Your breeding herd?

[Megan]

I started this topic on other forums at times....so here it is again:

With how the economy is, and most sales being down... Have you started to do anything different? Breed less? Split up pairrings? Or have you continued to breed as you did in the past/expand?

 

[Megan]

My personal herd.. I have more animals now then I ever did. However not everyone is in breeding. I do have my runs set up, but some just have the females running around and not collared with no male... Some have have a male, but 2 out of the 3 females are closed off. I've been given females a much longer break inbetween litters, and my herd is starting to get "older" so they themselves are breeding less. This is fine by me, and instead of replacing them I am just letting them go. If they produce me a nice litter once a year-- thats fine.

I just feel since many quality homes are just NOT there, and I do not wholesale that I shouldn't be breeding more then I can place. To insure that the animals "always have a home" until a home is found I need to keep my numbers down... so I can keep my kits until they find a decent home.

 

[Vyxxin]

We have downsized but not due to the economy. We have less and less time these days so we have downsized to the absolute cream of our herd...anything that was expendable we got rid of.

That said, time aside we would not downsize due to the economy...we are a pelting herd when necessary and there's usually a market there. If the pelt market falls through entirely I imagine my thoughts would change.

 

[Chingal]

MY herd is still small but we have actually started increasing our numbers , we do not sell many chinchillas anymore and the ones we do place are only here locally to pet homes we normally do not sell mixed sex pairs and it is working. I have actually got a local market for my chins here that I have never had before because I always shipped them out when I sold them and then the last couple years I have not sold any until this January. My original herd was down to 10 animals after the divorce and I have been using their kits to rebuild my herd and I am up to 30 but like you Megan I am not worried whether or not my girls have a litter or not. I just enjoy it when they do and I have not had any issues with finding suitable homes for the ones that do need ones. I hope eventually I will start selling more chinchillas out of the area but this year will be the first year I am even going to consider it because it has been nice to get to know the folks really well who get my babies and not have to ship.

 

[furrylovables]

I haven't had too many problems finding new owners for my chins. I have 8 babies now they will all weaned by April 15th. 6 have deposits on them. I am downsizing my herd because I don't need some of the proven males. I'm sticking to the mamas and the papas who have given me quality, heathly babies. I have been doing alot of specials with the supplies I sell. That's catching alot of potential owners. All of my chins come with a care pack: 1 lb food, 1 lb dust, alfalfa cubes, treats, woodchews and a business card and brouchre. Also I sell supplies that every new chin owner will want. Ceramic dust baths, food, dust, timothy hay, wood chew, houses, used and new cages and books on chins. I feel if you have more to offer than just a chinchilla baby or adult, you'll get more business in the future. I started off with just chinchillas and no supplies and as I grow, I think I'm headed in the right direction.

 

[MerrittChinchillas]

We have downsized some, not because of the economy though. We just don't want to take care of so many anymore, we are getting just a tad older. We have a grandson in with us now and he is taking up some slack. We have and always have had a pelting herd. We also sell breeding stock, so we do have an outlet for the animals born here. Right now the pelt market is down, but it always comes back and I expect it to again. We just replaced 5 males after the National show and won't cut back on any more breeders now. We put 6 new females in breeding and have more to do. I guess we really haven't cut back, have we? :thinking:

 

[arf2184]

The only economy related changes I've made here is trying to use less shavings while cleaning cages. The prices just keep going up, but that's the only thing I saw fit to cut back on without affecting the chins much. They don't care if I just pile shavings in the corners and it still absorbs what it's supposed to. Its probably better for our compost pile too (more poo, less shavings).

As for breeding chins, I've always been small and I still am. I haven't had as much interest in chins as I've had in the past, but then I haven't really been advertising much either.

 

[Brightstarchins]

I am always trying to reduce and I have not bought a new animal in a while. I also let my older chins be and do not replace them, even if they give me no more babies at all. What I am having a hard time with is letting my babies go, some of them I just had to keep, how am I going to improve my herd if I don`t keep any of the nice offspring?
So, needless to say, some of the empty cages are filling up again.

Claudia

 

[Chinniechantel]

We have stayed the same. I have stayed very steady with sales, even with the economy as it is. I have been taking in more rescues, but not to the point I need to cut down my herd size. I do get more inquiries that don't go anywhere, but that is just normal. More people are interested in rescues lately, but not because they are rescues, but because they are cheaper.

 

[starleomach]

I have been growing but I have not had any problems placing animals. I do however plan to pull males if I have any issues but there seems to be a resonably good market out here.

 

[mishalaa]

I am seriously considering switching to pairs instead of runs, and will probably begin implementing that over the next year. I have always been more concerned with quality rather than quantity, and if I keep getting the best kits out of one female, it doesn't make sense to me to have two other females with a male producing pet quality kits, just to fill a run up. I suspect breeding this way will cut back my production, not that I've really flooded the market so far anyway, but should also keep the relation of my herd down.

 

[aznmexaggie]

Number-wise, I am at the highest I've ever been. However, I have certain holes blocked off and I am allowing my females a longer time after littering before the male is allowed access to them again. I've done this partly due to the decreased interest in buyers and partly because if I keep going at the same rate, I will be getting short on cage space.

 

[Heather]

I havent sold any less or more than usual, I dont have many for sale too often , but when I do, it seems to be the same as always.

 

[Angel]

I seriously cut my breeding down. But it really wasn't due to the economy... More like, life got in the way, and wanting to rearange the whole herd/room. I started out leaving mom's shut off longer. That turned into evaluating every baby that was born and pulling males who weren't producing as well as I'd of liked... which turned into "Hey! Lets redo the layout of the chin room" so that split alot of breeders from there males..... I have less than 20 females in breeding.... Well more around 15 now as 3 just littered this week! And again, all this has been around "Life" too....

 

[Silverrose]

We don't have any more breeders than from a year ago, but we seem to have had a massive baby boom. So, now most of our females are not with a male, and probably won't be until after we show our current babies and then cull/sell whoever we need to. I haven't seen a terrible drop in sales though; there seems to always be people interested and inquiring about babies.