Fertility in chinchillas

[Henriette]

Hey out there.
A question from Denmark

Does anyone know, if the fertility of the chinchillas decline/diminishes or stop all together with age??

I have a 15 year old female and a 12 year old male -both intact- and I would love for them to be roommates, but don´t want them to mate and get babies...

And even though the male is in perfect condition, I´m not too keen on having him neutered...

[moletteuk]

Hi Henriette, I honestly don't know the answer as I'm not familiar with chinchillas, but I can tell you that most male small pets remain fertile until the end of their lives.

[davx]

Hi,

as I know it doesn't stop as we know it by humans. But probably it would decrease with age or at least makes births more risky.
I'll try to find out more about this topic.

I have a 15 year old female and a 12 year old male -both intact- and I would love for them to be roommates, but don´t want them to mate and get babies...

Even without neutering one of them there is a certain risk, that they do not fit together and may fight... eventually a neutered young partner fits better, but this is hard to predict because chinchillas are very individual and finding good fitting groups needs time and good observation of the animals and of course also some luck.

[Henriette]

Thank you both for answering.

They are in seperate cages now, but right next to each other and they have never argued or anything.

So I think that they might be able to get along but will not risk her getting pregnant.

She had two litters when she was 2 and 3 years old but not since, and I´m not looking to expand my chinchilla"herd" with any more than the 4 I have now...

[moletteuk]

If they continue to look like they might get on well, maybe it's worth trying closely supervised playtime together, see how that goes, and whether it's worth considering neutering.

[sle16]

If a female has bred before then she'll still be fertile. I read somewhere that older breeding females have more kits, but I don't know about males.