Chinchilla Community Forums
Breeders => General Breeder Chat => Topic started by: hope on October 26, 2006, 07:14:10 AM
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I am wondering what are the average size of your males which you use for breeding?
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We use ranch run style systems with one male to 3-6 females. For this reason we are very picky to get the best quality possible, however, I have found that in males bigger is not always better. We have had several males grow too big to fit through the jump hole so they become useless. I have found also that larger males tend to be lazy and won't breed as well. When I choose a male I look mainly for fur, color, and blockiness and then get really big girls to go with him.
Also, once a male goes into a breeding run he usually will lose some weight. Once they get up in the runs it can be hard to get your hands on then to weight them, but I'm guessing most of my males are in the high 700's low 800's. (grams)
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With the exception of one male, all of my males are at least 600 grams, if not larger. I have one male who has never gotten larger than 475 grams, but he is with a larger female and they throw beautiful, healthy kits.
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Our smallest male is in the low 700s. We agree with chinclub. When buying a male you should always look at conformation, veiling, color hue.
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I don't so much look at size as the quality. We've really cut back on our males, and have just about gotten where I'd like to be with the males we are actually using in breeding. One of the males we have isn't on the biggest side, but he's got very nice clear/blue color, good fur strength/density and very nice conformation, I've only had him on one female who has size (and other good qualities, just the biggest emphasis on the size for him), which is what he is lacking. We ust got their first litter, so we'll see how that pairing does.
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::silly::Male size for breeding depends on what you are aiming for in the kits.
If you do not want many kits nor frequent litters, get a big hefty male.
I've been told by some of the best old timers the smaller males seem to produce the most kits and more frequently (maybe he's more active and can move faster and get away from the female before she beats him up. :D)
If you breed in ranch runs, keep in mind, he will be affecting not just one mate and one litter at a time, but from 3 to 6 females and litters at a time ... not just one kit, but up to 20 kits per season ... get the highest quality you can get ... color, bone structure, fur quality, color and hue and put him with the largest highest complimentary mates you can.
Caution: DO NOT put a first time-breeding male with a long time breeding female, if she has been known to be rough on the males ... he will be a goner. If you have some good, easy-going females, start him there.
If you breed in pairs only ... try to breed to compliment each other. Get two of the best you can afford and find and make sure any fault that one has is not repeated in the other partner. (ei. If both have long noses, so will most or all of their kits ... you will be multiplying the odds of a bad trait. If one has a long nose and the other one doesn't, maybe you will get lucky and the kits will not have long noses. Just an example.)
::wave::
Jo Ann
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Thank you very much everyone :)
I have got the best males that I could get & was told I should not really breed from a male who would not get a first ribbon & have follwed that advice & they all come with 5 gen pedigrees & are from good lines.
My smallest male is 660g & the others are in the 700g range. The 660g male is very blue & thick through the neck & I have paired him to a bigger female who I think is not so blue. :)
Like you all say, I have been told the smaller males are the best to use as some of the bigger males are lazy.
I have been told to expect some smaller kits & some larger kits from this pairing.
I am also beginning to realise how each chins personality needs to be taken into consideration too as I recently had a male with a more dominant unproven female for 8 months & they did not mate but when I put the male with a different gentle natured female he mated with her straight away.
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I was told not to breed a male under 600 grams. ::shrug::
I have seen excellent, beautiful kits come from an ugly little ebony 500grams with a nice female.
I was told that if you want a show winning chin, you need to purchase the parents of the show winner, they are the ones who threw that kit, so they are they one with the good gene.
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I have several males that are between 500 and 600 grams. I also have a couple that are in the 700-800 gram range. All of my smaller breeding males have produced litters already, where as I have gotten nothing from my large males. My smallest male is actually my most prolific breeder and he weighed in this week at 507 grams. He is great in every sense except size, beautiful bone structure, a nice thick coat, and very nice coloring (at least from my understanding of how a chin should look. I'm certainly no expert ::shrug::). So far all of his kits have been of higher than average birth weight. But none are full grown yet, so we will see how it all turns out.
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I have never bred a male under 600.
So how big do the kits get Abby? Have you kept any of them.
I had a big female and a normal male give me this teeny tiny male. He's just a year old, white, and I doubt he'll ever see 600 grams. He's about 485 now.