Heat cycles - please help clarify...

[Pookinaround]

Ok folkes can you please help me clarify something...I am still somewhat new but I was always under the general assumption that female chins end up having a heat cycle every 28 days.

I recently joined MCBA and yesterday I got a copy of the Mar/Apr Newsletter. In it there is an article by Debra Nickelson, DVM. In it she writes, "Female chinchillas have irregular heat cycles between June and November. They may come into heat every 36 to 130 days or not cycle at all. Between December and May chinchillas cycle every 30 to 50 days, average being 41 days."

I guess I am a little confused because I at least like to think that I have done a fair amount of reading up on chinchillas and like I said my initial impression was that the heat cycle is generally every 28 days. This was the first time I have come across something that says otherwise. By no means am I questioning a vet, but taking into consideration what she is saying if one of my girls seems slow to breed so to speak it would be perfectly normal. See if I expect a heat cycle to occur at 28 day intervals then I am going to obviously hope that pregnancy occurs probably sooner than it would actually technically realistically happen according to the article. Again this is my first year in the chin world and all so I haven't experienced it all first hand yet during different times of the year but seems like I could have easily been expecting kits sooner than what is normal because of the conflicting info.

Any thoughts..?

 

[Riven]

By no means am I questioning a vet

You should. You should never stop questioning people until they can show you proof that you believe. This is just general advice on anything.

I've always been told that the cycle is appx 28-35 days. Like people it would vary depending diet, environment, weight, etc. The only way to really tell would be to obtain a large sample of chins from different areas on different diets etc. and average it out. They would have to be checked daily basically to see when they come in an out of heat, and even then some chins don't show it like others....

As for expecting pregnancy, you should never, never do that with chins. I have a female here, one that I kept out of my whole herd that's in my colony in my office, she only has a kit every 1-2 years. I have others that would have kits every 111 days if I didn't shut them off. There is no way to tell.

There IS a cycle, chins do tend to have more babies at certain times of the year, but it's usually just so the babies won't be ready for show.

 

[jbcstratton]

There IS a cycle, chins do tend to have more babies at certain times of the year, but it's usually just so the babies won't be ready for show.

Isn't that the truth!

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

boy I certainly have found that too

 

[Pookinaround]

You guys all guessed correctly the reason for my hoping...lol I know better than to bank on it but man c'mon... Nationals is coming soon and I'd really like to see how kits from certain pairs would do... Can't blame a girl for hoping....

In all seriousness though that article did make me stop and think well ok if that is true then a girl might get labeled as being "slow to breed" when in fact it is just her natural cycle...

 

[AZChins]

Just like with other animals the seasons are going to impact the heat cycles. In general you can say that the chins will be going into heat every 28 to 35 days, but there are times where they don't go into heat every months. That's alright, it has a lot to do with hormones, when the chin had babies last and the time of year.

Sometimes I wonder about stress inducing or inhibiting a heat cycle, as well. I've had chins that I pair up for breeding have babies within 115 days or so after they are placed together. It has happened enough to make me wonder about the stress of going in with a new male possibly causing hormonal changes and getting the chins to go into heat. (I'm not saying that chins are induced ovulators, they certainly would be considered to ovulate spontaneously like humans...)

It has gone the other way where they don't have babies right away, as well. It seems like at a certain age they tend to be more consistent in their heat cycles. They tend to go into heat with great regularity in the cycle at 2 to 6 years old here. After that they seem to slow down and I don't notice them coming into heat as much. I rarely put a female into breeding before she's about 1.5 years old...so I don't know as much about the heat cycles of the chins that are not in breeding.

 

[Riven]

I believe that stress can induce a cycle, that's why I'd always put my girls into breeding after the last show, and I'd see an increase in kits in the next 3-4 months, not all, but what I'd consider a significant number.