When deciding to breed your chinchillas a few things must be taken on board:
Why do you want to breed?
The reason for this should definately not be monetary gain, i do not know of a chinchilla breeder that makes any money from breeding, the upkeep including vet bills etc far outweigh the cost of any sales made, making it a hobby that most people have a passion for rather than personal monetary gains. A desire to develop good healthy beautiful chinchillas with good known historys/pedigrees is most peoples driving points as well as the love for the chinchilla itself.
It must also be remembered that chinchillas can and do live 15 - 20+ years given a good environment and approriate diet, so on taking on breeding animals you must be prepared to more or less make a near lifetime commitment to them too.
There is also the plus side of showing your chinchillas, if that interests you. The UKs National Chinchilla Society is a good place to enquire if you decide you would quite like to enter your chinchillas into shows.
Also you must take into consideration environment, do you want to breed your chinchillas in your home, or go for a purpose built unit? This does cost a lot of money to set up, electrics, insulation, flooring, what type of cages etc. Its best to do your homework and visit and ask a few breeders how they have set up their units and how they go about maintaining living conditions for their animals, humidity, air circulation and temperatures have to be given a lot of thought as you dont want it going below zero for kits being born and you also do not want temperatures going above 20 celcius as this can and will induce heatstroke (see advice and info section for heatstroke)
Also when breeding the first point to remember is the males, an active breeding male can encounter fur ring and i have had this happen just twice with two of my main breeding males. (see below).
The most important thing, and i cannot stress this enough, is that your breeding from healthy good sized animals to begin with, its always good to get your animals looked over by an experienced breeder - if you can as they will be the ones to advise you best. I also do not breed from anything weighing under 600g, this gives the mother a better survival rate during the pregnancy and afterwards, a small female wont recover as well as a good blocky healthy female. A small thin female will have problems passing the kit through the birth canal itself - this should be avoided at all costs.
There are unscrupulous breeders out there, and its best to find a reputable source for your breeding animals if you can, there are many chinchilla breeders UK and worldwide and if you cant find one near you, get in touch and i can point you in the right direction.
I hope you find the information below helpful, i have saved a few kits using the methods below and also helped a few mothers too.
Male Chinchillas and fur ring
Checking for a hair ring may need two people one to hold the chinchilla and the other to check to see where the fur is located (if any), this does take a steady hand and patience to do as it is very important you check properly - if not can be life threating to you chinchilla. Before you start checking each chinchilla make sure you use a antibacterial hand wash. With the male held by one person, the other should then retract the skin covering his genitals right back to reveal any fur rings that maybe there, if you do see one, i recommend using some lubricant (KY Jelly or vasaline) to help gently ease of any fur - once done the organ should retract back into the skin and appear as it normally does. When males mate, sometimes they dont retract because of a hair ring, so if your males sitting with his parts sticking out abnormally when hes at rest or apparently dragging when moving about - its highly likely a fur ring is to blame.
Birthing & Helping Kits Get A Start
If you are aware that your female is pregnant and near her due date its best to remove the sandbath several days beforehand. This is not always possible as they can hide their pregnancy very well. This of course can only be done if you know the due date of your female. If not remove as soon as you realise the kits have been born. This allows the nipples to be free of dust when the kits begin to feed and in young kits the sand can get into their damp eyes and can bring about infection. If this occures please consult your vet. A great number of eye infections in young kits arise from the sandbath not being removed.
The dustbath should be kept out for around a week to 10 days. If the female is quite messy Iyou can take a little sand in your hand and rub it onto the areas where the female is particularly dirty but this is only if the female seems to be getting upset about being dirty and constantly rolls and knocks the kits down. To prevent unwanted accidents its best just to try and ease her discomfort of being dirty, this is what i regularly do as after a birth females can be left with a lot of blood round their mouth area after eating the afterbirth. The sand can also cause an infection in the female if her uterus is still open in the days following birth so its best to keep her away from sand for at least 5 days.
There is also the risk of the mothers losing their unborn kits at some point in their pregnancy, whether a early or late stage, at some point you will probably find an aborted partially re-absorbed kit (see pictures below for some of pictures of one late term pregnancy that one of my females had aborted.
The female i had pass the dead foetus was about a third through her pregnancy when she lost the kit, shes had two litters in the past, both single kits with no problems, and i was suprised to find what i did, it is the first one i found in nearly 9 years of keeping and breeding chinchillas and although interesting to see it wasnt pleasant know one of my females had lost a kit for reasons unknown to me.
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Picture above is of a miscarried - partially absorbed kit that died some weeks before mother passed the remains.
With chinchillas its is best to be prepared for losses as I have lost a few. Most things will require a competent veterinarian. There are cases that a breeder or pet owner can resolve themselves if they are willing to. These tasks have to be undertaken very gently and swiftly as it is often a case of life or death in these circumstances. If you are not sure in any case my advice is to see your vet as soon as possible.
If the female has been in labour and the kits feet are showing and the female seems to be having problems birthing then you might take a soft cloth or towel and gently grasp the kits feet and gently but firmly pully downwards and backwards arching the kits back. This short task will free the kit unless of course the mother is in serious trouble which would indicate immediate attention from a vet. If delivery is not within the first one or two hours or so and the female is not showing any signs of delivering the kit a phone call to your vet is worth making. If you know of a breeder then maybe try contacting them first as sometimes they may know a little more than the vet does as they have more experience in dealing with chinchillas.
You must also watch for multiple births as sometimes kits can become trapped in the uterus especially if there is more than one kit. This will take a trained hand to correct and will require the help of a vet. Smaller females that have large litter are most likely to develop this problem.
If possible always examine your female after littering but only once you are sure she is finished. Examine her closely to make sure there are no kits left in the uterus. You must also make sure she has passed the afterbith. Females always eat the afterbirth this provides a good source of nutrition espcially to a nursing mother. Also check for tears or bruising round the uterine opening. Check the nipples to see if all are in good clean condition and filled with milk. If they are hidden in dense fur its advisable to either push the fur to the side and maybe trim it but you have to be very careful as a female wont nurse with an injured nipple. If the nipples seem dry or chapped apply a small amount of vaseline, its better to do this after you notice the kits have just fed. Although the vaseline will not harm them. If the redness or swelling still persists consult your vet for further advice and treatment.
Help for Kits after the birth.
If kits are found soon after birth and appear to be still very wet it wont do any harm to gently lift the kit and give it a brisk soft clean with a soft towel. this will help prevent the kits becoming chilled if mum is too tired after birthing.
If kits are found cold and wet or even if the appear to be dead or stiff you may be able to revive them by quickly immersing them in warm water with nose still out of the water and massaging them briskly. Then take the kit in one hand, lay it on its back, with your thumb on the kits abdomen and arch the back by bringing your index finger and little finger to a closing position towards your thumb. This action of pressing the chest and flexing the body will pump heavy mucus out of the kits lungs. As soon as you have done it a few times you can try blowing quickly and hard into the babies mouth to espand the lungs, alternatively you can use oxygen if you have it available. At this point the kit may start to gasp in a few minutes or so you cam have him breathing on his own as soon as the kits seems warmed up dry it off with a hot towel and place in a warm box that has a heating pad or lightbulb in it.
In the cases of poorly kits it is always worth phoning your vet to seek their opinion. Never fail to try and revive an appartenly chilled or dead baby as it will amaze you what you can do with hot water massage and oxygen if you have it. Be careful not to use oxygen near an open flame though.
Keeping babies warm
If babies are dry but seem weak or chilled they can be placed in a warm box until they are warmed up or if you are like me keep hold of them and warm them up in your hands. Then place them back with their mother and use a heat pad appropriately attached to the underside of the cage. If you do not have a heat pad, you can use a hot water bottle wrapped with a thick towel (make sure that its not too hot as this can injure a kit.), but make sure mum isnt nibbling at the water bottle too. Its always better to give weaker kits added heat for a few days.
Starting to Nurse
Its best to check kits frequently after birth taking care not to upset them if neccessary to check and see it their stomach is full and warm. A hunched up kit is usually a sign of a hungry under-nourished kit. If stomachs are empty or kits tails do not start to raise up off the cage floor and curl within a few hours of birth it may be best to supplement feed them until the mothers milk starts to come through. In the case of multiple births hungry kits will often fight over the mothers nipples and injure each other - mum may also snap at them if she has no milk come through. In this case see the section on supplement feeding. If the mothers appear slightly red or sore to some nipple ointment may help soothe - for instance a little vaseline.
Supplement Feeding
If you think that your kits are not getting milk from mum or not enough from mum you can try supplement feeding. The list of ingredients needed are as follows:
Equipment
Take two teaspoons of water to one of carnation milk and put them in the container you have ready, add one pinch of glucose and one drop of abidec ask your vet about how much probiotics to use as we have never used them. Make sure the mixture is blood warm and test in the inside of your wrist. Please also make sure that you do not get milk mixture on the kits nose as this could result in them inhaling milk. There is also a chinchilla rescue site that have their own kit milk mix you can buy and this has a long shelf life so can be stored for a few years that i know of. I personally have not tried this but it comes highly recommended by top breeders. It can be found on the chinchilla rescue site Chinchillas for Pets not Pelts (CFPNP - see links page)
(under construction)
Difficult births