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samster32

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We had a surprise when we were walking out the door to the airport last week. We had 2 new baby chins. There wasn't much we could do before we left except move them to the bottom teir and hope for the best. Well we came back and they are doing great. Mom and dad are doing great with both kits. What I need to know is how old do the kits have to be to be weaned from their mom? Also is it completely nesseciary to separate the mom and dad? They are all doing great as a family and seem to be sharing the chores of raising the babies (dad has been teaching them to play on the wheel- mom feeds them). I know the dangers of back breeding and have been watching the mom and dads interactions, it doesn't seem to be an issue right now.

I have actually been trying to find new homes for the mom and dad prior to the babies, but now I will need to find a home for the entire family. Due to me having my own little one in December I won't have a room for them anymore and its not fair to keep them locked in their cage because they are kicked out of their room (which is now the babies room). So any help would be great on how old the kits have to be so that I can see about finding a home for them.

Thanks,
 
If they haven't been seperated yet, it is very likely that mom is already pregnant again.

Where in Kansas are you located? I may be able to take them all in for you and find suitable homes.
 
You can't possibly watch those chins enough to know if a breedback occurred. It takes 2-3 seconds for it to occur and by the time you would see it and separate them, it would already be done.

I can tell you when to wean the babies, but that isn't going to stop them from coming. If you don't have room to keep the offspring of the breeding pair, then you need to separate the breeding pair and keep them separate. If you don't, they are just going to continue breeding over and over. This is not only hard on the mom, but it's pointless if you have a new baby on the way and already want to move out the offspring you currently have.

The babies can be weaned at 8 weeks, held for 2 weeks to make sure they are thriving, and then adopted out to their new homes.
 
We are located in Topeka. I was afraid they may be since we had to leave for a week before we could separate them since we were literally out the door to the airport and didn't have another cage. If she is will it effect her nursing her current babies, and how old do they have to be to get weaned.
 
Did you have someone coming over daily to check on them? What kind of cage are they in now?
You don't want to wean before 8 weeks, if possible.

Sending you a PM.
 
Yes we had people in and out of our house the entire week. They are currently in a homemade teired cage. The spacing between the wires is less then a half inch. The bottom where the babies are is a solid bottom (no wires). To get to the top of the next teir the parents have to jump high so right now the babies can't even reach it. We have a house and a tunnell on the bottom teir for the babies to hide in. I was thinking about getting a smaller cage for the mom and babies.
 
I'm not too far from you. what are the stats on all of them?...Not sure I could convince hubby...but hey I can try.
 
Oh, this must be your CL ad: http://topeka.craigslist.org/pet/1838105430.html

If you haven't separated them, PLEASE do so immediately. You're dealing w/ a lethal factor breeding white to white.

I only have 1 chin and not even thinking about breeding. If i get another chin it too would be a female. But out of couriousity why is it a lethal factor breeding white to white? does that cover all kids of whites?
exp-pink white,wilson white, mosaic?
 
The lethal factor means that when you breed two whites of any type (pink white, mosaic, etc), approximately 1/4 of the kits will be aborted before it develops. A homozygous white cannot exist.
 
I only have 1 chin and not even thinking about breeding. If i get another chin it too would be a female. But out of couriousity why is it a lethal factor breeding white to white? does that cover all kids of whites?
exp-pink white,wilson white, mosaic?

Did you get Chin-chin back?
 
The lethal factor means that when you breed two whites of any type (pink white, mosaic, etc), approximately 1/4 of the kits will be aborted before it develops. A homozygous white cannot exist.

Yeah, I knew about the lethal factor too, but the funny thing is that once my dad when to purchase some cages from a retired breeder, that used to have about 1000 chins, and he said that white to white can be paired, but not black to black, because of dead babies, and I was like "Uh?" and I was all confused after, anyways, I will never breed white to white, even though there could be some people saying that it would be ok, but for ebonies, I haven't had a chance to prove that there could be some dead babies born either.
 
The lethal fact is present in both whites and black velvets (TOV gene). Ebonies do not have a lethal factor. You will not have dead kits, you will just have 25% less kits. Homozygous whites and TOVs cannot exist.
 
You CAN breed white to white and black (velvet, not ebony) to black - you will get live, healthy kits out of those pairings. Any dead kits/stillborns/mummies/deformities/kits that don't thrive will not be because of the lethal factor, the lethal factor does what it does well before the litter is born and the zygote is reabsorbed into the mother's body. You see no trace of it.

However, breeding white to white and black to black is highly discouraged - no one knows what the long term affects of reabsorbing aborted kits does to the mother, and since both are dominant genes breeding either to a good standard is a better way to improve the quality of the mute kits.
 
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