Ah, I guess now it's my turn to be a *****.
Ahem <warms up her fingers>
Let me first start by saying how excited I am to know that you are taking the tactful and incredibly nice advice of people who have no clue about breeding chinchillas. I am
thrilled that you value Diva Chins advice over people who have actually bred chinchillas and actually know what they are talking about. I find that very comforting. Or, perhaps you could take the advice of someone who breeds rabbits and says it's your business -- do whatever you want. Sorry, I have to disagree with that. I am sure that wasn't exactly what she meant, but that's the way you took it, and baby you ran with it.
Now, let me share a few things with you. First, judging by the pictures you posted, your cage is not baby safe. Not just with the bar spacing, but also with the junk in them and the levels. Your cage set up is fabulous for pet chins, but not for breeding. I am not on par with ranchers as far as numbers for breeding, but I do alright. I had 150 kits last year, hand fed plenty, rotated plenty, helped deliver several that were stuck in their mom's, turned breech babies, picked up severed heads and limbs, took out males that the mom had killed, took out females that the male had beat near to death. Does that make ME qualified to answer your rude, immature, and obnoxious comments?
Oh, and before I continue, call one more person a nut job, call one more person ANYTHING and you'll find yourself banned. When you do need the help of the actual breeders on this forum because something went horribly wrong, you can instead turn to your vets who I am sure have been witness to countless deliveries, and good luck with that. So, quickly, here's some of your own advice that you might want to consider before you alienate every single person who might even consider holding your hand through your irresponsible breeding:
:shutup:
I actually laughed out loud when you tried to play the "nobody around here breeds chins" card. Gimme a break. You can't walk out your front door that you don't trip over backyard "breaders" such as yourself, who care nothing for chinchillas as a whole, only having them because they are cute and fuzzy and they are "filling a gap" in the sorely lacking chinchilla community in their area. Let me clue you in. If you have thousands of people lining up at your door to buy your chinchillas, point them in the direction of petfinder.org. There are pleeeenty of chinchillas to fill that gap for you and you won't even have to listen to anybody complain about your crappy breeding practices or your incredibly selfish reasons for doing it. (I also have to ask - if there are no breeders anywhere in Illinois, and your chins didn't come from a pet shop, where is the "breeder" that you got yours from and that the friend got hers from?)
Brandon said something that was close to what I was going to say, and let me quote Jeff Shuboye on this one, "Just because it has a penis and a vagina, doesn't mean it should be bred." You should read that several times, just to be sure you understand what it means, because it's very sage advice. (Never thought I'd say that, did ya Jefe. ha!)
And yes, you DID open the door to this discussion by saying so off-handedly -
I like the bar spacing just fine, so if my chins have any babies I dont have to worry about them escaping.
There ya go - there it is in your own words. And that is what set people off about both your cage and your subsequent posts regarding your careless attitude towards breeding.
Okay, that's what I say to someone like yourself with an obvious chip on your shoulder. This is what I would have said had you acted like an adult:
Great cage! Love all the nifty stuff in it, but I wouldn't consider using it as is for breeding. The bar spacing should be no more than 1/2 x 1" in length. You'd be amazed what a kit can squeeze out of, especially a small kit in the 30 gm range. They are pretty much about the size of your thumb.
You should consider attending a few shows or finding a mentor nearby (or even over the internet is better than nothing) who can help you with evaluating your animals to see if they should even be considered for breeding. An experienced individual can also measure the pelvic opening to be sure that your female is safe to deliver kits. While attending shows, even if you don't show your own chins, you can pick up huge amounts of knowledge while in attendance. While there, I'm sure you can find one of the experienced ranchers and have them take a look at your chins and evaluate them. Some shows even let you assist in the judging! Then you get a real, firsthand knowledge of what the judges are talking about in qualities to look for in breeding animals.
Also, take the time to read through the breeding and baby section and the FAQ's. If I had a dime for every new breeder who came on and said "I know everything there is to know about breeding" I'd be a wealthy woman. You will be surprised at all you
don't know about breeding chinchillas and what can happen. I am absolutely not against a person starting up a breeding program with their chins, I'm always just very careful to show them what can happen, to be sure that they realize the danger they could very well be putting their female in. Lots of people don't think about that before beeding a beloved pet.
How's that work for you girls? You got the nasty and the tactful. Had the OP even remotely acted like the age she posted in her profile, that is more like what she would have gotten as a response, instead of the escalating aggravated answers she ended up with.
Now, that said, let's all go play nice in the sandbox. I've had a crappy week, having fallen and torn the crap out of my ankle and knee, having to put a my wonderful dog Ginger to sleep yesterday, and now running 102 temperature and hacking up a lung. I'm not in the mood to babysit the stupidity in this thread any longer.
