Possible Unexpected Babies...

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emma62

New member
Joined
Dec 22, 2015
Messages
3
So I foster for a small animals rescue, and tomorrow I'm getting a possibly pregnant female chinchilla. :D

She will be my first chinchilla so I've been doing a ton of research and I feel pretty confident on care and play time.

(Her story..)
Cece (female) was adopted as a friend for another recently adopted chinchilla(PJ). The owner was told PJ was a female so naturally they went and bought another female for PJ so she could have a play mate.
Turns out PJ is a boy...
SO now I'm getting Cece as a long term foster in case the time PJ and Cece had together made some babies... (Not exactly sure how long... not very long since they got a vet visit but long enough they were together. Maybe a night? Anyone know how quick chinchillas can breed?)

Now I'm wondering if anyone has any clues they use to determine if she is actually pregnant?

I'm already planning on weighing her once a week, but she is underweight a little bit so I'm not sure how accurate it will be.

I've also heard it's not very obvious until the 3 month mark or kits show up..

And just for fun if anyone is into genetics I was wondering what the kits would look like. Dad is a mosaic and mom I BELIEVE is a standard grey but it's hard to tell from her picture. (I'll let you know tomorrow)

Thanks guys!
 
Genetics - Mosaic and standard will produce either mosaic or standard.

As far as if she's pregnant - put her in a baby safe cage and wait. Unless you want to pay a whole lot of money for an ultrasound, that's about all you can do.

It takes about 10 seconds for a chin to breed. If she wasn't in heat, nothing would have happened. If she was, she might be. My advice would still be the same either way. Wait and see.
 
Gestation is 111 days, so to be safe, mark your calendar from the day you get her u nless the rescue can tell you when she was separated (date) from the male.
 
Another trick is to keep track of her weight. This obviously isn't a guarantee, but if you notice after a month that she's 150g heavier its a good indication that she may be pregnant.
 
Weight gain means very little. I have had mom give birth to twins with no weight gain at all. I have also had a couple of females gain over 150 grams and not be pregnant. By the way, if a female gains over 150 grams in a month instead of over the entire pregnancy, I would be very worried. They do not gain weight that quickly.
 
Here are her weights. Do they seem "normal?"

12/27 5:25pm 534g
1/2 4:58pm 563g
1/3 1:13pm 553g
1/10 2:30pm 571g (1/10 5:30 573g)

I'm not sure how accurate 1/3 is because of the time I did it on.. But on 1/2 I just did it Saturday instead of Sunday around 5 with that weight which seems more accurate.

I did just redo today's weight (I'm doing it weekly) at more of an average time with only a few grams different.
 
Update: I just read the weight she is right now is way too small to breed and it could possibly kill her. I am definitely hoping she isn't. Poor girl :(
 
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