| Breeding 101 for Breeders |
You MUST always breed to improve what you have, for the future of all chinchillas!
Keep your colors true, this is imperative, or you will end up with a conglomeration of
bland off colors and no idea of what will pop out next. At this time, there are only 7
accepted "true" colors.
The health, genetics, size and age of a chinchilla has to be considered when breeding
... any one of these four being wrong can produce a weaker chinchilla and the more it
is done, the worse it is for all chinchillas. Not to mention putting the mother & the
kits' lives in danger. If you do not consider all of this, your are being totally
irresponsible as a breeder.
If you do not known the genetics, you are in trouble to start with. Not only do you
not know the colors that may be produced (because they are not always obvious), you
do not know if they are carrying genes for a heart murmur, malocclusion, diabetes,
seizures, etc. (These traits are not 'obvious' either.)
If you put a standard gray together with a white mosaic and they deliver a perfect
black velvet kit, you have just found out that one of the parents had black velvet in it's
background. This hurts nothing and was a pleasant surprise ... BUT ... if the kits are
born with a bad heart ... you are fairly sure somewhere it it's background, there is a
history of heart trouble and you have just produced your own heart ache (or someone
else's if you sell this chin).
Allot of new breeders have no idea of the seriousness of proper breeding and the
consequences of improper breeding. Many will use the excuse "but this is just one
pair" ... well, the "just one pair" can produce a whole line of chinchillas with problems
that will cause even the best to tumble down. Example: You put a Grand Champion
with a chinchilla with medical problems in their background. What will you produce?
Many kits that have a "Grand Champion" in their background, but are ticking time
bombs because they, and their kits, also have a bad medical history. You have just
destroyed all the work the breeder did to develop this Grand Champion and wasted
the money you spent for it.
It is our responsibility, as breeders, to keep up with the kits that leave us and to teach
those that get the kits from us proper care and breeding, if they choose to breed.
The second half of our responsibility/reason in keeping up with the chins, is to know
IF one develops a genetically rooted medical problem, you can remove the parents
from breeding (if it happens more than once). A responsible breeder does not
continue to breed a chinchilla with a known bad medical background.
When you breed, if you are in doubt of the color background, OR if both parents
were mutation colors (anything other than gray), play it safe and breed it to a good
blocky, large standard gray, the original color of all chinchillas, and the one that
usually has the strongest genes.
It is not just putting the correct colors together, or even knowing the health
background of your chinchillas that makes a good breeder. Both of which are a must
and very important in breeding!
You also need to know about the fur quality (length, fullness, guard hairs, veiling and
hue as well as color). Have an understanding of the bone structure/build of a
chinchilla and how it is important.
You need to understand about the re-productive parts of the female. Did you know
she has more than one uterus? And that she can get pregnant in both at the same
time or different times? That she has two completely different sets of mammary
glans to nurse her kits with?
When you speak of a female being big enough to put into breeding/deliver kits ...
What are you referring to? You should be referring to two different things ... (1) her
actual weight {minimum of 500 grams} and (2) the birth canal opening. Do you know
how to test for this?
Do you know the sign that shows there has been a mating between the male and
female? The gestation period? Do you know the different signs of being close to
delivery if you do not know the exact date she got pregnant? Weight gain, teat
changes, food and water consumption, actual labor and the different stages of it?
Should the male be left with the mom during and after delivery?
Do you know the danger signs before and/or after labor starts? How long do you
safely wait for kits to start being delivered before calling the vet?
What do you do if one is breach? If momma is to exhausted to clean the kit? If she
delivers them to quickly? If one is not breathing, how can you help it?
How old is a male kit when he has the capability to successfully impregnate a female?
Would you believe 10 weeks old? If you said yes, you are correct. At what age
should you put a male into breeding?
At what age does a female have the capability to become pregnant? At 3 1/2 months
of age, but not safely.
If you do not know the answer to every one of these questions, you are putting your
chin's lives in danger and the lives of those who you allowed to adopt your little ones
for breeding purpose, because it is you they will look to first, if they can not get a vet.
If you don't care about the future chinchillas, you best think of the name that will
follow them ... it will be your name ... not as the breeder of "one of" the parents, but
as in "this kit comes from the _____ line of chinchillas." If you do not have a good
name in the chinchilla community, you can hang it up!
Our responsibility does NOT stop when someone leaves with their new chin, or even
when we stop breeding ourselves ... it stops when our last chinchilla takes it's last
breath. This is a life-time commitment.
Keep your colors true, this is imperative, or you will end up with a conglomeration of
bland off colors and no idea of what will pop out next. At this time, there are only 7
accepted "true" colors.
The health, genetics, size and age of a chinchilla has to be considered when breeding
... any one of these four being wrong can produce a weaker chinchilla and the more it
is done, the worse it is for all chinchillas. Not to mention putting the mother & the
kits' lives in danger. If you do not consider all of this, your are being totally
irresponsible as a breeder.
If you do not known the genetics, you are in trouble to start with. Not only do you
not know the colors that may be produced (because they are not always obvious), you
do not know if they are carrying genes for a heart murmur, malocclusion, diabetes,
seizures, etc. (These traits are not 'obvious' either.)
If you put a standard gray together with a white mosaic and they deliver a perfect
black velvet kit, you have just found out that one of the parents had black velvet in it's
background. This hurts nothing and was a pleasant surprise ... BUT ... if the kits are
born with a bad heart ... you are fairly sure somewhere it it's background, there is a
history of heart trouble and you have just produced your own heart ache (or someone
else's if you sell this chin).
Allot of new breeders have no idea of the seriousness of proper breeding and the
consequences of improper breeding. Many will use the excuse "but this is just one
pair" ... well, the "just one pair" can produce a whole line of chinchillas with problems
that will cause even the best to tumble down. Example: You put a Grand Champion
with a chinchilla with medical problems in their background. What will you produce?
Many kits that have a "Grand Champion" in their background, but are ticking time
bombs because they, and their kits, also have a bad medical history. You have just
destroyed all the work the breeder did to develop this Grand Champion and wasted
the money you spent for it.
It is our responsibility, as breeders, to keep up with the kits that leave us and to teach
those that get the kits from us proper care and breeding, if they choose to breed.
The second half of our responsibility/reason in keeping up with the chins, is to know
IF one develops a genetically rooted medical problem, you can remove the parents
from breeding (if it happens more than once). A responsible breeder does not
continue to breed a chinchilla with a known bad medical background.
When you breed, if you are in doubt of the color background, OR if both parents
were mutation colors (anything other than gray), play it safe and breed it to a good
blocky, large standard gray, the original color of all chinchillas, and the one that
usually has the strongest genes.
It is not just putting the correct colors together, or even knowing the health
background of your chinchillas that makes a good breeder. Both of which are a must
and very important in breeding!
You also need to know about the fur quality (length, fullness, guard hairs, veiling and
hue as well as color). Have an understanding of the bone structure/build of a
chinchilla and how it is important.
You need to understand about the re-productive parts of the female. Did you know
she has more than one uterus? And that she can get pregnant in both at the same
time or different times? That she has two completely different sets of mammary
glans to nurse her kits with?
When you speak of a female being big enough to put into breeding/deliver kits ...
What are you referring to? You should be referring to two different things ... (1) her
actual weight {minimum of 500 grams} and (2) the birth canal opening. Do you know
how to test for this?
Do you know the sign that shows there has been a mating between the male and
female? The gestation period? Do you know the different signs of being close to
delivery if you do not know the exact date she got pregnant? Weight gain, teat
changes, food and water consumption, actual labor and the different stages of it?
Should the male be left with the mom during and after delivery?
Do you know the danger signs before and/or after labor starts? How long do you
safely wait for kits to start being delivered before calling the vet?
What do you do if one is breach? If momma is to exhausted to clean the kit? If she
delivers them to quickly? If one is not breathing, how can you help it?
How old is a male kit when he has the capability to successfully impregnate a female?
Would you believe 10 weeks old? If you said yes, you are correct. At what age
should you put a male into breeding?
At what age does a female have the capability to become pregnant? At 3 1/2 months
of age, but not safely.
If you do not know the answer to every one of these questions, you are putting your
chin's lives in danger and the lives of those who you allowed to adopt your little ones
for breeding purpose, because it is you they will look to first, if they can not get a vet.
If you don't care about the future chinchillas, you best think of the name that will
follow them ... it will be your name ... not as the breeder of "one of" the parents, but
as in "this kit comes from the _____ line of chinchillas." If you do not have a good
name in the chinchilla community, you can hang it up!
Our responsibility does NOT stop when someone leaves with their new chin, or even
when we stop breeding ourselves ... it stops when our last chinchilla takes it's last
breath. This is a life-time commitment.
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