mom passed/ dad lonley

[dieselcowgirl04]

Almost 4 weeks ago my chinchilla gave birth to 4 babies, last week my little runt did not make it after several attempts to get it to put on weight. I noticed that the mom was not eating yesterday when i got home. so i called and made a vet appointment for this morning. Unfortunately she did not make it. Now i am worried about the kits being old enough to be without mom yet. They seem to be eating fine and started taking baths on Saturday, I have them with dad Just wondering if there is anything that i can do to help dad out for the next 4 weeks?

Also was wondering, i have heard that pairs of chinchillas are life long breeders. I dont necessarily want to breed the dad again, but dont want him to get lonely. I know if a female chinchilla that desperately needs to be rescued and was hoping to be able to put them together. So he is not lonely, and how i would go about doing that? Is there a way to get them to bond even though his other mate just passed?[/FONT]

 

[GorillaJTA]

There is a breeding FAQ to answer most of your questions.
As for the male, he will be fine with time. There is no reason to keep making babies of unknown bloodlines. If any of the kits are males, you can leave them together for companionship.
Chins are only life-long breeders in the sense that they will continue breeding their whole lives. They are not, however, monogamous. They, like all rodents, are polygamous and promiscuous. You need to remove the female kits soon so that they do not get knocked up by their father.

 

[tunes]

They are absolutely not life long partners. Breeders move their animals around all the time as they need to. At a large ranch, one male will service anywhere from 6-10 females.

I would do as Jer suggested. At 6-8 weeks I would separate out these kits unless they are male and can stay together. I also wouldn't put another female with your male because you feel he's lonely. That is not a good reason to continue breeding. Many, many chins live on their own and are perfectly happy that way.

 

[starleomach]

I agree with Jer and Peggy.

 

[Jenn]

my chin was separated from a larger group, and she does just fine as an only chin.

 

[Brittany]

Question for breeders, do 4 week old kits need to be hand fed?

To the OP - I have 3 chins that live alone, and can't even see another chinchilla. All of them are happy and well adjusted.

 

[AZChins]

They probably should get some hand feeding every day. Maybe twice a day? It really depends on the kits and how much they are eating on their own. I'd hand feed because they are still growing so quickly and need more concentrated energy and nutrition that milk gives them.

As far as the male missing the female goes, that will be a problem but only for a few days. They get used to being in with a certain chin and seem to mope around for a little and even stop eating as much. Normally they even out after a couple of days. Until then the best thing you can do is keep the chin happy by giving him some fun toys and making sure that he gets a treat each day so he can look forward to something. It's really all about distraction with chins when it comes to helping them get over losing a cagemate.

Sometimes a chin being by himself/herself will create a positive change in personality. They often will become more friendly and more accepting of people. A chin by himself comes with a price though - that is, you will need to give him a lot of one on one time since you will be providing his entire social life.

 

[jbcstratton]

I would definately hand feed for a few more weeks.

 

[VolunteerChin22]

I hand feed until I wean. I mean afterall that's what they are doing if you aren't handfeeding.

 

[Riven]

Depending on how they're eating and size and such I may hand feed. I would supplement with the mom and kit formula.

1/3 fines from food
1/3 powdered lamb milk
1/3 baby oatmeal flakes

feed dry in a shallow dish.

 

[6Dusters]

This is a difficult case to be sure. They might be too old and resist handfeeding. I could be wrong too. I'll just offer my info to try and help out.

This year I had to hand feed a kit. Started out hand feeding with the syringe. ( Refer to the Q and A section for formula info) About 5 weeks of age I took him out to feed and instead of using a syringe I put the formula in a human baby food stage 1 glass bottle with a Ryerson glass stopper on the end. Ryersons chinchilla ranch sells a glass bottle complete with the stopper. Or you can just use a syringe. It took him a couple feedings to figure out how to use the glass tube vs the syringe.

After feeding him I would then just hang the fresh formula bottle on the cage. You can find out how to store the formula in the Q and A section. Be sure to rotate that bottle often as it is milk and it goes bad. I woke him during the day and night to hand feed him. At a certain point of age he would eat little or nothing at night. So I just hung the bottle before bed and did not get up anymore. I believe it was him letting me know that he was old enough to keep his belly full. In the morning I would clean the bottle and hang fresh formula making sure he knew where it was. No more hand feeding. I also saw him drinking out of moms water bottle at times too. So I knew it was about time to stop hanging the formula bottle.

As Riven suggested you can also leave a shallow dish of a suppliment in the cage. But remember they still have to drink at this age. Keep some sort of liquid ....be it water or formula low in the cage so they can reach it. I cannot stress enough the importance of weighing them!!

The following mixture I have used with success. Fill a hand held coffee grinder hopper with pellets and add about a teaspoon of whole oats ( Quaker is fine ) and a scoop of powder goat milk. Put in a shallow dish and offer hay at all times. This worked with quads and my single keeping the belly full and adding weight.

Now keep in mind this is what worked for me. I'm not sure what will work in this case.
My newborn kit's mother was dry without milk. My quads mother had milk but had I to rotate them due to fighting. I placed the dry mixture in at about 2 weeks of age along with hay.
My dry coffee grind suppliment along with hay is a tried and true success here at my place. I cannot guess what 4 week old kits would want. But I would figure it out. Nothing is easy with kits. But it always seems to work out. You will look like this too :wacko: Good luck and post back so we can try and help you out.