Breeding Chinchillas

Re: Breeding Chinchillas

mariette asselbergs — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 23:48:41 GMT

Back to the OPs request for info.

I c an only tell you this anecdote: We had a young male chinchilla which at some point we thought was lonely and had a riht to express his natural behaviour. So when somebody locally put up her three females chinchilla's (a mother and two daughters) up for a ood home, we took them in.

It soon became clear that the ladies were not charmed by our young male. We tried in various ways, under supervision, but they did not like him. One night we left the cages of both the females and of our male open in the conservatory, thinking that they had enough space to keep out of each other's way if they so wanted, but it ended in tragedy, we found our original male chinchilla dead the next morning, murdered by the female lot.

It took us months to slowly start to like the new ones......

So it is not easy to breed chinchillas and it can easily lead to disasters!

Mariette

Re: Breeding Chinchillas

Michael Woodhouse — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 13:24:15 GMT

Diana - I'd say it depends what you want the dog to do. We have a Patterdale Terrier and she's just a pet. Kills a few rats and rabbits every year but doesn't do any work. She came free from a gamekeeper for not being savage enough! You could claim she was rescued I suppose.

We also have a 6 month old cocker spaniel. I want it to work - ie retrieve shot game and beat. We went to a lot of trouble finding one from steady working lines with excellent temperaments. How likely would I be to find that 'niche' in a pound?

I believe very strongly it is about responsible breeding. The same people buying working cocker puppies with good breeding are not the same people who are going to re-home a dog from a pound. If we'd not found the puppy when we did we were not going to pick up a Heinz 57 mongrel. Different groups of people are taking in these dogs - therefore breeding in this way does not contribute to the problem.

Re: Breeding Chinchillas

No Name — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 12:58:04 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]

[quote user="Marie Kubiak"]No. How's that working out for cats and dogs where neutering is generally seen as routine? Seems rescues remain full and it isn't hard to source a pedigree or designer pet...[/quote]

I'm not sure I agree. My understanding was pet ownership was falling and there are less dogs and cats than there used to be.

It's a bit like saying to a person "don't have a baby there's loads of children in care". If the person is responsible with the breeding, goes into it with their eyes open and has homes for the babies what's the problem? Personally I'd rather get a puppy from a good breeder and see the dam than get a heinz 57 mongrel from the pound.

[/quote]

Is the decrease in pet ownership of cats and dogs being replaced by more and more exotic pets perhaps? Just wondering, haven't got any figures for this but remember seeing quite a high number for exotics.

I heard that something like 10,000 dogs are euthanised in the UK in pounds every year? Certainly Liverpool Uni doesn't have a shortage of fresh cadavers of young, physically healthy dogs from the nearby rescues. A decrease in pet ownership doesn't necessarily equate to fewer homeless animals (anecdotally, some of my local rescues have outgrown their capacity, especially since the recession, and are looking for more money to expand). So long as thousands of animals are being euthanised because they can't find homes (and some of these are pedigree dogs not that there is anything wrong with mongrels), I personally think we don't need to actively encourage people to bring more animals into the world.

I have quite the opposite view in that I would rather have a rescue dog than buy from a breeder (my first dog was from a good breeder, and my second is a resuce)! Partly because it's rewarding and partly because I don't think I'd ever have the time to raise a puppy and would prefer a half trained adult dog. Just my opinion and I understand others will have a different views.

I don't think adopting a dog is the same as adopting a child in your analogy. I am not a parent but I imagine that giving birth and actually playing a part in 'creating' a child creates a greater connection than adopting. Most people want to adopt very young children, but the majority in care are older and may have social problems and will know you are not their 'real' parents. Whereas the only difference in getting a dog from a rescue vs breeder is where it comes from and you would probably grow to have a similar connection nonetheless...

Re: Breeding Chinchillas

Michael Woodhouse — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 15:31:41 GMT

I'm not sure I agree. My understanding was pet ownership was falling and there are less dogs and cats than there used to be.

Re: Breeding Chinchillas

Marie Kubiak — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 14:56:17 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]

Does anyone else worry that if the moment anyone asks our advice about breeding from anything we say an emphatic NO, that there will come a time when there are just not the animals available? All these new graduates and no animals to treat because they'll all be neutered and unable to breed.

If someone wants to breed, give them the info and encourage them if they are going into it with their eyes open.

(is there anything like with guinea pigs where its better to breed when young due to pelvic issues with chinchillas?)

[/quote]

No. How's that working out for cats and dogs where neutering is generally seen as routine? Seems rescues remain full and it isn't hard to source a pedigree or designer pet...

Ethically how can we encourage breeding in a situation where the animals' welfare is likely to be compromised?

Re: pelvic fusion, not an an issue in chinchillas, actually rarely an issue in GPs despite the widespread belief that they can't give birth if primigravid later in life.

Marie

Re: Breeding Chinchillas

Michael Woodhouse — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 14:25:55 GMT

If someone wants to breed, give them the info and encourage them if they are going into it with their eyes open.

(is there anything like with guinea pigs where its better to breed when young due to pelvic issues with chinchillas?)

Re: Breeding Chinchillas

Wren — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 09:12:21 GMT

[quote user="Catherine Hemingway"]

A client asked my advice today regarding breeding from her two female 3yr old chinchillas [/quote]

I know nothing about chinchillas either, but extrapolating from other species I'm fairly sure that one of them needs to be male!

(sorry, couldn't resist).

Re: Breeding Chinchillas

Catherine Hemingway — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 20:14:08 GMT

Thank you Marie. My gut instinct was 'don't do it' but didn't really have any experience/evidence to back it up!

Catherine

Re: Breeding Chinchillas

Marie Kubiak — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 18:48:45 GMT

The simple answer is don't!

Same as with cat, dogs and rabbits, there are too many chins in rescues for it to be sensible to bring more into the world. How are they going to rehome all the babies? What is the benefit in bringing new animals into the world that will struggle to be rehomed or take a home that could have been occupied by a rescue animal.
Hereditary dental disease is rife - it is recommended to screen the previous two generations for dental disease prior to considering an animal suitable to breed from. Most people don't have a clue as to their chins' parentage and likelihood of inherited problems.
They will need to consider what they do with the male and rabbit long-term as they shouldn't all be housed together,. It is also preferable to separate the females when pregnant/nursing as they can get very stressy and start to show aggression to each other. Occasionally one female will kill another's kits. Separation however means rebonding them in future when not breeding as solitary confinement is not fair long-term and this can be difficult, stressful and result in injury. More cages will also be needed for babies - there's no guarantee males will be tolerated by dad so separate facilities are needed.
Chins have very large, well developed babies, as a result dystocia is common - I have done more C-sections in chins than any other species despite there being few breeders around!

As you can probably tell from the above I'm not a fan of breeding! In most cases people are doing it because they think it will be easy, fun and the babies will be cute. Not good reasons for the animals and they invariably end up compromised.
Marie