When to start breeding

[slunder4]

I am looking into getting a female chin. I have had my male for almost a year and was debating on breeding them. The females I am looking at are 5 and 2. I was just wondering If it is a good idea to try breeding them at that age or if it is best when younger. I have done my research on breeding but can't seem to find this info any where... Help?:hair:

 

[tunes]

Usually the ideal time to start breeding would be around a year of age. Some people have issues getting their chins to breed when they are 2 and up.

 

[Parkerspetchins]

You are debating on breeding? It is a pretty serious undertaking. I don't mean to sound preachy but there are many things to consider that I feel people overlook because it isn't pleasant to think about. First is quality of the animals you are breeding and their genetic history, as you know chinchillas are prone to teeth problems and you do not want to propagate that. What is your goal in breeding them? Make sure you have enough funds for proper vet care if the female should prolapse or need a cesarean or injures her mate or the kits. Be prepared for the horrible reality that your chins could die because you decided to breed them. It happens. Yep, that was preachy. But it is reality.

 

[saphire]

Slunder, I agree with what has already been said. Breeding is not to be taken lightly.

If you go under Breeding and Babies and read thru some of the posts and FAQ's, this should help you take a enlighten decission.

You are located where in Canada?

 

[kristen]

I normally wait till my chins are about about 15 months old to start breeding them. This way i know they are old enough and the female's body is fully developed and generally malocclusion would have shown up by now (not in all cases... it can show up later in life). Nine months to a year is the normal recommended age to breed a female, but keep in mind some mutations grow slower, like black velvet, violet, ect which is why i wait. All our chins get dental x rays at about 15 months to check and see if there is any sign or start of malocclusion. This is not cheap, but even with a good pedigree a chin can develop malo. A health check by a vet before putting a chin in to breeding is a must too.

I find because of the age i start breeding at the females are harder to bond with the male, and this process can take longer, so i may not get a pair caged for another month or 2, if at all.

Before breeding your male and finding a mate look at his back ground, like was he from a pet store or did he come from a breeder. Depending on his color (standard vs mutation) you won't want to mix him with just anyone, as to many generation of mutation to mutation breeding will result in lower quality kits. The fur will be poor, they will be smaller, and a whole lot of other issues... If he is from a pet store or has no back ground, and you still want to breed call some local breeders and buy a good pair to breed. A good pair of standards won't cost you to much, or if you want to get into mutation breeding you can get pairs that will result in mutations, that way there won't be any surprises.

We have a pet only chin from a rescue. He is the coolest guy ever but we don't know anything about him, other then he is healthy and we won't breed him for that reason, even though he is a looker. He hangs out with the dads when their ladies are raising new kits to keep them company so its not like he is lonely, and its nice to have a chin that is a pet.

Good luck

 

[tunes]

I normally wait till my chins are about about 15 months old to start breeding them.

Nine months to a year is the normal recommended age to breed a female, but keep in mind some mutations grow slower, like black velvet, violet, ect which is why i wait.

If you ask any experienced breeder, they will tell you that waiting that long to put a chin in breeding is just asking for it not to breed at all, specifically black velvets. In fact, most ranchers will tell you to put a black into breeding at 8 months of age because they are so hard to start in breeding. There are also a lot of people who will tell you if you have a "slow growing line" that it shouldn't be bred at all. I also used to believe there were actually slower growing mutations, as I read it on the internet, but it's not true. My violets and ebs mature at the same rate as the other chins. If yours take longer to mature, then you might want to reconsider using them in your breeding program.

All our chins get dental x rays at about 15 months to check and see if there is any sign or start of malocclusion. This is not cheap, but even with a good pedigree a chin can develop malo. A health check by a vet before putting a chin in to breeding is a must too.

Why would you do dental x-rays on 15 month old chins with no sign of malo? The last two chins I put to sleep were both over 6 years old, that I bought from other breeders. It would have proven absolutely nothing to get them x-rayed at 15 months of age. Also, why would you take a chin in to a vet to have it checked before breeding? What purpose would that serve? A vet can't tell you if the chin is a good quality for breeding. He can't tell you if the chin will survive breeding. What is he going to tell you with a male especially? About the only thing he can tell you with a female is if her pelvic opening is wide enough, and you can test that at home.

A good pair of standards won't cost you to much, or if you want to get into mutation breeding you can get pairs that will result in mutations, that way there won't be any surprises.

What does that mean? There won't be any surprises? Almost all of my mutations go back to standards, to produce better quality mutations. What do "surprises" have to do with it?

 

[kristen]

Tunes, I am offering my way of breeding... I have been very sucsessful and had amazing results with kits. Both my black velvets and violets produced at this age just fine. When I refer to slow growing, I am refering to ingeneral. All of mine have matured at about 9 months, but I am going on the advise my mentor had given me and many other breeders.

Per my vet, malo due to genetics will show as early as 9 months in the root growth. It may not move the teeth or cause issues for years to come, but there are early signs, also both chins should be checked for general health, infection, anything that can spread before pairing. I know its general info, but its important.


To be honest I am done with this forum as I think all the contradictions and rude posters are not a good way to run a positive forum. I had a mentor breeder I learded from and will continue to offer advise in other places, but I feel that posting here is not helping any, as the other posters here just going talk down to anyone that offers real advise.

 

[Parkerspetchins]

Great...now we have "breeders" actually encouraging people with little to no experience to breed without recommending that they get a mentor first, go to shows, and do the proper research. Ugh. I think I may actually go throw up.

 

[kristen]

Parkerspets. choke it down then... I assumed this form was here to help mentor people! But I guess I was wrong.

 

[tunes]

I have been very sucsessful and had amazing results with kits.

Since you're still here - at which shows have you had amazing results with kits? I notice you're a member of the Chinchilla Club breeders group (hehe) but not MCBA or ECBC, so I assume you've never shown any animals?

 

[Parkerspetchins]

I assumed this form was here to help mentor people! But I guess I was wrong.

You can't mentor a chinchilla breeder over a forum. You can't help people make sure their chins are breeding quality over the internet, that has to be done at a show. This forum is to give people advice, absolutely, but not help them create more problems for all of the rescues out there overflowing because every idiot out there wants to make cute babies. Breeding should be taken very seriously not because someone can go out and get a cheap pair of Standards...

 

[kristen]

Yes I have never shown my kits, my dams and sires however, have been shown by their breeders.

I have been to shows with my mentor a few times in ohio for the mcba so before you get all high and mightyand think just because I was new to this board I am a fool, stop and realized that I care enought to share and post my experiences instead of just treating people like morons.

 

[tunes]

That's not what I asked you. I didn't call you a moron. You came on and basically told people to shut up, calling them "breeders" as though that was a derogatory term. You're a breeder, aren't you?

You also said you were very successful with your kits. Why? What makes them more successful than someone else's kits? I asked if you had shown them, not their parents, that you didn't breed (apparently). Mostly when people say they have "success in their breeding program" it's because at some point or another, even once or twice, they've shown their chins.

So you get off your high horse and stop acting as though you are the only person who knows what they are talking about and that you have decided to grace CnH with your wisdom and presence.

 

[RDZCRanch]

Tunes, I am offering my way of breeding... I have been very sucsessful and had amazing results with kits. Both my black velvets and violets produced at this age just fine. When I refer to slow growing, I am refering to ingeneral. All of mine have matured at about 9 months, but I am going on the advise my mentor had given me and many other breeders.

In general blacks and ebs are not slow growers. There were many slow growing lines at one time but many of those lines were eliminated for that very reason. Your blacks and ebs should grow at the same rate as the other chinchillas otherwise as Peggy suggested it's a good idea to reconsider them in your breeding program.

Per my vet, malo due to genetics will show as early as 9 months in the root growth. It may not move the teeth or cause issues for years to come, but there are early signs, also both chins should be checked for general health, infection, anything that can spread before pairing. I know its general info, but its important.

I don't know what kind of experience your vet has. Mine has been practicing on chinchillas for at least 10 years and knows a great deal about them. According to him...there are rarely signs of malo in chins under a year old. Maybe your vet is more used to practicing on guinea pigs or rabbits? My vet has also told me that finding an infectious disease other than fungus in a chinchilla with a routine vet visit is almost impossible without some outward physical sign of illness from the chinchilla. This is why we recommend a 30 day quarantine for all new chinchillas. You (personally) can monitor the chinchilla for signs of illness and as a good breeder you should be able to tell when a chinchilla is "off". THEN if a chinchilla is sick or has anything wrong you will know before slapping it into breeding with a vet's "ok".

To be honest I am done with this forum as I think all the contradictions and rude posters are not a good way to run a positive forum. I had a mentor breeder I learded from and will continue to offer advise in other places, but I feel that posting here is not helping any, as the other posters here just going talk down to anyone that offers real advise.

Do you promise? We get a lot of "I'm leaving" promises without people following through. If you want to talk about rude postings we can go back through your posts and point out where exactly your wording became offensive, rude and assuming. My question is where you're coming from. You've been a member for at least a month with only two posts asking for advice then WHAMO! You appear one day posting to all the breeding threads giving advice. What is your experience that your knowledge is better than ours? Who is your mentor? A hobby breeder or a big rancher? <---my bet is a little known or respected hobby breeder. How many years experience do you have breeding? How many of these things you are giving advice on have you personally experienced?

I don't appreciate being referred to as a "breeder" as if...what? I'm not really a breeder? That's CUTE!

 

[kristen]

Ok , I guess I am not a real breeder, and you guys are so great at it. You have inspired me to be abetter breeder, in truth I am thinking about becoming a rancher... I am on my way to petco now, ill just buy out that stock of chins, let them loose in my spare bathroom and post when the kits are ready..... so i can be a chinchilla mill, holier then thou rancher like many of the posters here, then maybe you will respect me and my practice

To anyone looking for advise or those willing to give it good luck fining it here.

 

[ErinsChins]

People who don't understand the difference between "help" and "rudeness" bother me.

 

[tunes]

Kristen - Maybe I should have called you a moron. If you knew anything about ranchers, you would realize that their animals run circles around your animals on a bad day, dripping wet, with malo, and on 2 legs. Please don't make such an incredibly stupid remark anywhere else or people might not treat you this nicely.

Also, we don't say ranchers here in a derogatory way. We appreciate all that ranchers have contributed to the chinchilla community, to our knowledge base, and to our animals. We don't talk down about them because we are clueless about what a rancher is or what breeding is.

You need to go cool off now. You said you were leaving. Either leave or walk away from this thread until you can start responding like a mature individual, instead of a child throwing a tantrum because she's not getting her way.

 

[Ash]

Ok , I guess I am not a real breeder, and you guys are so great at it. You have inspired me to be abetter breeder, in truth I am thinking about becoming a rancher... I am on my way to petco now, ill just buy out that stock of chins, let them loose in my spare bathroom and post when the kits are ready..... so i can be a chinchilla mill, holier then thou rancher like many of the posters here, then maybe you will respect me and my practice

To anyone looking for advise or those willing to give it good luck fining it here.

Yes, because this is what everyone is suggesting. And that's definitely what all the ranchers do, which is why they can actually support themselves on breeding chinchillas, because they produce crap. Seriously, do you read anything that is said to you? No one here is trying to tell anyone NOT to breed, they're telling people to do it the RIGHT way. I myself want to start breeding. Quite a few of the breeders on here know this. Rather than screaming at me, they're helping to educate me before I jump into it the wrong way, which is what they are trying to do here. But with idiots like you rejecting everything that has been said and trying to scream that these breeders who actually care about their animals are just trying to scare people off, it makes it hard to educate people.

You're not a successful breeder if you've never shown your kits at MCBA or ECBC sanctioned shows and taken placings higher than a 2. And showing animals bred by other people doesn't make you a successful breeder, it makes the person who decided to pair the animal's parents a successful breeder. So, take your kits that YOU have paired the parents of to shows sanctioned by the MCBA or ECBC, have them take some top awards for a few years, and then tell us you are successful. Maybe then you'll have some clout.

 

[starleomach]

Ok , I guess I am not a real breeder, and you guys are so great at it. You have inspired me to be abetter breeder, in truth I am thinking about becoming a rancher... I am on my way to petco now, ill just buy out that stock of chins, let them loose in my spare bathroom and post when the kits are ready..... so i can be a chinchilla mill, holier then thou rancher like many of the posters here, then maybe you will respect me and my practice

To anyone looking for advise or those willing to give it good luck fining it here.

Good luck getting top quality animals without a Rancher. They take excellent care of their animals and deserve respect. Not that you will read this, or listen. They have lost more knowledge about chinchillas than many of us could ever learn. They have built the very foundations, and they are always generous with their help.

I have been involved in many diferent animal shows, like horses and dogs and such You WILL NEVER find a more open and helpful group than you find in chinchilla. In the Horse world I had learned not to trust the "big guys" but in the chinchilla world they are the very first I go to when I need help.

You are attacking people there who have never attacked you. I get that people do what people do regurdless of recomendations. everyone has different opinions but You have some out of nowhere, Many of us go to many shows and show our babies. I have been to the ohio show for the last several years...I am not sure who you are.

It is easy to buy a shown animal. It is a bit more impressive when you have shown what you produced. It is hard to say you are sucessful when you have not shown your own kits.

 

[grace]

Dear Slunder4,
I am amazed at the responses you have received ! (Giving advice on breeding).
A while back, I posted the question "When to put Dad back with Mom" (I was concerned about "Breedback"). Please keep in mind my Chins came from a reputable breeder (Backgrounds well known). Gosh ! Was I Slammed !!! (If you look up "Grace" and my questions, you will find it). Thankfully, near the end of the verbal abuse, some members saw what truly was my question.
I truly believe your best "friend" is not only background info on your Chins, also educate yourself on all of the "What Ifs" that could happen with breeding.
I wish you and your "Kids" the very best, Grace