heard an interesting story today...

[kaotictenshi]

A customer of mine came in and we got on the subject of pets. As usual, I gushed about all my animals...and when I told him I had chins, he got so excited and had a million questions to ask me. He told me a story about his uncle ( I think) or close family friend that was a breeder and he passed away about 2 years ago. So this guy wound up with a breeding pair of adorable chins, yeah he had pics on his phone...so frigging cute..both standards. Anyway, he told me that they were recorded as a breeding pair but there was no record of any litters even though the chins were about 4 years old. He didn't want to split them up and even for the past 2 years he hasn't seen a litter or even mating going on. He began to ask me some interesting questions about breeding and I thought I'd take it on to this site to see what I found out. I'm no breeder and I really had no idea what to tell him, I just rescue and when I advised him to separate them if he didn't know what he was doing, he told me he had been involved a lot with the chins during pregnancy and delivery and he wasn't worried if they did eventually have a litter. So the questions he threw at me were:

Are the chins EVER going to breed if they've been together for this long and haven't?

Is it true that they should have a box in the cage that only has one entrance for a cool dark breeding area?

What temp does the room have to be during the breeding months?

Are there any ways to "ignite the flame" to get them to actually mate?

Please I ask of you not to judge and to only answer the questions I asked, these are questions I am asking out of curiosity and maybe next time something like this happens, or the guy comes back in to chin chat with me, I will be a little bit more knowledgeable in the subject.

I'm sorry for that last paragraph but I honestly rarely post fun stories on this forum or ask for information because I see people getting ripped apart just for asking simple questions and not getting answers just getting yelled at instead of helped

 

[tunes]

Are the chins EVER going to breed if they've been together for this long and haven't?
It can still happen out of the blue, but it is rare after so long a time.

Is it true that they should have a box in the cage that only has one entrance for a cool dark breeding area?
No. In fact, I don't know of any rancher who uses anything in their cages other than shavings on the tray.

What temp does the room have to be during the breeding months?
I don't think it much matters, as chins breed any time of the year. I keep my barn at 55-65 depending on summer or winter.

Are there any ways to "ignite the flame" to get them to actually mate?
Doubtful, although I suppose the female could be swabbed. May or may not help. More importantly, whether you or he wants to hear it or not, is should you try and ignite the flame. IMO, no, he should not. It sounds as though he has two non-pedigreed animals from questionable backgrounds. There are enough of those in shelters already.

I doubt you will be flamed. You just asked a simple question. But you most likely will get more answers of varying degrees similar to my last comment.

Just as an aside, for those who read this and know me, I hate my work program. You should have seen the weird things it put in there before I fixed them.

 

[Becky]

I would wonder if they aren't really a same sex pair.

 

[kaotictenshi]

There are enough of those in shelters already.

I'm aware of that, I have 3 chins and 2 cats from shelters and I'm sure I'll wind up with many more, they deserve people who will care for them not try to make money off of them.

you know becky that was something that I threw at him to maybe check the sex of them one more time...but he told me that he had papers that said they were male and female, then I wondered if he had the papers for the right pair and maybe he just wound up with a couple of same sex...

oh and of course he told me he took them to the vet as well "just to be sure" but who knows if that's true

To the OP - I have merged your last 3 posts to this thread. Please be aware that you can quote multiple posts in one reply and can reply to all of them at one time. You also have an Edit button that is enabled for 10 minutes (I believe that's right) after you post a reply in order to make corrections or additions to that post. Please use these features...it makes for easier reading on the forum. - ~alpayton

 

[zappa-fied]

how can you not tell? my boy has a huge piece, and he cleans it etc..

 

[Riven]

Well beings that he knows how old they are, I'm actually going to guess due to the way the situation sounds is that they are a pedigreed pair.

Not all males clean themselves constantly, and if they are then they need to be checked for hair rings.

Unless the vet is knowledgeable with chins and he specifically asked them to verify the sex they probably didn't know or bother. Tell him to join the forum or email a breeder it will be his fastest way to learn.