Chinchilla Help Needed...........emergency

[Spishkey]

morning all, got up this morning to find my chinchillas (who should have both been male) have bred and theres 3 babies in there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

problem is one doesnt look to good and had been born or dropped onto the wire mesh at the bottom. now ive placed a nest in there which mummy has moved 2 babies into, but the other is left out. after an hour i rubbed my hands over mummy and in the sawdust and picked up baby, although its squeaking its ice cold, ive put it in the nest but guess mum aint interested as shes ignoring. i know this is sometimes how mother nature works...mum rejects baby cause theres something wrong...but my kids are screaming at me to do something...is there anyway i can help the little thing?

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Wow!.... this takes me back to 1971....... Same experience, and as you rightly say.... natures' way.... she probably has enough milk for the 2 and will continue rejecting the 3rd.......

Best to find out from the vet what mixture feed (miniature bottle should be available at the pet shop).... I know egg yolk & milk goes in there, but generally the prospects are not good as the feeding every 2hours (24hrs per day).....exhausting but not impossible. Good Luck.

 

[chesterscot]

as lud says give your vet a ring and ask what powdered formulation would be best i know guinea pigs cant have cows milk for instance as its to high in colostrum so kitten milk powder is best youll just have to ask you might not even need a consultation good luck
regards scot

 

[Spishkey]

been a hectic morning but mum has accepted the third after much fuss! sadly all 3 have had their tails chewed off, they think perhaps they were breech births and mums been trying to pull them out and well, tails have came off in the process. hopefully they will not be too disfigured
mum and babies doing well, for anyone who is a facebook friend i have put a video of them up on my profile, not sure how i put vids on herez

 

[Ludwig Venter]

been a hectic morning but mum has accepted the third after much fuss! sadly all 3 have had their tails chewed off, they think perhaps they were breech births and mums been trying to pull them out and well, tails have came off in the process. hopefully they will not be too disfigured
mum and babies doing well, for anyone who is a facebook friend i have put a video of them up on my profile, not sure how i put vids on herez

I also recall that I was advised to remove the male whilst she is looking after the "fry"

 

[Spishkey]

removed 'dad' as soon as i realised there was babies

 

[grahamsokel]

Glad you have taken the male out as they mate the females within hours of them giving birth.
Its best to put an old towel or something onto the bottom of the cage so the babies do not get Hurt on the mess floors.
if mum is feeding 2 you could rotate them so that the little one gets a chance to feed otherwise it will be pushed out,you would be suprised how bad fights can get between siblings even at a day old.
its also advised to put them into a cage with no shelf so they cant climp up and fall off and mum cant go up the cage and leave them.

by a nest I am guessing you meen a nest box or a cardboard box?

a good forum is www.chinsrus.co.uk

 

[Spishkey]

yeah i put in a box with sawdust/hay, she settled them in it well. i covered the floor with cardboard to so littlies couldnt get caught in the mesh.

sadly though one seems to have some sort of leg deformaty, the leg drags along when it hops, but it can use it so its definatly not broken, i think its the same kit mum wouldnt take to at first..guess i know why now!

 

[Bebobb]

My mother has kept and bred chinchillas since 2005, but we gave them away within the past month. We had many kits of babies in the past also. The babies aren't that hard to take care of. The stay with mom until they are about 1-2 months old and then we seperated them. Make sure not to house two males together, or they will fight. Chinchillas are terrotorial animals, and the ladies often had pissing wars between each other. Sorry for the late responce, but I just now looked into this forum. If you need any help, our 4 years of expirence would be glad to help.

 

[grahamsokel]

The babies aren't that hard to take care of. The stay with mom until they are about 1-2 months old and then we seperated them. Make sure not to house two males together, or they will fight.

Please do not split the young from mum at 1-2 months old .Kits have to stay with mum for 12 weeks
Males can also live together quite happily as long as they are not in the same room as the females

 

[Bebobb]

The babies aren't that hard to take care of. The stay with mom until they are about 1-2 months old and then we seperated them. Make sure not to house two males together, or they will fight.

Please do not split the young from mum at 1-2 months old .Kits have to stay with mum for 12 weeks
Males can also live together quite happily as long as they are not in the same room as the females

We did not have house chinchillas, we had herd chinchillas. We paid good bucks for them, and we could not help the fact that they were seperated early and never learned to take care of babies like they should have. They were HUGE chinchillas I might add, so when they were about 5-6 inches long, and started to eat the food that their mom ate, we moved them. We had a dedicated chinchilla room. So keeping two males together was a problem. There were only two males that were kept together,a nd they were bought as pets, but my mom turned pets into an obsession. Herd chinchillas acted different than house chinchillas. They were pedigreed chinchillas. We bought some type of purebreed chinchilla. Like the velvets, standard, ect. We still have one HUGE white one. He is atleast a foot in length, and use to draw blood when he bit you, but that was before we tamed him. He was a juvy when he drew blood. By juvy, I mean 3 months. He was born in a herd, and his momma and daddy were from a herd. That is just an example on how herd and house chinchillas are different.

 

[grahamsokel]

The babies aren't that hard to take care of. The stay with mom until they are about 1-2 months old and then we seperated them. Make sure not to house two males together, or they will fight.

Please do not split the young from mum at 1-2 months old .Kits have to stay with mum for 12 weeks,
Males can also live together quite happily as long as they are not in the same room as the females

We did not have house chinchillas, we had herd chinchillas. We paid good bucks for them, and we could not help the fact that they were seperated early and never learned to take care of babies like they should have. They were HUGE chinchillas I might add, so when they were about 5-6 inches long, and started to eat the food that their mom ate, we moved them. We had a dedicated chinchilla room. So keeping two males together was a problem. There were only two males that were kept together,a nd they were bought as pets, but my mom turned pets into an obsession. Herd chinchillas acted different than house chinchillas. They were pedigreed chinchillas. We bought some type of purebreed chinchilla. Like the velvets, standard, ect. We still have one HUGE white one. He is atleast a foot in length, and use to draw blood when he bit you, but that was before we tamed him. He was a juvy when he drew blood. By juvy, I mean 3 months. He was born in a herd, and his momma and daddy were from a herd. That is just an example on how herd and house chinchillas are different.

Errr right A herd of chinchillas is not a species its the name used when someone keeps a number of chins
there is only 3 species of Chinchillas and they are Brevicadata, Lanigera and the Costina no matter what breed they are babies should not be seperated before 12 weeks old and Kits (babies ) start to nibble at food within hours of been born
I seem to remember reading somewhere that when chins were first 'domesticated' it was decided that the brevi shape was the desirable one, but the pelt on the lanigeria was considerably better (remembering that they were farmed for fur ).

Some crossing of the species was done, followed by selective breeding to produce brevi shaped animals with nearer the fur quailty of the lanigeria.

Chins today are predominately of lanigeria origion because more lanigeria blood than brevi blood was needed to produce the sort of animals they were looking for, coat quailty wise.

If the poster needs any help we have an abundance of advice on our chinchilla forum www.chinsrus.co.uk

 

[Bebobb]

The babies aren't that hard to take care of. The stay with mom until they are about 1-2 months old and then we seperated them. Make sure not to house two males together, or they will fight.

Please do not split the young from mum at 1-2 months old .Kits have to stay with mum for 12 weeks,
Males can also live together quite happily as long as they are not in the same room as the females

We did not have house chinchillas, we had herd chinchillas. We paid good bucks for them, and we could not help the fact that they were seperated early and never learned to take care of babies like they should have. They were HUGE chinchillas I might add, so when they were about 5-6 inches long, and started to eat the food that their mom ate, we moved them. We had a dedicated chinchilla room. So keeping two males together was a problem. There were only two males that were kept together,a nd they were bought as pets, but my mom turned pets into an obsession. Herd chinchillas acted different than house chinchillas. They were pedigreed chinchillas. We bought some type of purebreed chinchilla. Like the velvets, standard, ect. We still have one HUGE white one. He is atleast a foot in length, and use to draw blood when he bit you, but that was before we tamed him. He was a juvy when he drew blood. By juvy, I mean 3 months. He was born in a herd, and his momma and daddy were from a herd. That is just an example on how herd and house chinchillas are different.

Errr right A herd of chinchillas is not a species its the name used when someone keeps a number of chins
there is only 3 species of Chinchillas and they are Brevicadata, Lanigera and the Costina no matter what breed they are babies should not be seperated before 12 weeks old and Kits (babies ) start to nibble at food within hours of been born
I seem to remember reading somewhere that when chins were first 'domesticated' it was decided that the brevi shape was the desirable one, but the pelt on the lanigeria was considerably better (remembering that they were farmed for fur ).

Some crossing of the species was done, followed by selective breeding to produce brevi shaped animals with nearer the fur quailty of the lanigeria.

Chins today are predominately of lanigeria origion because more lanigeria blood than brevi blood was needed to produce the sort of animals they were looking for, coat quailty wise.

If the poster needs any help we have an abundance of advice on our chinchilla forum www.chinsrus.co.uk

I am not arguing about species, I am arguing that herd chinchillas are different then regular chinchillas. The ones we raised were breed and kept in a herd for many years. They had different traits to them than regular house chinchillas. They had different habits that we had adapted to. I am not going to argue with you any more because our chinchillas were just fine. We raised them nice and fat with a nice body area, then sold them to the pelting company. When you have kept chinchillas that weerre bred for breeding and raised in a herd, then you come to me and tell me if everything I stated about them was wrong. Okay?