Chinchilla Community Forums
Breeders => Breeding 101 => Topic started by: Andriani on February 27, 2011, 12:10:26 PM
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1,5 month ago i saw "the mating plug" , i thing so , and i thought that brandy could be pregnant .
had not changed anything.
but today I made sure that she is pregnant.
For over a month has started lying on the side and eats a lot more than before. and today was lie down, very gently touched the belly and felt something moving.
has taken several grams lately and lying more than before.
could you tell me what i must do .
Sorry for the bad english but i'm greek ... :::grins::
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ok. deep breath :)
now, if you can feel things moving, she's probably about two weeks away or less. gestation period is 111 days +/- a few days, it is very unlikely she's only a month and a half pregnant, you would not be able to feel the babies as they are very little at that stage.
how much weight has she put on? do avoid picking her up unless she doesn't mind being handled at all but even so be very careful.
you could gently stroke her tummy to see if her nipples are elongated, they have six in two strips, each starts just underneath the armpits.
is she still in with the male?
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she put on aproximately 200 grams .
i felt nipples and she is still with the male , is thiw bad ?
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ok. if you can feel her nipples that means they have started elongating (this happens from 90th day onwards), if they are quite long, she's about two weeks or less away from birth, from my experience.
has she started staying at the bottom of the cage more than usual? monitor her water intake, they drink a lot more a few days before birth.
the reason i was asking about the male is because they go into heat straight after giving birth so she could get pregnant again. this is not good for her or the babies as nursing and being pregnant is quite exhausting. it would be a good idea to remove the boy once you notice she starts staying at the bottom of the cage as they naturally do this a few days before birth.
you will need to make sure the cage is baby escape proof, this means that ideally the spacing between bars should be half an inch (1.2 cm) - babies are tiny and LOVE to escape.
it's a good idea to put her into a single level cage or remove shelves although my girl got really stressed when i tried to put her into single level cage so i just left her in the normal one.
you will need a scales that weighs in grams and weigh the babies every day. it's normal for them to lose a couple of grams the first day while mummy's milk is coming in but after that they should be putting on weight steadily. if for any reason your girl can't nurse - hopefully this won't happen :) but she may need a bit of help if she has too many babies or if there's a problem - some people use formula, i used fresh sheep milk and goat's milk is good too.
i would let your vet know just so they are aware you have a pregnant chinchilla, sometimes there are problems and it's better for them to be ready. how old is brandy?
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she's 1 year and 3-4 months is that ok ?
the space between the bars is 2,2 and i think that they will escape .
i thought i should go and take another cage but i suddenly came up an idea (if its right)
i have a terarium and I thought το put them there and to get air , make a wire lid .
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what colour is she? unless she's an ebony or a colour that develops slower, a year and 3-4 months is ok.
terrarium is not a great idea, because it's glass and there's not much airflow even with a wire lid, there's a high risk of overheating and you definitely don't want them, especially as you will have them all constantly in a bunch so even warmer.
you could, temporarily, put cardboard tightly around the cage but i have had them climb up the wall of the cage and above the cardboard - you'd be ok for a week or so with the cardboard.
you can put the male back in about a week/10 days if he still shows interest after birth, just observe them for a bit to see what he's like with the babies, it should be ok but you never know, she may not want him back or he may not be keen on the babies. you will also need to separate any male babies at 10 weeks otherwise they can get their mum or sisters pregnant.
brandy will also get pregnant again if she's in with the boy, the go into heat every month. given that this pregnancy is a bit of a surprise, i'm wondering if you do want her to get pregnant again?
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I have 2 questions :
1)what do you mean to put cardboard ? do you have any photos?
2)what does this mean "the go into heat every month " ?
she's the natural grey
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natural grey is good :) she's a good age. there is a danger of babies getting stuck in girls that get pregnant before they are 9 months old but yours was old when she got pregnant so that's good :)
1/i don't have any pictures but what i did was get a box, cut it up and put it tightly around the outside of the cage. my base of the cage is slightly bigger than the metal bit so i could just slide it into that. does that make sense?
2/ basically, they want to mate and have the ability to get pregnant for a few days each months. you know, like ladies have periods and are most fertile just before and that happens every month and dogs go into heat a couple of times a year - similar but chinchillas don't bleed.
it's also a good idea to put something down at the bottom of the cage. some people use paper, i use fleece pads - if your girl is not a chewer then you can use those.
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i'm so happy she delivered the chins today !!!
they are 2 what should i do from now on ?
and i'm thinking of putting wires in the space of the bars to so as not to pass through them is it ok ?
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oh yay congrats! wires are good as long as there's no sharp bits.
stick the water bottle where the babies can reach it, they do start nibbling onto solid food quite quickly and may want a drink.
the boy's not with her, is he?
are they both nursing nicely? moving around? eyes open? all good? :)
WE WANT PICTURES!
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the boy is not with them beacuse when i went to see if we had babies i saw flock and scared if he harmed the chins .
they're moving around and the eyes are open and i decided to call them chewy and gummy (chewing gum ;) )
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that's good :) he shouldn't want to harm babies, dad's usually help but it's important he doesn't go in for at least a week or she will get pregnant straight away and it's not good for her.
great news on moving and i love the names :)
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so I should put them back together in at least 2 weeks ?
should the chins eat raisins (once a week ) ?
fotos coming soon !
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a week but observe them, if he tries any funny business with the lady, take him out for another 2-3 days.
do not give ANY raisins or any other treats to the babies until they are at least 6 months old.
you could give mum some alfalfa hay in addition to her usual hay. also, you could mix some pure (unsweetened - very important) with water - half an half - and put this in an extra bottle for the mum - it helps with milk production and helps prevent mastitis.
looking forward to the pictures :)
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what is pure ?
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it doesn't have anything added to it, like sugar or sweeteners. it can be diluted by water but nothing else.
sometimes it's difficult to find - most cranberry juices have sugar in it. i found a concentrated version - if you get that, just use a very small amount of that and add a lot of water :)
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is it necessary to do thiw or it just helps ?
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it's not necessary. but it does help. i had my first litter by surprise and we had triplets. fluffy had mastitis and this meant that she could not nurse. they had six teats but the babies are born with teeth and they were biting her trying to get the milk out of the inflamed teat and she just kept running away from. this meant we had to hand feed them and it was incredibly hard work to keep three few days old babies alive - i probably got about 8 hours of sleep per week. she thankfully took over after three weeks.
you can use apple juice if you can't find cranberry. i used baby apple juice but you can just use any 100% fresh apple juice, half water half juice.
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so i should make fresh apple juice and give it to another bottle and have it every day in the cage ?
half apple juice half water ?
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you could just buy it, just make sure it's not made out of concentrate.
i think you probably could make your own, just make sure there are no actual bits of apple in it. half apple juice, half water or you can use a little more water than apple juice.
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I think she meant puree lol
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ok thank you for your help .
should i use sawdust for bedding ?
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no problem :) i wouldn't use saw dust, it's best to have something solid and something clean - mum's bits are still open. i use fleece, some people use paper.
oh oh oh, i forgot to say, do not let mum have a dust bath for 10 days after birth.
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yesterday i let her to have a dust bath beause i didn't know it but thank god she didn't do much so i won't let her again for 10 days
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sorry, i should have said i completely didn't think of that until you mentioned saw dust. if you can, keep an eye on her bits, just to make sure there's no discharge/smell or anything like that or that she's not cleaning herself excessively (she will be cleaning herself a little more than usual)
how are the little ones doing?
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they are ok running around the cage and playing!
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aww that's sweet. do they all get on? are they usually cuddled up with mum?
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yeap !
i think that everything's ok
now the kits are under mom and sleeping
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fantastic :) great job!
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thank you !!!!!!
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i'm looking forward to seeing pictures ::) rofl
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i promise i'll put photos tomorrow !!!
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yay! :)
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i can't put the photos they are too big could someone help me ?
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i usually upload on http://imageshack.us/ (http://imageshack.us/) - you don't need an account and just link it here :)
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(http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/6539/20110302191829.jpg) (http://img135.imageshack.us/i/20110302191829.jpg/)
(http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/6314/20110302191913.jpg) (http://img854.imageshack.us/i/20110302191913.jpg/)
(http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/4040/20110302191850.jpg) (http://img850.imageshack.us/i/20110302191850.jpg/)
(http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/8501/20110228233403.jpg) (http://img199.imageshack.us/i/20110228233403.jpg/)
(http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/4552/20110302192018.jpg) (http://img827.imageshack.us/i/20110302192018.jpg/)
(http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/4416/20110302192043.jpg) (http://img695.imageshack.us/i/20110302192043.jpg/)
(http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/8821/20110228233356.jpg) (http://img195.imageshack.us/i/20110228233356.jpg/)
(http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/2698/20110228174528.jpg) (http://img19.imageshack.us/i/20110228174528.jpg/)
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awww they are absolutely gorgeous. i love the picture on the bed (?) they look like they're racing :2funny:
beautiful :) <3
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hahaha yeah i love them ::nod::
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So you ment to say puree....After reading all this i was a bit confused too lol. So mixing baby food apples or cranberry into water will help with lactation? Or should i use apple juice and water?
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no, i meant *pure* - i.e. without any additives like sugar/sweeteners etc. 100% juice. this can be sometimes hard to find in the cranberry variety - i ended up getting a 100% cranberry concentrate, you'll only use a tiny bit of that though.
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Oh ok Thanks. What exactly does using this do. Is it ok for males also? Is this only ok for the females when there pregnant or when there nursing?
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it's for nursing girls and it does help with lactation as well as preventing mastitis. it encourages them to drink more because it's sweet so that helps with milk production and cranberries in particular have anti inflammatory properties. you can give this to males as well if they have an infection for example and it's important that they are sufficiently hydrated - it may help with water intake. you just have to be careful not to give them too much (sugar = not good) and you need to change it daily or twice a day and wash the bottle out each time properly so it doesn't ferment.
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Awesome thanks for the advise ;)
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fluffy had mastitis when she had triplets - we were totally unprepared given we didn't know she was pregnant or a girl - and she couldn't nurse so we had to hand feed the babies for about three weeks until she recovered. we don't know why this happened, sometimes it's because all the babies want the same teat and she did have triplets and was first time mum and not experienced. once she resumed her duties, she learnt to rotate them around so they were not all fighting for the same teat.
it was extremely hard work to keep the babies alive, ffynn especially didn't want to put weight on at all and took about half an hour to feed each time. given we were feeding them every two hours day and night and each feed took nearly an hour, you can imagine what i looked like after the first week! it was always scary going to check on them because we were worried they wouldn't make it. they all did :)
so i'd say, even if this helps a little, it's worth doing it!
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Mindy is expecting too, and if you have a low budget, this is how I modified my cage for the kits-
I completely blocked off the top levels of the cage so the babies don't fall and get hurt.
I bought small-spaced wire mesh (You can buy a big roll from Walmart for about 7-8 bucks..), and wrapped it around the cage (When you cut it to size, though, the ends can be INCREDIBLY sharp, so make SURE you have it where mom and kits can't cut themselves on it..) and got cardboard and put it on the flooring of the cage. I also have a shallow box of materials she can use to make a nest when she feels fit (Ripped up newspaper, hay, bedding materials, etc..). Also, I took a cardboard box and transformed it into a little house she can use once the babies get here. This would be the best way to do it, I know I really don't want to wake up one morning with a kit on the loose somewhere.
Hope I helped,
Tonya