Rescued chinchillas

[apangburn]

I have never had a chinchilla in my life until now and I have two in one cage and one in another. The two that are together were in a cage covered in urine that mixed with the dust from their dust bath. They had no bedding at all in the cage. The other came out of house that she didn't want the baby because she already has two and knows she will have more soon. Crazy people! My question is: the two that were together the male is white and the female is a standard gray and have never had a baby but is that unusual? I don't know if they are related or not but I don't want to separate them either because they have been together for along time. We are in the process of building them the cages they deserve will that make a difference?

Thanks!
April

 

[xcoronaangel]

If there is a male and female together you need to get the male fixed.
Even if they have never produced kits in the past it is still possible for them to produce them in the future.
Think of it like dogs and cats. If you rescue two dogs you dont know anything about or thier breeding lines and they are not spayed or neutered yet the old owner states they have never had a litter you still know they can. And you have no info on if they have health problems in the past or if their parents or grandparents have had health problems.

I dont see why they cant stay together after you have them fixed. If they are happy allow them to stay together. But be responsible about it and fixed one (male would be easier).

 

[Siylvat]

I would separate the male and the female. Even thought they have been living together and had no babies, I have heard stories of chins that were together for years and then a little change of enviroment and...all the sudden there are babies. And even though babies are super cute, it is never a good idea to let two chins with unknown backgrounds breed. Not safe for the adults or the kits.

What gender is the third chin? Maybe you can itroduce that one to one of them? If not, chins can be perfectly happy on their own. I know that the two have been together for a long time and it is sad splitting them up, but I feel like that is what most people on here are going to suggest.

Good luck with the chins, read alot on here, and that is great that you got them out of such icky conditions.

 

[apangburn]

My little chin we named Chi Chi is a little boy. The other ones I named them Fred and Ethel because they are my favorite TV couple. I will check in to having them looked at and the boy neutered for sure. I just bought "Wizard of OZ" fleece to make them fleece tunnels. We are picking up a new cage tomorrow which is one of those big ones on wheels and we just got a big wire cage tonight. We are looking into building some structures for it too. I have some birds and other animals that have come out of bad places and building them new stuff too. Thanks for the info.

 

[Rickman]

Chins don't "mate for life", or anything like that - they do enjoy anothers company, however! For the safety of all, do an intro between the two males after seperating the female, and try to keep her in another room. If she does go into heat, two males will sometimes fight to the death for the right! Better safe than sorry!
You can read some real horror stories in the breeding section, from experienced breeders![and new ones too, or people who unknowingly bought pregnant chins!]

 

[VolunteerChin22]

I would seperate them now. If you leave them together you are putting yourself in the role of breeder regardless if they have had kits in the past or not. Sometimes we tend to humanize chins and give them feelings that we have but they will really be fine apart. Good luck to you!

 

[Parkerspetchins]

You should be responsible and separate the chins until the male has been fixed and until it is time to reintroduce the chins. You have no idea what type of genes you would be introducing into the collective chinchilla gene pool. Responsible breeders are working very hard to eliminate malocclusion and other genetic illnesses from the pool but people who just want cute kits without regard to the chinchilla's genetic history are working against them. They should be separated now since at any moment the female could get pregnant or potentially already is.

 

[apangburn]

false alarm

I wanted to double check to see if the sexes were because I had someone give me all male gerbils and they have babies. I checked the internet and got some pics and compared, they look like two boys. woo hoo! So that means i have 3 boys. Got to come with new name instead of Ethel. lol!

 

[VolunteerChin22]

That's good news! chins get missexed all the time so I am not surprised! How about Ethan? Sounds a bit like Ethel...

 

[Rickman]

How about instead of Ethel, "Ricky"!! [don't know where that came from, haha]

 

[apangburn]

Name

We thought about Ricky. They never had names before. Ricky it is. As soon as I find my adapter I will upload some pics.