breeding the right way

[annvole]

Chinchillas in the wild live in one of the most harsh locations to live in on Earth so when I found out how fragile baby chinchillas are, I knew they must be seriously inbred across the board for domesticated ones. This is not too surprising considering they were originally brought out of South America for fur farms by people only interested in capitalizing on the market price jump as wild ones disappeared. I think chinchillas make for wonderful pets and would like to breed chinchillas for that purpose but would prefer to do the species a favor by creating the best chinchillas genetically possible. I read lots of books on breeding chinchillas and all of them fail to advise on how to get the best breeding stock from a genetic stand-point. I am trying some breeding right now but just to see the problems so I can address them before getting serious with this. I have made sure the male is from 8000 miles from the opposite direction as the source of the females. I have had 9 babies so far and only 2 have reached adult which is a pathetically poor success rate. Other then twins with some eye problems, all the ones who died were by completely different problems. The two who grew successfully both had a litter mate who was one of the 7 who died. Two of those 7 were found dead last night. Even though this effort is just to find the problems, I now have 6 unique problems and a determination that the only real solution is to get good stock somehow that are genetically more healthy then what I find in pet stores. In the past when breeding gerbils, I was about 99% successful (only about 1 in 100 born would not become healty adults) and similar for about 10 species of mouse-sized rodent species. Degus are about 93% successful with most of the losses being hairless still-borns born with healthy littermates. This post is just to ask if anyone has ideas beyond making sure the parents are not related for improving genetics.

[amie]

Hey

I'm not pro-breeding myself, but the advice I'd always give someone who was thinking of breeding would be to always source your animals for a responsible breeder who can tell you about their genetic lines. I'd source males and females from the SAME breeder, only from different parents. The breeder can then ensure that the two are NOT related in any way. The trouble here is finding a good, honest breeder.

When you buy animals from pet shops, they are most likely inbred and bred from animals who may have health problems somewhere down the line. Responsible breeders work hard to try to eliminate genetic problems and only breed from the healthiest animals with the best temperament. When you have an animal from a breeder, make sure they are breeding on a small scale and are a non profit breeder and they're doing it for the right reasons, rather than to pump out as many babies as they can in order to sell them on. (BTW, non profit breeders still charge for their animals and may sell them as 'pet only', which means you're not allowed to breed from them. The money they make from selling the babies, goes straight back into the care of their current animals or future babies).

It's not just about making sure the male and female are from opposite ends of the world to make sure they're not related, even if not related to each other, one or both of them could still be badly bred (say from an unhealthy mother or father) and carry problems. That's why you need two unrelated, well bred animals.

The more litters the female is allowed to have, the more problems are likely to arise with her and the babies. An ideal amount of litters per female is 1, perhaps 2 if you feel she's OK, but no more than that.

Providing a large, stimulating home creates good mental health and reflects in physical health.

Like I said, I don't really agree with the need for the breeding, but I hope that if you do this, you can further improve the health of your pets.

[annvole]

Thank you for your reply. I should clarify that my intentions are not to make money selling chinchillas. I want to try training methods for animal actors and chinchillas have amazing physical abilities. Selling a few will just help offset the costs of raising them in the best way. I was looking for a good chinchilla forum and was recommended to check this one out... already been here! I mostly wanted to ask the same question and share the news of a new pair of healthy babies who are still healthy after 4 days. I have had healthy babies show up dead and uninjured after a few weeks of life so I still have not discovered all the possible lethal dangers for these babies (unless it is genetic).