canned goat milk and baby rice and oatmeal cereal in the pantry... I also have Critical Care and colostrum in the fridge as well as Chlorhexadine, lactated ringers, needles for administering meds, a variety of antibiotics, colloidal silver, neosporin, Tinactin, terramycin, and other disinfectants/meds I've found useful over the years.

 

[VolunteerChin22]

I think you might want to think about the market for these kits that you are wanting to sell for - to be honest, if I was looking for a breeder animal (for example a beige or tan) I would not consider one out of your pairings. I would look for one out of a pairing with less mutations, first generation or not. If you are looking to sell mostly pets rather than to other breeders I don't think you'd have a problem, but you'd be cutting off a huge part of your potential buying pool. Just something to think about. It's often hard to place standards who are not out of a pure standard pairing, just a simple white std pairing or beige std pairing, much less a "whatsit" that came out of a quadruple mute pairing.

I also can't think of anyone working to create tan white lines as a focus, mainly because that's a lot going on...My general rule is no more than two mutes going on in a pairing. So lets say you do take back one of the offspring back to a std - maybe a pink white kit, out of the pw/tan cross, back to a std - is that kit an ebony carrier? Don't know. Could show up in the pairing by ruining all the std and beige bellies out of that pairing and then you're left with a bunch of pet animals.

Color combinations that result in 10 possibilities sounds exciting until you actually want to breed the offspring or try to sell them to other breeder homes.

 

[Godins Chinchillas]

What did the judges say about your animals and how did they place?

 

[Dreamlite]

I don't understand why you won't answer our questions but you expect us to asnwer yours. Education goes both ways. We can help you without all the info. In looks tan white look the same as a pink white so why not breed for the better color geneticly? The more mutes you throw in the easier it is to mess up. And since you say you are new to breeding we are only suggesting you start at level 1 and work up to the more complex colors. Since you have said your chins are evaulated, what were their placings and comments? That is the best way to pair chins. You haven't given us pictures, evaluation comment or even weights to help us comment on your pairings. You are asking us to comment blind based only on color. If you truely want our opinion, answer the questions asked, don't skip them to hear only what you want.