chinFAQs1

Chinchilla FAQs

CHIN owner had female Xrayed - vet tell them to expect 4-5 babies!!!
My advice follows:

First, keep her diet really simple,,, no treats right now, no extras, just pellets and hay.... timothy is best, alfalfa is good after the babies arrive.
Take the dust out before the litter comes, and no baths for 7-10 days after...
Bed down the cage as well as you can, but you may have to spot clean it after the litter comes/
Babies are often born mid morning to noon,.... you can give her short baths until they babies arrive, but very minimal. ... with that many in her, you should see some major changes in the belly (sides will start to bulge, look almost pointed), about 24 hrs before she pops.
Take the perches out as soon as the babies get here, you want her on the floor with those kits all the time.... chews that are good for mom are fine for the babies, but I bet they wont care for the first week, at least..
Keep dad very close, do it now.... , as close as they can be and still in separate cages, this keeps them bonded and him handy for baby sitting, (more on this later).
Have yogurt on hand.... berry flavor is best (chin love it) and must have ACTIVE yogurt cultures.... Dannon and A&E brands are good.... get some unsweetened apple juice or cranberry juice.... NO SUGAR ADDED, natural is best.
Make sure you have extra water bottles and eye droppers for hand feeding.
Kitten milk replacer is OK, unless your vet suggest something else,... That is if you vet is a good exotic vet.... some are just “cat & dog” vets, but we do with what we have. Do not use puppy milk replacer, this causes lots of gas.
I have always used yogurt cut with a bit of whole cows milk and it was fine..... goat milk would be better but I had no access to that. ...
You may want to get a good food scale, that weighs in at least 5 gram segments. I got one years ago, (about $50, keep it well, and stored away from dust and it should last a long time) and it works great.... not exact weight on the little buggers, but you can tell if the are gaining or losing. Keep a chart going for each. Weigh once a day at that same time.... steady of a slight gain is best

After the babies arrive, try to leave her undisturbed as much as possible, but you have to check her to make sure there is no hemorrage or other problems, and that day, check over the entire litter, and a quick check once a day for the first week. Make sure bellies are full - or that they are seeming to feed. Be prepared to hand feed.
After the litter is here offer mom a water bottle with half water and half juice, I mentioned before. Make sure she knows its there, but also leave her regular water in place... she has a choice this way... Leave the juice bottle on the cage for up to 8 hrs then remove, dump it and clean the bottle.... wait 3-4 hrs and put a fresh bottle on,,, .this encourages her to drink more fluids, thus making more milk....you should get plumper babies!!! Another trick is to try giving her ½ tab of berry flavored Rolaids... this pop of calcium will also help bring down her milk.... you may want to keep a cuttle bone (like you use for birds) in her cage for the extra calcium and trace minerals.
Give her all the hay and hay cubes she wants, at this point alfalfa will provide extra protein she needs, if you have that. For other treats, you can offer cherrios or shredded wheat cereal, plain... but not too much else... she will be getting plenty of stuff to eat... ONLY if her poops get small and compact, then offer raisins, but other wise don’t give those right now... empty calories she will not need and just fills of the hunger, when she needs to be eating for those babies.
Now, if you are lucky, you will have all strong healthy babies and no problems... but lets assume that is not the case. The strong will dominate mom and the weak will get less and less. Take the strong ones away to another cage. This is were dad could come in, if his cage is baby proof.
Chins are great dads, and once introduced, they can care for the stronger babies for a few hours while mom has the runts. With a litter of 4-5, I would rotate them several times a day to make sure they are all getting some of moms milk, and start this the first day. If nothing else, put the ousted babies in a small plastic critter keeper with a lid, and just keep the warm for a few hours.
While the strong are away, leave the small to nurse and get moms full attention. After the runts are filled up on mom milk, then try to offer them some “formula”/// this is the berry flavor yogurt (with active cultures) and just enough milk to make it a thick liquid. DO NOT try to force this in the little ones mouths, or throats. You can easily aspirate them (let them inhale fluids) and then the are gonna die for sure.. I used glass eye droppers, with an angled tip, but work with what you can find. ..... Place the food on their lips, and let them taste it... this will take a while to get started, but do it with all of them just a bit, to get the idea going and start to suck it on their own. As time goes on, you can even get them to drink from a dish, but at first it is very important just to get them all eating and every one having a fat full belly. I had to do this ever 2-3 hours at first, and even got up in the night. No need to warm it, room temp or just below is fine. (The heat would kill the cultures any way) Offer some of the mix to mom too, and yogurt to all the chins! It is very good for their gut and keeps them healthy, and pooping.
Now, if you are real luck, mom will do the part of cleaning bottoms and making them pee and poop, but if not, you need to use a cotton ball or wad of tissue to stimulate that.... The first female I had to do this for was first litter, a BV, and I thought she was mature enough, but just did not have the milk to get the babies growing, after the 2nf or 3rd day, I started hand feeding, but she still took great care of them, and kept them clean and warm. Nicks, the BV, would smack your hands every time you reached for her babies, but that was also a family trait in the line..... she had litters after that, and never had a problem. But those two babies were 2 of the friendliest I ever raised, and that has been hundreds of baby chins.
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"I just adopted 2 chins, and now I have a baby! Male is attaching female!!"
I dont think the male was attacking the mom, he was re-breeding her. They do this about 1-4 hrs after the babies are born, or up to 4 days,,,, but my males have never waited that long!
While babies may get in the way during the re-breed period, and somes get hurt or killed, other then that chin males are very good daddies.
Keep mom well fed, check the babies tummy that he is getting enough to eat, dont give mom treats, but plenty of hay and pellets, fresh water. You have to have a cage with wire spacing 1/2 wide, no bigger, (2'x1/2 is fine) but babies could get out of 1"x1" spaces!
Since babies are born fully furred and eyes open, they are a lot of fun, and while you can pick him up to check his belly, best to leave him alone and do not handle much the first 7-10 days.... AND no dust baths for mom in this time either. When that time is up, let her teach baby how to do it.
Pet store employees are rarely knowledgeable about chins, but you might get lucky IF you find one. Often these folks talk about things they have little knowledge of, including chins.