New Babies, Color? Possible Deformity? Help!

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JTope311

Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2011
Messages
7
My chinchilla, Hoppy, had a new litter of 3 kits on Saturday morning. She is a standard gray and the male, Houdini, is hetero Pink White. None of the kits are gray, but this is my first litter of something besides standards or beige, so I am having trouble distinguishing the colors. Could someone shed some light?

Secondly, and most importantly, I had a set of breeding complications with this litter. :( Two of the kits came out with what I believe is a deformity. One kits was in very bad shape and didn't make it through its first hour. :( The other one is doing fine and I will attach a picture of the wound (its not gruesome). If you don't want to hear how bad of shape the one that didn't make it was, skip to the next paragraph. The one that didn't make it had a large open wound on its right side by his arm and down his side where no skin developed exposing muscle tissue and a dead, under developed arm. The other one has a small wound on its left side by his arm (see picture). My thought is that maybe they are conjoined until late in the womb or possible even conjoined at birth. Anyone ever have any similar issues or complications?

I have a couple of different litters involving both the male and the female with no problems in the past. Houdini is 3 years old and Hoppy is 5 years old. I don't like these situations and want to avoid them so can I have some recommendations? Should I stop breeding Hoppy, Houdini, both, just not together, or was this just a possible fluke situation? Any input would be much appreciated.
 

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They look alright to me, maybe a little premature, but they're okay. The wounds are normal. Sometimes females have a difficult time with labor and can injure the kits, it happens and the kits generally heal up quickly.

As for the deformity goes, sometimes deformities occur in stillborns or kits that do not survive very long after birth. It happens on occasion and is to be expected from time to time. Triplets are exceedingly difficult at times, the fetuses are competing for nourishment in the womb and one may lose out or be weaker. It's sad, but it's just part of breeding chinchillas.

Continuing to breed this pair is completely up to you. If they have decent pedigrees and have been healthy with healthy offspring, it's up to you if you want to pursue breeding them.
 
Totally agree with Susan on everything. Some kits just don't make it. The deformity could be due to any number of things. If it were me, and the parents had no other issues, were pedigreed and were nice enough quality to breed in the first place then I'd continue to breed them.

Colors, look like beiges to me as well though, as mentioned, the one could be pink white...you'll want to see if it fades out to a whiter shade later on.
 
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