Father Chinchilla and kit

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brentbd

New member
Joined
Dec 10, 2018
Messages
1
Location
South Africa — Western Cape
Hi All,

I've browsed this forum a few times and decided to register. A slightly long post, but just a bit of background. I'm a sort of new chinchilla owner. I bought my first chinchilla - Kiyoshi - male in June, at 5 months old, he is a White Mosaic and then Amaya - female - In September, who I believe is a Hetero Ebony at 4 months old, at least this is what the owner I bought her from told me. She may have been 5 as well. Both are from the same owner, who mentioned that it would be fine keeping them together, and they would only breed if she is ready which I've read online many many articles are usually around 8 months.

Amaya recently gave birth to a single kit, both mother and kit are very healthy and active, 10 days old now and gaining weight. I've separated Kiyoshi and Amaya for the first week after she gave birth as suggested by many forum posts and articles I've read. I've reintroduced the two and they get along well during play time. Kiyoshi most likely mated again with her.

After introducing the two and getting along well I decided to introduce the kit, first play time went well, Kiyoshi was more interested in mounting Amaya but also seemed fine with the kit, he sniffed the kit and the kit even went to him.

Tonight, I've let them have some play time again for the second time, with all three running around, this time Amaya went off and the kit was running around, watching the interaction between Kiyoshi and the kit carefully, Kiyoshi seemed like he was grooming the kit but then kind of pulled it closer underneath him and what looked like being a little more aggressive in grooming, the kit made few noises and as soon as this happened I separated him from the kit. Put both of them down again and this happened again. Separated again. The kit is unharmed, as I was watching closely what Kiyoshi's behaviour is like around the kit.

My question is the following: given the behaviour, with the users on the forums experiences, do you think Kiyoshi will harm the kit?

My thoughts are to keep them separate until the kit is weaned and then put Kiyoshi and Amaya back together in the same cage.

Thanks for reading this long post, and hope to get few answers :)
 
So you are getting into breeding but you don't even know for sure the age, or colors you are breeding? Do you even know if they carry any genetic issues? Some genetic issues can skip generations so do you have any generic history on them? Also what is your goal in breeding?

Chins should not be put into breeding until a year or so old (when they are full grown), uncommonly, they can breed as young as 8 weeks old, so they should not be put with a male until you plan to breed them. Most don't go through puberty until about 4-6 months old and can breed anytime after. It is true that chins wont breed unless the conditions are right, but it has nothing to do with age once past puberty. Chins are smart, but not that smart, if the female goes into heat regardless of age the male will try everything in his power to mate with her. Also it's very hard on the female to be bred over and over again back to back. You are intentionally having her raise a kit while also growing a new one(s) and still growing herself, that is cruel. You are giving her no time to recover and have very likely stunted her growth. If you keep breeding her back to back like that she will die.

Honestly unless there is more to this then you wrote I think you should keep them separate permanently, not even playtime together. It doesn't sound like you have done much research. Breeding takes split seconds, faster then you can get them apart, if the kit is a female the father will mate with her, then your are not only creating generically unknown chins you are inbreeding them. If the kit is male you can probably put it with the father once weaned, but you will need to remove it from the cage with the mother once it's 8 weeks or it can breed with the mother too. It's more likely at 10 days old that the father was just asserting dominance over the kit, but I would watch them since it can turn bad quickly. If the kit is male the father can look at it as competition for the female.
 
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