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GinChin

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 13, 2013
Messages
59
I've had a female for about 2 months now, and a male for about a month and a half.

Within the past two weeks I've noticed that her belly is swelling and getting firm compared to his. I was wondering what this is indicative of?
 
Are they housed together? I'm not by any means an expert but the first thing that pops into my head is pregnancy!
 
Sounds like gas, you should get the poor thing some ovol (baby gas medicine). Make sure it's got simethicone in it. You wouldn't know if she was pregnant yet, though she probably is if she's housed with a male. She's probably gassy from stress, and that can actually lead to fatal problems, you should go to the nearest store and pick some up just in case. It's very cheap and you can't overdose them with it.
 
Yes, they are housed together, and I thought it was a bit too early to tell if she was pregnant. I'll go get the gas medicine just in case it is gas. About how much should I give her?

The other thing is, she's from a pet store where they had her housed in with two males. So, it is possible that she was pregnant before I got her.
 
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Make a note on your calendar, you'll know in less than 111 days if she's pregnant haha, your poor girl has had a lot going on.

The medicine should come with an eyedropper, but when my girls tummies hurt I put a few drops on my finger and let them lick it off (the eyedroppers get gunky fast!)

Good luck, my Daisy likes tummy rubs after the medicine, maybe yours will too?
 
Is she in a baby safe cage? Are you prepared for kits?

She can't overdose on simethicone. They come in a little bottle with a dropper. You can put it on your finger and let her lick it from your finger.
 
Oh! The Ovol looks like this where I get it

ovol15.jpg
 
If you got them from a pet store how do you know they aren't related? Do you have spare cages? Are they baby proof? How old are the chins? If she was caged with malesbefore she could be due any day. They need to be seporated.
 
Are you looking to breed them? I would feel the sides of her belly for elongated nipples as well. You can also weigh her frequently to see if she's gaining weight. I would absolutely recommend separating them if you don't want kits.
 
I got her from a pet store. My male is from a local breeder.

I've checked her nipples. They're irritated looking, but not elongated. I am prepared for kits, and the cage is baby proof. I can also seal off the top of my cage from the bottom to separate the father from them when the time comes. I also have a spare cage if he starts to go nuts because of it. He's 8 months. She's pet store, so can't be sure how old she is, but by size she appears fully grown.

I got gas drops with the smithecone in it, before I gave her any I was worried about if she didn't like it. Obviously that was false thinking. After she sucked every bit she could off the eye dropper, I had accidentally splashed some on my hand. Which, she then proceeded to lick off in its entirety. I'm afraid she'll think it's a treat now. :p

I'll have to try the tummy rubs, but lately while she's fine with me stroking the top of her body, she won't let me anywhere near her stomach to pet, not even under the chin which she used to love.

Thank you all for the advice.
 
She is probably pregnant. Do NOT do tummy rubs. They could cause problems for a pregnant mother and her unborn kits. Since she is a pet store chin, she should be separated from the male now and remain that way permanently. If you wish to breed, get a quality female from a reputable breeder.
 
I'm sorry, but what deems my chin from a pet store as not being quality? For all you know, my girl, from a pet store, can somehow have managed to snag that right hodge podge of genetics to be better than one you could breed from your pedigrees in 100yrs. Or she could be worse, but regardless every line has to start somewhere.
 
She could be a very high quality chin, but we don't know if she is or not. Have you shown her? Have you had her evaluated by a rancher or sought an opinion from someone, who knows chins? Those are things you could do to find out if this is a chinnie that ought to be bred or not. There are people out here that know chins and know quality.

One thing I have to ask...do you know if her pelvic opening is large enough to have kits pass through? It isn't always about pedigree or quality, you have to be certain that a female has the ability to deliver her kits safely. If your girl is pregnant, I hope that she will safely give birth and then nurse the kits. There's so much that goes along with breeding...
 
I took her to the ranch where I got my male. They've been breeding chins for over 60 years there, and they said she is safe to breed.

As far as quality. To me, that is in the eye of each individual. It's an opinion and a perception. To me, she's quality. I can post pics if others want to weigh in, but that's going to remain their opinions.
 
I can't really tell much from pictures as far as quality goes. Some of the nicest chins look terrible in pictures, and some of the worst look great for a variety of reasons.

What ranch did you go to have her evaluated? How did they figure it was safe to breed her? I'm curious about this because most ranchers I have known probably wouldn't say that breeding a petstore chin is a good idea. They may not say that you need a full pedigree for a chinchilla, but from what I have gathered from ranchers I have spoken to over the years they usually think it's a good idea to know where the chin came from.

Opinion and perception may be part of it, but fur quality and conformation are two things that really aren't issues with perception. There are judges that have been trained to determine quality in chins. I'm not sure that they would like to hear that what they have learned is simply a matter of opinion.
 
VV Chins, and because she was full grown. I get where it's a good idea to know where a chin came from, but back to my original comment on this subject, all lines started somewhere. From wild chins, that no one knows where they came from.

As for fur quality and conformation. What determines which of those looks best? Opinion and perception that they were then trained to recognize that specific conformation as "quality".

Genetics are a dice roll, no matter how much you know about the genes that you're using. And you roll those dice until you get lucky. Then you take that lucky roll and roll it again, getting random results til you get lucky again. However, for me, I'm going to pick the chins that look good to me, and you're going to pick the ones that look good to you.
 
Just because a chin is full grown it doesn't mean she can pass a kit without it getting stuck. That's not a good method of determining if a pelvic opening is large enough! PLEASE don't ever use that to determine if a female should be bred.

The chins we have now are not wild. Their genetics are rather concentrated considering that all of the chins we have today come from a rather small number of wild chins originally placed into breeding. We have to worry about what lines mix well and which ones don't. Some problems are recessive and putting two recessive gene carriers together can result in root elongation or other problems! Way back when chins were first being bred the lines all had to be established. Ranchers and breeders have spent decades determining which lines may be bred without poor results.

Genetics aren't always unpredictable. Color can be predicted, other traits are passed on to offspring in a repeatable way. It's always best to start out with parents with desirable traits rather than starting with two ratty looking, thin furred animals. And, no, I am not going to pick chins that look good to me but don't look good to other experienced chinchilla breeders or ranchers. Most of the time an animal that I think is poor quality is going to be poor quality to another experienced chin person. I don't know if you know what you are saying in your last paragraph...
 
You're going to do what you want anyway from your tone. You obviously don't understand the perception of quality. Quality is not "what looks good to you". Quality is a standard that judges are trained for, that's why there are judges and not just random people who decide who's the winner. For Nationals three different people agree on an animal's placing, so obviously there is a standard.

I've never heard of VV Chins, and if they show I've never seen them at Nationals where the top breeders show for as long as I've been a member, which makes me question their competency on quality.

Pet store chins are "seconds", they are there because they are not out of show lines or don't have potential to be a quality breeding animal. Breeders don't send their top animals' kits to pet stores for a measly $35.

It's funny how people like to come and "get help" but only take the information that they wish to hear.
 
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