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llough

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 25, 2009
Messages
80
Location
Phoenix
Hello Everyone!

My seven year old chinchilla just had kits - two seem healthy and one was still born. I haven't been on this forum in years and I do remember how some feel about back yard breeding, but this was an accident and I already separated my (apparently) father from Izzie. I did have a few questions that I was hoping some more experienced members could help with? Unfortunately the larger kit fell from a four door high shelf before I realized the kits were there and could but them in a baby safe cage (luckily I was home and actually the father, Fire, alerted me something was up), and appears uninsured but has not been able to open his or her eyes yet. The other kit's eyes are open (they're both hopping about now, yea :)! ), and I believe I read a long time ago that you should gently open the eyes with a warm wet towel if unopened but I wanted to make sure. I found the kit about seven hours ago and I believe he or she was born shortly prior as he or she was still damp. Yes, I warmed the little guy up in my bra because he was freezing!!

So, anyway, mommy and babies are in a small baby safe travel cage (small spaces bars, no shelves, right?), with food, water, and hay for mommy ( I also gave her a bit of plain oats about six hours ago, I don't know if that was right), on clean fleece with a nesting box and nothing else. Is there anything else they need for the night? I have apple sticks and such for mommy but I wasn't sure if that was too distracting.

Thank you so much for your help!!
 
Ok everyone, well as you probably guessed the kit with the eyes closed did not survive. He passes away yesterday. I named the last one D'Artagnan - after the last, feistiest, littlest muskateer. He's down to 15 g so I'm thinking about hand feeding him? I really really would like to manage to save one.
 
ok I'm no breeder but since nobody else seems to be reading this, 15g is VERY tiny and you probably should have been hand feeding as soon as he went under 30g to my knowledge. I don't know what your chances of him making it are but please do start hand feeding him. Have you looked up the proper formula for hand feeding on this forum?
 
I was hoping that someone that breeds would chime in, but I agree 15g is way too small, a newborn is normally at least 30g (much less then that and they generally don't survive). Dropping down that much in a few days I would take as a sign the mother is not producing milk, or if she is not enough of it. It does normally take a day or two for the mother's milk to come in, so a few grams loss isn't uncommon, but it should be there by now.

Look up hand feeding on here if you haven't already, goats milk seems to be the kind you want, but I don't know much more then that offhand or what you mix it with if anything. Keep in mind that if the mom isn't producing milk (which as I said it sounds like she isn't) it's up to you to be feeding the kit every two hours around the clock day and night. A kit should be gaining roughly a gram a day.
 
Thank you so much for your help! I looked up a few formulas for hand feeding and started just now. I'm using goat's milk areas suggested and based I a few outside suggestions with a small pinch of critical care and dyne mixed in. Does that seem ok?

Also - I realize this is a outside question and I can repost if needed- the kit's mother, Izzie, started gnawing off the fur on her left paw and forearm yesterday. I noticed it was completely gone just now, and I have a small supply of medical supplies (bluekote is the only antiseptic I'm finding), but I'm not sure if it's ok to put on her while she's with the kit? She's still cuddling and keeping the kit warm as far as I can tell since I fed him. I feel horrible for the little guy that I didn't weigh him right away - it took me a day to get a gram scale. But I'm still here for him and I thank you again for the quick advice!
 
The formula posted in the FAQs is
"One can of goats milk
One can of water
One tablespoon baby rice cereal"

I have heard some variations reading back through the breeding forums, not being a breeder myself I'm not sure what the best one is exactly. I'm glad you're getting something in him though, is he eating it just fine? I believe you're supposed to feed him every two hours around the clock- and this does mean overnight too. As far as I'm aware bluekote is just fine to put on her, is she just chewing the fur or her skin too?

Make sure you keep weighing the kit every day at the same time, keep us posted, I'm no expert but I can repeat what I've heard.
 
He/she IS eating ok! Just a bit at a time, and very slowly, but that's ok. After I started reading the FAQs (as I should have from the beginning :) ) I realized he should be on his back (?) whe eating, but he seems to like to do it himself on his hind legs and I guess if he wants to do it himself and it works, is that ok? I also read on another chinchilla blog about stroking the stomach from front to back when he's done to help with the defection process. Is that right?

I've I made up a new formula as the one above, and I'm going to try it in about 20 minutes. I'm using disposable pipettes that I have from work (unused) and he doesn't seem to mind but I think it may work better with a rubber nipple right? Any idea where to get those that is small enough for him?

I will try the Bluekote. I hope it helps. Izzie is my baby and it hurts to watch her pull her hair out. As far as I can tell it is just the fur, not the skin, so maybe it is fungal. I have access to human anti fungal creams but I'm not sure that would work. She will let me touch her paw but doesn't let the kit near it.

Thank you for all your help!
 
That's good that he's eating still, I really hope he pulls through for you. I think what you're using to feed him is okay as long as it's working. I'm not 100% sure on whether or not it's important if he's on his back or not to be honest. If he seems to be eating it fine I would think that's okay but I could be wrong. I do believe that's true about stroking his stomach. I'm not 100% sure about the fur pulling on the leg to be honest. If it gets worse/she continues a trip to the vet may be a good idea, though if you could post a picture on here that may give us a better idea as to what's going on there. I'm sorry I don't know the most about any of this but I'm trying to help as best as I can!
 
I can say baby rats need to be stimulated to pass waste. So it won't hurt to give it a go.

The fur issue could be stress. I have a chin when if my husbandry is slightly off she chews her fur off. Fur chewing isn't harmful, just looks funky. IF that's what it is, I would just leave it be. Do you see scratches on the skin? Their fur is designed to just pop out when tugged, so it shouldn't be causing damage.
 
As of last night the little guy had gained 3 g! Afterwards I re-calibrated the scale and it now says he's a little bigger than I thought - 24 g. Is it bad if he gains weight TOO fast? My friend took a video of him nursing the pipette last night and I'll post it if that's ok as soon as he gets around to sending me the file. I had to leaver medical school a month ago for health reasons of my own, so I'm home all the time at the moment to feed him every two hours.

I've been stroking D'Artagnan's stomach just very gently after I feed him - I figure it can't hurt, and he's so little he can use all the help he can get, right? He doesn't seem to mind.

I did put a little blu-kote on Izzie's paw. It's seems less red this morning and there are no scratches that I can see. If it's a nervous thing, is it possible she's mad at me for some reason? She seems to like to hop on her box and start picking at it as soon as I walk in the room. She'll do it for a second or to, then look at me, then continue, then look at me, etc. She doesn't seem to mind me taking D'Artagnan every few hours, but I know his father is still in the big cage across the room and gets agitated trying to get to them every few hours. Maybe I should have the cages in separate rooms?

Lastly, now that he/she has started gaining a bit of weight, I started wondering about his or her sex and color. From the example pics on the forum I'm guessing a girl, but I'd rather have you all take a look at a pic of him or her and say for sure. Izzie is a homo ebony that does have a small pedigree with some beige and a lot of gray in the background. Fire is a homo beige as far as I can tell, but I adopted him from a woman on Craigslist (hence I'm not breeding him), who's chinchilla accidentally had babies and she couldn't keep them all - we both thought Fire was a girl, and she thought he was a white, but he has red eyes and beige fur. The baby looks dark gray with bits of white speckling - tummy the same color as the rest. Pictures to come!
Thanks again for the help and advice!
 
When I said they gain roughly a gram a day, I should have said at least a gram a day, some days they gain more, so it ends up being at least 7-14 grams a week. The kit even at 24g is tiny, so I would think it needs to gain more to catch up to where it should be anyway. Just make sure you are weight at the same time each day, having peed or pooped or just eaten can all effect weight, especially when you are looking at single grams gained.

I really don't know about the pulling fur, I would keep an eye on it, if the redness is going away it can probably wait to be checked out. It could also be stress from being unable to fully care for her kits, so she needs to trust you to feed her kit. Chins do also mourn the death of kits, and can become depressed just like a human losing a baby. As I said I'm just guessing on the cause and it could be something else, just my thoughts.

If you post a pic of the kit we can help tell you male or female. Also here is a basic color calculator to get an idea of what the kit's color mutation might be. From the description of the kit, I'm not sure you got the parent's colors right, without knowing the parents (and grandparents) it's hard to know for sure if Fire is homo or hetero beige (they can look the same) if you play around with that calculator you should get what I mean.

If you can put the male in another room for now I think that might help if he is becoming agitated, just make sure you spend extra time with him so he isn't lonely. It's entirely possible the female is in heat again (happens right around birth) and he misses her so his desire to get to her is going to be strong.
 
Ok, well I'm so glad the weight gain isn't too much, I know humans can get electryte imbalances from being refed too quickly. D'Artagnan met the postman today while I was feeding him and I'm not sure if the postman or D'Artagnab was more excited. I think it was D'Artagnan. I started brushing Izzie today again with her cat brush, she loves that, and she's stopped the fur pulling. Maybe she just needs some tlc of her own. She likes to cuddle and watch cartoons, so maybe we will do that today to distract her from the lost kits. She really is very sensitive, like humans, as you said. Pics to come!
 
Hello Everyone!

Here is a video of the little guy and me as well as a photo of Fire. If Fire is not a beige I don't know what he is but I'm sure you all will. Izzie and I are having what I now call tlc time - I'm brushing her and she says that she is very pretty now. I know the video is horrible for telling the kit's color and impossible for sex. Any guesses? Yours is as good as mine.
 

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It doesn't look like your photo of Fire uploaded either. I wasn't doubting you on him being beige, just saying it's hard to tell without knowing the lineage if he is hetero (meaning one beige gene) or homo (both beige genes). From the kit's color (from your previous description sounds light or medium ebony) I would say Fire is hetero beige, otherwise the kit would be beige or tan, as far as I can tell you can't get grey coloring (standard grey to ebony color) with homo ebony and homo beige pairing.

The video is cute, the little guy seems to be a fighter and wants to live, so that's good. The kit just looks grey from the video, but it just shows it's head. I'm pretty sure it's almost time for the mother and kit to take dust baths soon, like next week, so the kit should learn to clean itself soon. You might want to double check that, but I think 2 weeks is the right time for that. Dust baths before that can cause an issue with the female getting an infection (everything needs to close and heal up down there from giving birth). The mother should teach the kit how to bath, but you'll have to offer the dust in a container that the kit can get in and out of. When one of my chins I had growing up had kits (a mistake, we thought both chins were male) I think I just sprinkled some dust on newspaper at first so the kits didn't have to climb in and out of anything.

I'm also glad to hear Izzie is acting better, it sounds like she did just need some extra tlc.
 
Shoot. Well, my iPhone won't attach it because it says I already posted it! Catch-22. I'll reload and try again. Haha, I didn't doubt that you weren't doubting me, and I really do appreciate all the help. Now if i can only get the photo to load! I have a feeling Fire is a bunch of things mixed together and therefore D'Artagnan's color is most likely neon hetero purple :) joking. Hehe. anyway, he sprouted giant feet and jumping power last night as well as a more modest extra two grams.

More importantly, is there anyone living in the Phoenix area or know of anyone that might be willing to PM me and possibly be a godparent for D'Artagnan? I have a few friends who take care of Izzie and Fire if and when I end up in the hospital- which is usually unexectedly and for a few days - but I just moved here last summer and so far I haven't been able to convince anyone to feed the little man/woman every few hours around the clock in the event of an emergency. Hope everyone is having a happy Wed!
 
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