Hello all, New here from Ohio!

[jrosler04]

Hello everyone, I am Jess.

I live in Southern Ohio, and do animal rescue. Within the past 2 months, we had 2 trio's of chinchillas surrendered to our rescue. I had been considering adopting a pair (same sex) to add to my zoo of critters, so it worked out perfectly that these babies needed a good home!

I have several animals here, Great Danes (4 that belong to my family)- Mystery, Montana, Shelby, & Remington, I have a papillon-Jack, we have other dogs as well, we have 3 cats,  a guinea pig, a scarlet macaw, 2 horses, a red eared slider (turtle), and the chickens & a turkey..and I think that's it!! lol

The chinchillas consist of (trio #1..who were ALL living together prior to coming to us) :

Luna-Black Velvet Female
Cinnamon- Black Velvet Female
Charlie-Black Velvet Male

and trio # 2 (also all living together before coming here)
Gizmo-Medium Ebony Male-Son of Bonnie & Clyde
Clyde-Dark Ebony Male
Bonnie-Standard Grey Female
AND since coming here, Bonnie has given birth to a pair of kits. I THINK they are both males..and not sure on the color yet.

I will post pics later...

[chinclub]

Hi Jess,
Welcome to the forums!!  Wow it does sound like you have a zoo. You are in good company.  We too have a ton of animals on our farm as well.

I'm a little concerned about the trios you got.  If the Black Velvet male is intact there is a lethal factor there.  Black Velvets can't be bred to each other.  I'm not sure how much you remember from biology class in high school (I certainly didn't remember anything and had to take a crash course when I got into breeding!  LOL)  Anyway, in very simple terms the baby's get  genes from both parents.  If you bred a gray to black velvet that baby would have 50% chance for getting that Black Velvet gene which would make the baby that color.  Since it only gets the one gene from one parent it would be Heterozygous.  If it got the same color gene from both parents as in your two Black Velvets bred together it would be homozygous. This works in every color but Velvet.  Velvet can not exist in the Homozygous state so every baby created with both genes will die before it is born.   This comes to 25% of the babies created. The other babies will be 50% will be hetero black velvet and 25% will be gray.

The genetics are right for your second trio but you have 2 males living with a female.  2 problems there.  1st you have no idea which is the father and 2nd I can't figure out why those two males haven't killed each over over the female.  It will happen eventually.  Also, you can't breed family in chinchillas so Gizmo needs to leave mom ASAP.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news.  

If they were my chinchillas I would take them all out of breeding but if that isn't your choice I would separate the trios and turn them into pairs. Place the Velvet male with the standard female and the two Ebonies each with a velvet.  It wouldn't be my choice to breed Velvet to Ebony since the babies will only be smaller and poorer quality but its healthier than what you have going on now.

If you do decide to pair them you'll need to research introducing new chinchillas or start a new thread about it.  I feel like I have already written a book so I won't go into all of that here.

Anyway, again, welcome to the forums and message me anytime!  I look forward to getting to know you and your chinchillas.

[jrosler04]

Sorry, guess I didn't mention the most important fact.  They are ALL seperated from each other. With the exception of Clyde & Gizmo (Father & son)... That's one of the FIRST things I did when getting them home!

I know the 2 velvets make the lethal factor, I researched it and I REALLY hope for healthy babies, but I know that there is the danger of a lethal now.

But yeah, my room is insane right now, 5 cages set up for the chinchillas, 1 for the guinea pig, and 1 for the turtle!! (well an aquarium for it)

[Hoppinchins]

Welcome to the Forum. You sure must love animals! They must keep you busy. I thought I had alot, 2 chinchillas, recently 2 robo hamsters and a kitty. I live in Cincinnati, Ohio!

[jrosler04]

OH yeah, I definately love animals. Have to, or else I wouldn't dedicate my life to rescue.

we do have our rescue on petfinder.com, but we deal with mostly dogs..

[Debbie.nl.ca]

Nice to meet you.

[jrosler04]

Thanks for the welcome everyone!

I posted an album with photos of my chinnies.. 

[Debbie.nl.ca]

Awww some sweet 
love the pics