trying to start up again...

[cassie_m]

Hey there everyone I'm sure there's a post about this somewhere but my phone isn't working right so I couldn't find anything...
I bought out a chinchilla herd about a year and a half ago and thought things were going well. I went to work one morning and my ac unit died on me and the temps had reached over 110 degrees. Needless to say I lost all of them
Anyways... I had rushed into it and didn't have all my ducks in a row and I'm wondering how everyone started their chins up. Did you just buy one at a time and gradually add to them or did you by quite a few at a time? How are your barns/rooms set up... the ac units and such?
Sorry so long but I want to make sure the same thing doesn't happen again and if just jumping in and spending a lot is worth it? Thanks

 

[Dreamlite]

It really depends on you. How much space do you have? How much time and money do you have to devote? What is your breeding goals? How much research have you done? We can't tell you how/when to grow a breeding herd. That's a individual thing. I've bought singles and I've bought pairs. I have also bought a group of 10 chins and sorted through what I wanted to keep. My goal in breeding is to get quality beige and pinkwhites. I focused on a small group of quality chins. I had a lot of money saved, I have a entire room for them and more spare cages than I will ever need.

 

[Spoof]

I bought out a chinchilla herd about a year and a half ago and thought things were going well. I went to work one morning and my ac unit died on me and the temps had reached over 110 degrees. Needless to say I lost all of them

Sorry to hear about that. This exact scenario is my biggest worry here in the south.

The first time I started slow, it took me a few years to get up to 20. One here or there until I met some ranchers then it was 5-10 here or there. Yikes. Anyhow, I figured out what my comfortable limit was ~60 and I try to stay right around there.

After 6 years I got out for a year and a half when I moved south until I got things settled. That time, since I knew what I was getting into I got 40 in one batch.

How are your barns/rooms set up... the ac units and such?

Boy, this has been a nightmare down here. It is so hard to keep my barn area cool without it molding and sweating. I always have one main a/c and a backup a/c hooked up and running in tandem in case one burns out. I also have a third in case lightening takes out the ones hooked up.

Originally they were in a 12 x 12 room on a slab that was cooled. Keeping them between 68-74 made the walls sweat so bad the room molded. Last spring I bought a new 12 x 28' barn and insulated the crap out of it. It is raised above the ground. Since I wired it I have each a/c on it's own breaker, vents, light timers, climate control e-thermostat etc. It still molded. This fall I've ripped up the floor and will be replacing the front wall when it drops below 80 again. I will also be investing in a generator. I'm not sure what I am going to do about the building sweating and am talking with a local contractor about that. Basically, any time the indoor temp is cooler than the outdoor temp your building will sweat.

and if just jumping in and spending a lot is worth it?

Not unless you have an outlet for all those babies. The first rule of business is to scope your market. Do you have one? Let's say each female chin produces 5 babies per year average. You have one male and five females. Do you have an outlet for 25 babies? Do you have the room to hold the 15 that won't sell right away?

Chinchilla herds always suffer from empty cage syndrome. Eg, if there is a cage it will be filled.

I try to keep twice as many holding cages as I have breeder cages. I have 24 breeder cages, 8 pairing/weaning cages and 40 holding cages. 28 cages are empty and I like to keep that balance. Most often babies are born in waves, you'll have 10 or so born in a week or two span. It can cause overcrowding pretty quickly if you aren't set up to ride out the waves. People also tend to buy more at certain times of the year so you need to be able to wait out the dry spells too. )

Good luck!

 

[VolunteerChin22]

I did mine slowly - most I ever bought was two at a time, and I bought mostly at shows, ranches or from small breeders I trusted. But I also knew I never wanted to be bigger than 20 breeding animals.

My last set up I liked the least and contributed to me wanting to get out for a while. I built a wall to divide off a room in my garage to enclose what was formerly a work area that had a window ac unit. I ran a cheap exhaust fan up at the top of the room to draw air out (high on the wall in the room to help in the summer) 24/7, cut a vent into the house to draw air in (near the floor to catch cool air), had a small fan and a air purifyer working in a room that was roughly 9x10x12. I had a few bigger cages and runs and had them near the ac unit (bound to happen because of the room size) and that was a nightmare. I've replaced two units, they have to run constantly because when we cut into the exterior wall of the garage we realized the walls were not insulated. Summertime in TN means stifling humidity and over 100 temperatures for weeks on end. The coolest I could ever get the room during the heat of the day was about 70 when it was that hot. I constantly worried about the air and would go out there multiple times a day to check the thermostat.

Because the ac unit was near the cages it constantly got hair and dust sucked up in it - it froze up at least 3 times and would spit water all over the wall. Taking it down to clean it required moving cages and me having a near heart attack every time my husband hoisted it into the window. Just one giant pain in the ***.

The next time I did this I would 1) have a basement room(even if it's a walkout) that I could run HVAC into and only use a window unit as back up 2) make the room bigger so I could spread cages out 3) put in a more serious air ventilation system that could also control humidity. I didn't have too bad of a problem with it and maybe more insulation would have helped but would still be nice to get it lower than it was.

 

[Cat75]

The a/c going out is one of the biggest fears. We have a backup a/c units and we always try to have someone check on the chins on the hottest days to make sure the a/c unit still running. Since we seem to suffer frequent power outages we have a generator which has saved the herd several times. I started out buying 1-2 chins at a time and prefer to still buy that way. I have bought out a small herd of 68 and that was a lot of work to decide who to keep, sell and who to pair with who. I would agree with keeping twice as many holding cages as breeder.

 

[cassie_m]

Sorry it has taken so long for me to write back, computer doesn't like me right now

@Dreamlite:
I bought a 12x16 building for the chins and had it wired and insulated for them. I only had the one AC unit in it and I thought that i'd be big enough but i think that was my mistake. I also didn't have any sort of a exhaust fan put in and I've found out real quick like that I need one. I want to breed show and pet quality chins. More so the show quality.... I want to focus on the standards, ebonies, whites and the black velvets. I've done alot of research but can't do enough. I've had chins for over 6 years but feel like I'm doing everything wrong.

@Spoof:
I don't know what to do about the humidity problem I've never had to deal with that (knock on wood)
When I recieve the herd, I got over 65 animals and for me to handle was way too much. I think that somewhere close to 30 animals is plenty for me. I've been thinkin that somewhere close to 15 for now will do just fine.
As for the market for the babies, the rancher had given me a list of people who wanted chins for xmas that year and that's how I sold the babies I had purchased. I never got any babies from the herd I got from the rancher. I went to Texas and bought some breeders and babies from Pam and Tamra Biggers.
I was promised that the rancher would help me set up a website, get a ranch brand and get everything like that started up but that never happened. As of yesterday I only knew of2 breeders in Oklahoma, the breeder I bought from and Jennifer from Sooner Chins.
I didn't even get any of the breeding records for the herd.

This is kinda why I feel like I was thrown into everything and in a way I feel lost. I know nothing about trying to set up a website, register a branch name or how to record the chins or even about shipping.
I've had TONS of people ask me about shipping but have absolutely no clue.

 

[SteveD]

We started off kinda fast. We bought two male chinchillas for pets on August 1, 2011. We fell in love with the little guys right away. Not long after that, we bought two females, then two more males and two more females. We were up to about 20 at the time of MCBA Nationals this year. We took six to the show (to assess the quality of some of our starting herd) and they did pretty well. This helped greatly in deciding which ones to pair, plus it was very educational in general. We bought two more first place chins at the show and have purchased many more since then (all from top breeders). So far we have had 40 kits born this year. We sold about half and are keeping the others for show and breeding. Our herd is now over 70. We have a dedicated room in our house. That is good because we can keep a close watch on them and it is easy to control the temperature and humidity, but bad having to deal with dust on everything. We keep the temperature at 68 degrees year round and the humidity between 40 and 45 percent. After we went through one dehumidifier (from all the dust and hair), we bought another one and put it in an adjacent room. We are still able to keep the humidity where we want it, but it is far enough away that it doesn't get gunked up. We also run an ionic air purifier. The intake for our central HVAC is in the hallway near the chin room. We change the filter weekly. We also have a backup portable air conditioner on wheels (we have needed to use it once) and a portable generator capable of running it. I just purchased a programmable thermostat that is WIFI capable where I can monitor and control the unit from my iPhone.

 

[cassie_m]

Hi Steve, I visited your website and your chins are absolutely beautiful!!! Are you using runs at all or do you have colony caging? If you don't mind would you send me a pic of your room or post one on here?
I had the very first chins I ever bought in my bedroom and one ended up getting out in the middle of the night and somehow got up on my bed and I had no clue what it was. Anyways after my little panic attack, the chins were moved into their own room lol and yes, chin dust gets EVERYWHERE!! I've thought about keeping them in the house but with a new baby on the way, I can't do that.

 

[Zoaea]

I'm not a breeder yet (making plans like you for the future though haha). But I think I can add to the other questions about equipment.

Humidity: For sweaty rooms and mold control I would use a dehumidifier and I hear there is supposed to be a mold proof type of dry wall you might look into.

Heat: If I lived in an area that could get over 90 degrees in summer I would aim to have my chinchilla room in a basement. Being mostly underground will help insulate against heat and should also help conserve the amount of money spent on cooling. You might have more issues with proper ventilation but if it could be set up its something I would feel safer about. Back when I lived in Utah my bedroom (and chinchilla) were in the basement, we never got over 80 degrees with no A/C in my house. If you lack a basement, make sure the room has good insulation so that if the A/C does die the temp doesn't spike so fast and you would have more time to fix the issue.

I would also have back up generator to kick in automatically (if possible) in power outs, and at least 1 extra back up A/C. The App SteveD mentioned that allowed him to monitor the temp from his phone is smart, that way if the heat starts to rise while you are at work you can get home on time to save the heard.

You might also want to set up cages that have a cooling stone in it.

PS- I think you should base how you set up your heard (huge lots of chins vs a few at a time) based on how much money you have to invest. If you can only pay for a few chins after setting up correctly, then its worth it to set up correctly and build slowly. If however you have 20K laying around I'd go all out, haha.

 

[Pookinaround]

Me personally I like adding one or two chins here and there because I feel like I can pick out the ones I REALLY like that way. Unless you go to a really big ranch or a claim show there may not be that big of a selection and I would rather obtain just my absolute favorites.

I keep my chins in the basement. I'd say the biggest problem I have had is trying to figure out an adequate ventilation system but I am still working on that.

 

[Spoof]

When I recieve the herd, I got over 65 animals and for me to handle was way too much. I think that somewhere close to 30 animals is plenty for me. I've been thinkin that somewhere close to 15 for now will do just fine.

All breeders go through this at some point, you have to find your limits by hitting them first.

When you get a large group of animals you know nothing about them. You don't know their names, you can't tell them apart, you don't know their habits and you can get overwhelmed pretty easily. It is so much harder to work with a large group of unknowns than it is to add a few at a time.

Humidity: For sweaty rooms and mold control I would use a dehumidifier and I hear there is supposed to be a mold proof type of dry wall you might look into.

lol. It's the exterior that sweats, as well as all seams in the building, intake/exhaust vents and around the door when you open it, around the a/c units, windows. Every single place air can come/go will grow mold from the moist air coming in. Buildings are supposed to breathe, so that is a normal thing. I think my only option in this state is to have a cement block building on a slab, which I would have to move for. I'm looking at that next.

 

[SteveD]

Hey Cassie, We are mostly using breeding runs. When we first started out, I built 12 cages with slide out metal pans that were roughly 20" wide X 24" deep X 24" tall. Later we purchased some 3-hole breeding runs and have continued to add a few more each trip up to Ohio. I have retired 6 of the cages I built to make room for more runs. I kept the other 6 to use for a few big males that can't (or won't) get through the jump hole; although Bandit, my 900 gram black velvet, seems to navigate the run just fine. I currently have 6-hole runs stacked 4 high running down the center of the room, two banks of 3-hole runs stacked 4 high in front of a bay window, and the 6 home-made cages along the other wall with 4 more 3-hole runs stacked on top of them. We have wooden blinds on the bay windows with a shade over the blinds. I will take pictures and pot this weekend.

 

[VolunteerChin22]

All breeders go through this at some point, you have to find your limits by hitting them first.

When you get a large group of animals you know nothing about them. You don't know their names, you can't tell them apart, you don't know their habits and you can get overwhelmed pretty easily. It is so much harder to work with a large group of unknowns than it is to add a few at a time.

I totally agree with this. I would not recommend people who have never bred chins, or any animal for that matter, start off with dozens of animals.

1) If you find it's not what you thought it would be, that's just all the more animals you have to place to be able to get out. Also, if you don't really take the time to select quality animals upfront, you may not have the buyers for your herd that you need to place all the animals. That not only affects the prices you can ask for the animals, but it also ripples out to the other breeders in your area who are not selling out - a large influx of animals into the market can drop sales for them as well.

2) Most new breeders don't know what they are looking for to make pairings - they need the eye of others to help them as this is just something you build over time at looking at animals. Ability to pair animals is crucial to getting good offspring. If you jump in and acquire a ton of animals (even of quality) at one time it can be overwhelming to make appropriate pairings - this shows up on the show table which usually means you've invested at least a year of work/time into it. That can be frustrating to find out animals you thought would do well, don't, and then you have to either pet them out or take a hard look at repairing them.

 

[Pookinaround]

It is all a series of building blocks. I got my first chins back in late Jan/early Feb of this year and I am still in the process of building my herd. So far I have only ever sold 1 baby that has been born here and that was only because I was keeping his sister and I needed the money for different chins I wanted from someone else. Now I have sold several males I have gotten and changed my mind about because I am trying to be as pickey about them as I can because I use runs also and I want super great males. I predict that I will be keeping most of what I produce for a good long while except maybe for a few males that I know I won't use. In the meantime I know I have to be prepared financially to keep dumping money into it before they even START to help pay for their own feed...lol That is ok though cause I don't regret any of it for even a second. I have a lot of fun with all of the "chin friends" I have made and I could spend all day with the chins. It has become my "mommy cave" and sanctuary. My chinchilla hobby has been well worth all of the time, effort and expense and I love it!