CJR
the dreamer
There's a pet store near-ish my house, where my friend Monty works. It's a locally-owned store, and they breed their chinchillas (and most of their animals) in house. I've had a lot of problems with their methods in the past, but yesterday something really sad occurred.
This past Sunday, one of the breeding pairs produced triplets. He never separates the breeding pairs. But anyway, I was looking over the kits and noticed that one wasn't doing so well.
He (I didn't check the sex) was much weaker than the other two, and didn't fight when I scooped him up. He was thinner also. I was looking over him and the whole left side of his head was all torn up! I thought maybe momma was getting a little excited in her grooming, but none of the other kits were torn up. I deduced that perhaps momma wasn't making enough milk, so the kits were fighting, and this little guy was losing out.
The owner was there yesterday, so I went up to him and told him what was going on. He just shrugged and said "Okay". I offered to hand raise this baby and bring it back when it was weaned so that it wouldn't die. He said "Nah, I think we'll be all right."
I know from past experiences that this jerkwad doesn't give a flying care about any of the rodents, and I'm 90% certain that poor bub is going to die. And he's just going to let it happen!
I know I'm not the most knowledgeable person in the world about baby chin care, but I've read enough on this forum to know a lot more than your average bear and I know that people here would help me raise that kit.
It just upsets me so dang much that that poor little kit is probably going to die and that guy is going to do nothing about it. Gahhhhhh.
This past Sunday, one of the breeding pairs produced triplets. He never separates the breeding pairs. But anyway, I was looking over the kits and noticed that one wasn't doing so well.
He (I didn't check the sex) was much weaker than the other two, and didn't fight when I scooped him up. He was thinner also. I was looking over him and the whole left side of his head was all torn up! I thought maybe momma was getting a little excited in her grooming, but none of the other kits were torn up. I deduced that perhaps momma wasn't making enough milk, so the kits were fighting, and this little guy was losing out.
The owner was there yesterday, so I went up to him and told him what was going on. He just shrugged and said "Okay". I offered to hand raise this baby and bring it back when it was weaned so that it wouldn't die. He said "Nah, I think we'll be all right."
I know from past experiences that this jerkwad doesn't give a flying care about any of the rodents, and I'm 90% certain that poor bub is going to die. And he's just going to let it happen!
I know I'm not the most knowledgeable person in the world about baby chin care, but I've read enough on this forum to know a lot more than your average bear and I know that people here would help me raise that kit.
It just upsets me so dang much that that poor little kit is probably going to die and that guy is going to do nothing about it. Gahhhhhh.