Pregnancy?

[aussiljd]

After losing my last chin about a year ago, a coworker informed me that he had 4 he needed new homes for due to his new girlfriend suddenly being pregnant. ANYWAY, he had two that were four years old, Elmek (a standard male) and Polear (a pink white female). The pair had two babies about one year ago, a Wilson white female named Elaina and standard male named Sario. They all live together in one very very large cage.
I bought them here to live with me about a week ago. I was making plans to partition the cage to separate males and females, but a couple days ago as I was watching them take a dust bath, Sario began mounting Elaina. Immediatly I created a makeshift divider for the boys and girls. I am hoping I caught them in time, but I wouldn't even know how to tell if she is pregnant until she actually gave birth. And if she is (which I am REALLY hoping she isn't!), what health risks are associated with such close inbreeding in chins? I know some animals, such as mice, are more adapted to it, but I never looked into breeding chins and know very little other than the gestation period. Any advice? :hmm:

 

[VolunteerChin22]

ugh...seperate immediately!!! It is not desirable for related chins to mate by any means which is why breeders go to such lengths to record pedigrees. I hope you get lucky and they arent pregnant but you are going to have to prepare and wait 110-115 days or so from the day you saw them and see if you have babies. Chins do not recognize that they shouldn't mate with their mother/brother/sister/daughter they will mate regardless. You could have mom pregnant by son or other male and same with dad or brother with daughter. I am sure someone will come along with more specific advice about genetics but you could see malo pop up among other problems.

If they are pregant you will notice a weight gain so I would get a digital scale that weighs in grams and keep a weekly track of the female's weights. Some females lay on their side more when they get close, and up their intake of water. Sometimes you just find babies in the cage. Make sure you put mom and daughter in a baby proof cage with wire spacing no larger than 1x1/2 in or 1/2 x 1/2 in.

Keep us posted and good luck.

 

[alli713]

At this point you could just assume that they're pregnant and just be prepared. If possible, get a baby safe cage, with bar openings something like 1/2" x 1/2".

They may not be pregnant, but if it were me, I'd just read up on breeding chins just in case.

Also, if you were to keep them all in the same cage, you run the risk of the males attacking each other when they want to breed with a female.

When you do separate the boys and girls, it means no playtimes with the different sexes at all. As you saw, they can and will breed and they can be done with it in a matter of seconds. So, separate playtimes for the boys and girls, always.
Also, cages will need to remain about 6" apart so that they don't breed through the cage bars.