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[GrayRodent]

I recommend staying with kitten milk because it has proven to be a good supplement and from what I understand is the universally recommended milk supplement for chinchilla kits.

I don't know about goats milk but I suspect it won't have a high enough nutritional content. If anyone has used it before please post.

What exactly is your complaint against the breeder iSpi? I may have missed something. What is unfair to you?

[iSpi]

Okay, I'll use the kitten supplement. Also, after sitting next to their cage and looking for a minute, I saw that the kit had been drinking water from the bottle right after the mom goes for some. So that's why the kit feels full at times I'm pretty sure. Should I do something about that or just leave the bottle where it is?

And that's the thing. The guy who I bought the chinchilla off of was not a breeder, and let this chinchilla in the same cage as a standard grey male from PetSmart multiple times. She is close or is (the previous owner didn't keep track) 2 years old and this is her 4th litter from the same male. I didn't know anything about breeding, but after looking things up I saw that this can be extremely stressful with back to back pregnancies and is unhealthy for the mom. Pregnancy for any animal one after the other is probably very tiring, so as happy as I am to be taking care of this kit, I don't appreciate that he let these animals together knowing that they will mate (maybe he thought they wouldn't, I will never know) and told me they had been separated for 4 months prior to me getting the mom (obviously not true now that I have a kit). I know breeding can be risky when you don't know the backgrounds of the mom or the father, so I'm fortunate I didn't see a dead kit when I walked in on the day she was born. As said before, it's just a bit upsetting to me.

[GrayRodent]

Yeah, that's no good for sure that anyone would breed that way. There is nothing as good as getting your chinchilla from a reputable breeder. People like that are bad for the pet industry. Their kits are much more likely to have hereditary disease that may manifest later in life, and they will be smaller, and of lower quality than a pet bred from high quality stock.

Back to back pregnancy is unhealthy for the mom and is likely to result in calcium deficiency in the mother and developing kits which can result in bone deformity.

I do recommend that your kit have constant access to water. As you supplement with milk it will drink less water and self-regulate. Kits are not known for overdosing on water but you must measure the milk.

[iSpi]

It was bad on my part to not contact a breeder and just looking from random people online for a friend for my other chinchilla. I guess I just had to learn it the hard way. I've heard bad things from the people who have used the website, but didn't think a situation like this would happen to me. Now I know first hand!

Anyway, is there a chance that there is a way to find exactly how much milk to give the kit exactly through a website or even just calling the vet, or would it be best to actually go to the vet again?

[GrayRodent]

I recommend calling your vet and expressing your concerns and see if your vet wants to make another appointment. I'm not sure if there is really much they can do at this point.
If your friend has actually done it successfully then just do what she did and do not wait.
If you get your information from the internet make sure it seems reasonable. I'm a bit wary of things I find out there which is why I recommend getting an opinion from someone who knows.

I hope you have been feeding your kit something to this point. I am very concerned about malnourishment. With chinchillas sometimes a day can mean the difference between life and death. Has it gained any weight at all now?

[iSpi]

The kit feels relatively full every time I go to feed her, so I don't know if I should feed her a lot. I think she is drinking a lot of water from the bottle.
She tries to nurse from the mom. I don't know if she would do this if nothing was coming out.
I've been giving her some of the milk supplement, but I don't know exactly how to measure because she already feels pretty full when I give her the supplement every 3 1/2 to 4 hours.
She has not gained weight (87 still), but is still active and healthy looking like before. I think there is a lack of calcium. I checked the teeth of the baby and although they aren't white, they are more white then they are yellow. They don't even seem to have much orange to them, which I know is a good sign of a healthy chinchilla. I'm starting to give only alfalfa hay now. It was more timothy, then went to even amount, then to more alfalfa, and now I'm going to no timothy.

[GrayRodent]

I'm out of ideas. Hopefully someone with experience will post soon. Hopefully you'll see an upwards trend soon.

[Lori Ramsey Earle]

I have had good luck with the kittens milk- powdered is best, as the liquid version is good for a limited time once you open it. Make sure it's lukewarm, and keep feeding it like you are, a drop at a time so it won't get aspirated into the kit's lungs. I don't think there are any guidelines in terms of amount to feed a kit - just give her as much as she'll take, and never force feed. It sounds like you're doing a good job with this already! Hopefully, you'll see some weight gain soon. I think that the yellow/orange color of a chin's teeth develop over a period of time, but I can't find any reference to it in any of my books right now. I don't think it's a sign of calcium deficiency in a kit...Alfalfa's richer than timmy hay, and probobaly a better choice for now for mom and kit. Don't beat yourself up over not being aware of buying from an established breeder. It's a tough lesson that a lot of us have had to learn, unfortunately, but you've figured this out quicker than most. The important lesson is not to breed a chin when you don't know their genetic history. You could end of with a ton of problems, most notably malocclusion issues. Take it from one who's been there! Good luck and I hope all will be well.

[Lori Ramsey Earle]

Regarding the color of the kit's teeth - this info is taken from the Chincare website - kits are born with white teeth. The enamel darkens during the weaning period of 8-10 weeks. By a couple of months of age, their tooth color should be a dark orange, though some kits will be slower to develop this orange color.(I've paraphrased this quickly, as I'm in a hurry.)This is a good site, you might want to take a look at it. You can never have too many info sources on chins!

[iSpi]

Thank you GrayRodent for all your help. I know I was probably asking a lot of questions that were confusing, but I'm glad you were replying to all of my comments!! If no one had replied I honestly would be pretty lost and confused. I really do appreciate everything you contributed.

As for Lori, thank you for chiming in. I contacted a somewhat local breeder and she said to grind an equal amount of powdered goat milk, chinchilla pellets, and baby oatmeal and place it in the cage. I'll supplement milk as well with the kitten powder I have now, but maybe not as often as I have been giving her. I'll look into the chincare website. I have visited it a few times, but I was going between a bunch of different websites.

The kit was 87 for the past 2 days, and I just weighed her at 88. I believe their weights can move around a little, just as long as they don't drop. I'll continue to do what I can. I appreciate all the help I've received!!!

[GrayRodent]

No prob. I hope someday I'll be able to experience breeding first hand. Thank you Lori for your posts they are always very helpful. You are a good resource.

[Lori Ramsey Earle]

If the kit doesn't like the goat milk/pellet/oat mix, you can experiment around a bit. I had a fair amount of dental problems with my chins over the years, and  used a couple of different formulas that they liked. One was oats/alfalfa leaf/nutritional shake mix ground up in a coffee grinder and diluted with enough water to make it "lappable"(if that's a word). The shake mix I used was Nature's Way Spiru-tein vanilla. Proportions were like 1/4 cup oats, 1/4 cup hay leaves, 1 tsp  shake mix.
The other mix was equal amounts of oats, pellets(ground up in the coffee grinder)and raspberry yogurt. This was more perishable and I never left it in the cage for more than a few hours.

[iSpi]

It seems like they touched the mix, but I'm not sure on how much or if they even ate any. Is it okay if I leave the mix in there and feed some supplement to her? Also, I know I've asked this earlier in the topic, but she does seem to be drinking a lot of water which makes her feel full and probably makes her not want to eat a lot of anything else? Should I move it higher so only the mom can reach it? I just don't want to force the supplement on her if she is already full.

[Lori Ramsey Earle]

I think that all chins should have access to water at all times. I'm not comfortable with the baby not being able to get to the water bottle. You can always bring her out of the cage and see if she'll take any of the kitten milk or whatever liquid chow mix you have chosen to make. If she won't take it, don't force feed. You could try supplementing her at different times of the day, and hopefully find a time of day she's hungrier. I've never had a kit that seemed to drink too much, so I really don't have any good feedback on that for you...

[iSpi]

Alright. I feel at ease now. The kit was 88 yesterday and is now 91!! I was very excited and happy to finally see some improvement!! Of course I'll still be willing to read anymore information or tips about care for the mom and kit. The mom seems a lot more active now as well. Since I've had her, I've never seen her act like this. She has always been friendly, but she seems more like... a chinchilla!!