How to Care for Chinchilla Kits
Posted by Jennifer Snyder on Tue, Oct 19, 2010 @ 10:07 AM
Chinchillas are very hearty animals, but precautions must be taken to avoid injury with baby chinchillas. The good news is, they are not born completely helpless. Unlike rabbits or rats, a chinchilla kit is born fully furred and their eyes are open within minutes. They will start nursing and hoping around the cage almost immediately after being born. This is partly due to the long gestation period and relative small litter sizes (1-3) . If your chinchilla has kits you will likely notice a small amount of blood in the cage and on the fur of the mother and kits. A small amount of blood is nothing to be alarmed by, and the mother will groom herself and her kits fur.
Females Chinchillas will give birth between 106 and 118 days from the time of fertilization with the average being around 111, times will vary depending on how many kits are being carried and the stress level of the mother. When you realize your chinchilla is pregnant, you want to be careful about dust baths late into the pregnancy and after giving birth. You do not want to give your chinchilla mother a dust bath directly after, or within the first 3-4 weeks of the chinchilla kits being born. Dust may aggravate the nipples of the mother and make it difficult for kits to nurse.
It can take a few minutes to several hours for a chinchilla to give birth once she starts contracting. The average is 5-10 minutes between kits, but this can happen more quickly or take several hours between kits. Occasionally a fetus is retained; those will usually pass within a week and you will find them in the cage. You may find a hard, dime-sized ball after she has given birth; this is a partially reabsorbed fetus. If the female does not give birth, she will reabsorb the kits. After a month, the full sized kits are down to quarter sized, and are completely gone by 3 months. The female will then be capable of breeding again.
As mentioned above, chinchillas average 1-3 kits per litter, so after the birth, make sure you do a thorough check of the cage and room to ensure all kits are accounted for. After the birth remove the mother and kits from the father and other male chinchillas if you have not done so already. Female chinchillas are EXTREMLY susceptible to breed backing (mating immediately after the kits are born). The scent that is produced during labor will excite the male chinchillas and they will try to breed with the mother directly after she births the kits. Breed backing can be dangerous for the kits and new mother. Kits can easily become injured or killed as the male chinchilla chases the female around the cage. It may be hard to separate the new family, but if the male is not neutered, it is necessary to avoid breed backing. If you are planning to continue to breed, giving the mother a 2-3 month break before breeding is recommended.It can be hard on the female chinchillas body to be pregnant and nursing at the same time.
After the birth or in anticipation of the birth if you know the approximate time of fertilization, the mother and the kits should be moved to a chinchilla kit safe cage. The kits will be small when they are born and can easily squeeze between the bars of most cages and escape.You'll need to have 1" x 1/2" wire spacing or smaller, they can get out of 1 x 1. Rabbit style breeding cages are not good either, where the mesh is smaller on the bottom and larger on the top. They will still climb and get through the holes at the top. . There should not be high levels in cage, so that the chinchilla kits do not risk a fall. They can climb the same day they are born. You will want to have a wooden hiding/nesting box in the cage - this will allow the babies to have a place where they feel secure to nurse. A a precaution, you will want to make sure that the room the cage is located in is "chinchilla proof, and inaccessible to other pets, as escapes do happen.
Before you consider chinchilla breeding, here are some very important questions you should ask yourself:
- Why do you want to breed chinchillas? There are lots of rescue chinchillas in search of great homes. You should carefully consider your reasons for breeding.
- What are your plans for the kits? How will you ensure that these chinchilla kits will be adopted by loving families? Can you care for them if you do not find them homes? Are you financially able to have all the males neutered to prevent inbreeding?
- Do you have the time? Chinchillas are not pets that you toss in a cage and never think about by good families? They are social creatures and on top of cage cleaning, water changes and food bowls refills, you should provide your chinchilla with cage enrichments and other stimulus.
- How will you afford it? Do you know the costs involved? Chinchilla kits eat almost twice as much as adults as they are growing quickly. It is difficult to make breeding profitable with the rising costs of feed. Do you know a feed provider in your area? Buying local can help with costs.
- Are your chinchillas "breed worthy?" If there is a chinchilla show in your area, you may want to bring in your chinchilla to be evaluated. It is often difficult when you love your pet to think that they might not be an ideal candidate for breeding, but that may be the reality. In general, you want to make sure your chinchillas are of good health, good size, and good fur quality. You also want to ensure they do not suffer from malocclusion or habits like fur biting. For more information on malocclusion and fur quality please visit our previous article