Is 7 too old for a litter?

[sparker1706]

Hi everyone. I have a bit of a question. I have a friend with a 7 year old female who was talking about giving her to me to breed once with my white mosaic male. But I do have concerns about whether she is too old for one litter. I've heard differing life expediencies. My vet even once told me that my male, being around 5, is getting old. So I was wondering if 7 is to old for have a litter or not.

 

[lauralynne]

Everything about this screams DUMB IDEA.

That's the short and to the point truth. Don't do it.

 

[Dreamlite]

You both need to do more research. What if the chins fight and kill each other? Chins don't breed when you want them to. It could be months before they breed. Is she willing to risk giving up her chin for who knows how long? Risk her females life? What is her goal in getting kits? Do they have pedigrees? My advice. Don't do it.

 

[Amethyst]

As said this sounds like a bad idea, breeding chinchillas is not something to take lightly, it's not like breeding most rodents, there are a lot of complications that can arise with chinchillas. Take a look at the horror stories link of the breeding and babies section on this forum and then see if you even still have the stomach for it. Also as said what it the goal of the mating? If it's just to get more chins it's not worth it, what is the plan for the babies? Especially if the chin's are of unknown pedigrees you could be unknowingly passing on genetic defects, even if neither chin show any signs they could be carriers of something. As said it can take months before they breed, and in some cases years, it's not like a cat or dog where you just put them together when the female is in heat and they breed, if they don't like each other they could kill each other. Physically a chin is never too old to have kits they don't go through menopause like humans, and chins can live 15-20+ years if properly taken care of and nothing goes wrong with them (malo, URI, accident, etc.). What you should be more worried about then age (assuming both are from good breeding lines) is if the female is physically capable. Just one example is not all chins are able to pass kits and c-sections cost thousands of dollars, there is round the clock after care and there is no guarantee mother or kits will survive it. My advice is if you or your friend want more chins is to look into going to a established reputable breeder or chinchilla rescue.

 

[Pikaia]

Yes, I agree with everyone 100%. Please read what Amethyst says and really think hard about it. Not worth the risk in my opinion!!!!

 

[3CsMommy]

Please don't do this.

 

[AZChins]

No pedigrees with no one to stand behind the health of the chins in question makes me a little nervous. Be careful with this.

Breeding chins at best will leave you exhausted, at worst emotionally and financially drained. It's best to leave it up to experienced ranchers and breeders.

You may email me at [email protected] if you want to know the horror stories of breeding and I will tell you what I have spent on c-sections and help with breeding chins. When everything goes well, it goes great and wonderful and babies are perfect and bouncing and nursing, but when everything goes wrong, everything is horrifically expensive and pushes you to the brink.

Unless you are prepared for the worst, keep boys in one cage and girls in the other. Putting a male and a female together is breeding. They will probably have babies since you have an 80% chance that they will reproduce...and then you will be responsible for more lives.

 

[6Dusters]

Tell your friend to adopt a same sex chin and throw that breeding notion out the window. Oh and have a spare cage ready in case they hate each other in the future and fight.

The poor girl could end up dead with a male who isn't so nice. Not to mention the "byb" mentality that goes along with this. Hate to sound like a turd. But this is not a good idea at all. Go look on any web platform out there and you'll see a million chins homeless or about to be homeless because the newness has worn off. Or to find them so darned dirty in a photo it scares me.
Or the classic .......chins for sale or up for adoption that have been bred over and over and over and they are all in the same cage. Kit's grown out several months breeding mom. All those males in a cage breeding her almost to darned death. Or what are they going to do if mom is bred and has no milk??? I am in my 50's and for this past month I have been hand feeding kits in the night. Lets say your dear friend comes over and pulls my shift for the next month? I had to add that one. Have done it twice now in the past couple years and it makes you crazy. I MEAN CRAZY!!
Susan your right! It will push you to the brink.

Sighs.......I'm not saying your friend doesn't have good motives. Just throw this whole idea in the trash. Enough said................

 

[Vyxxin]

A 7yr old female that hasn't been bred before (assuming)? If she's never been breed before there's a good chance she won't breed...or it'll take FOREVER...not just weeks, maybe months or years!

Then, as mentioned, as with any two chins you run the risk of injury to one or both if they decide they don't like each other ESPECIALLY if the female DOES become pregnant.

Now that's all "pre-delivery" type stuff...afterwards there are all SORTS of things that can go wrong. The one thing your and her chins have at 5 & 7 is that they themselves haven't (hopefully?) shown signs of malo at this point...still no reason to toss two opposite sex chins together all willy nilly.

To answer the original question, 7 is too old for a FIRST litter...and even if it's not her first litter...maybe you should see how many chins go through rescue yearly before making more?