Growing out kits and how to decide who to keep

[rcr]

Question for breeders on growing out kits.

What factors do you take into account when making the decision who to sell and who to grow out. For example: Do you only keep kits that are over 300 grams at 3 months? Or sell all standards that are born to mutation pairings? Keep all females for 6 months (or longer) before making any decisions? Other considerations?

 

[AZChins]

Most of the time I go by what the previous kits from a pairing were like. Right now I have a brown velvet out of an absolutely stunning standard and brown velvet pair, I know he will be big so I will most likely keep him to see how he turns out. Sometimes I will keep a kit that seems to be exceptional at around three or four months of age to see what will happen with him or her.

I do keep the females for a minimum of eight months when I am growing them out before I make a decision. I've gotten pretty good at choosing females at weaning time because I know what their siblings from previous litters were like and also because I'll get a feeling about certain chins.

The worst thing though is that sometimes I let a chin that just seems a little sub par go to a new home as a pet and then return to bring supplies to a customer a month or two later to find a spectacular chinchilla. A month ago I went over to see one of my babies, who went to his new home last fall. I was expecting to see him be a little weird looking and not so pretty and small...but nooo, he was awesome. All the baby awkwardness was gone, he wasn't wedgy and his fur was absolutely perfect.

I think that the only safe way to know what you have is to grow everyone out until eight months of age. Some of those chins really fool you when they are young! The only issue with that is ending up with way too many youngsters. I'm having that problem now because last year I kept so many of my really nice babies and now they are adults and I don't need any more breeding stock on deck.

Over time I get better at my pairings and all the chins end up being really nice...it makes it really tough to choose!

 

[starleomach]

I am kinda random. Deciding on pairings I want to check on, pairings that have done great in the past. Sometimes you see a kit hours after they are born and just know you have to hang on to them. I have sold many a great chinchillas but managed to keep quite a few here too. We were told one year at the WI seminar that if you look at a baby it's very first day often you can gauge body style. That has been working quite well, I have waited out several akward phases to have great animals.

 

[arf2184]

Judging which kit is going to turn out is not an easy thing. Sometimes they'll be huge for a 2-3 month old, but once they hit 4-5 months they'll slow way down in growing and end up just small or average. Other times, they'll start out small or as the runt, but then just take off and grow into a giant. Sometimes they'll start out looking wedgy, but later fill out into a nice blocky brick. Others look blocky at first, but then their back end suddenly decides to grow faster than their front and they end up wedgy (hate it when that happens). Judging whether their baby fur will be replaced with gorgeous adult fur is just as difficult.

There's no real full proof way of determining who will turn out the best other than keeping them all until they hit 8 months...which most of us don't have the space for. I just pick the ones I like the most and hope for the best. Like Susan said, it helps to know what the previous kits from a pairing were like.

I think we've all sold chins that we later on wished we would have held on to, but that just means you're doing something right and the kits from your match makings are turning out awesome.

 

[chinchildren]

i actually show pretty much EVERYTHING which i can do with small numbers (except when someone talks me out of a kit LOL).

the good aspect of that is obvious; the bad is that i then hear that some fool starts a rumor that shelli's quality is not up there since she had a couple of 2nds at xxx show... EVERYONE produces "lesser" quality chins - not everyone shows them.

that being said - i am totally over capacity this year (lotsa babies for me, only one lost kit yay...) so if you are in the market for anything violet/violet carrier LET ME KNOW!

 

[lsknc]

we are keeping back at least one from every litter to see how everyone is doing. but if i sell a kit that i want to show i usually sell them to a fellow breeder/friend so i know they will get shown. i wish i had more females to show instead of males. but such is life.

 

[chinsNdobermans]

We usually keep back the vast majority of our kits for show right now, because we're small at this time. However, we try to make sure we identify "needs" in our herd and at least offer those kits that don't fit those needs for sale. Good practice as we continue to build our herd.