I just want to pipe in about the ranch chins VS. pet chins-the ranches cull chins with known health issues such as malo, no questions asked, their herds for the most part don't have predispositions for teeth issues so the need for hay is less, pet chins come from all over the place, lots have no known background, so the need for hay is more important since we don't know what we are dealing with and its better safe than sorry.
Yeah I considered that also. Since most pet chins have inferior genetic makeup, it stands to assume that they would need a little more care than the high quality chins that come out of breeders or owners. Pet store chins would naturally be more predisposed to health issues, and therefore would need a higher quality diet.
My question seems to have gotten perceived into something else. I simply asked if these ranchers kept chins long enough to see if not feeding hay made a difference. I do not know any ranchers or what they do or how long they keep chins. That is why I asked. If they kept chins for say.... 5 years (again, I have no idea how ranches work) then that is not long enough to tell anything.
I never pointed a finger, never said that ranch chins don't live long . I Simply wanted some elaboration on Megan's statement which said "several years" not 5,10,15, or 35.
I agree with Steven. While many of the members of this site are chinchilla experts, a lot of us aren't and we've joined this site for the simple purpose of learning more. How are we to know what goes on in ranches, other than asking questions? I was under the impression that chins could live 15-20 years also, both because I had researched it online, and because I had seen it repeatedly on this site. I also question a rancher actually
keeping a chin for that long because I can only assume that after a while the chin stops being profitable. That means, does the chin ever actually have the opportunity to grow old enough so that we can observe the implications of not having eaten hay? As for pelters, logic leads me to believe they will only mature the chins to a certain age where there is an adequate fur supply to be harvested. So the chins never mature to 15-20, and again, we can't observe the implications of not having eaten hay.
Again Steven, as with Susan, only part of that comment was aimed at you. Just the first paragraph. The rest was a generalization because this topic of hay versus no hay has been pretty much beat to death over the years.
While I can see how seeing a topic as mundane as hay be brought up so repeatedly over the years can be frustrating for someone as educated as yourself, especially if you're an admin, I would like to point out pet owners come and go to this site, and the only way for us to learn is by active discussion. As new pet owners come, questions will be asked that inevitably have been covered before, and it isn't really fair to criticize us for asking it because you feel it has been beaten to death. I mean no offence or disrespect, only trying to show you where we come from.
If you haven't been to a well run ranch, then it stands to reason you don't know what goes on there, but the way you phrased your question made it sound as though ranchers wouldn't have any idea about chins and the long term effects of using or not using hay, since they only have them a couple years. Ranchers don't get rid of the parents of the chins that produce show winners and good pelts - they continue to breed them so they can get more. So they do actually have chins for a bit longer than you would suspect. When the female starts slowing down in production, if she has any health issues, or if she isn't springing back from a delivery they will often times put one of the offspring in as a replacement and cull the dam.
I think that was the point Steven was getting at - at what age does the dam get culled, and how much of her health issues are associated with hay, if any? We aren't asking because we're implying anything, nor are we accusing any breeders or ranchers of not knowing what they're doing, we are simply raising the question as a simple discussion.
Again I mean no offense to anyone in any way. I am legitimately curious at this industry since it's quite underground and I've known nothing about it. I only questioned the use of hay since -all- of the literature I've read,
as well as the information on this site
and from forum members have pressed the point of the importance of hay. While I understand there are variables and extenuating circumstances with chinchillas, it also opens up the door to questioning.
I was just saying...
