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[winterose]

No there is no way to safely breed a pet store chinchilla

[ABC Chinchillas]

No it is not safe or.smart to breed your petstore chinchilla

[Jenova]

Just a couple of points. First, do you keep the dust bath in all the time? When I first got Cheech I left it in and she got very dry and itchy. Also my chinchillas bred. I thought Cheech was a male but she wasn't. My partner bought me Chong for my birthday from a breeder. He was a male. The breeders came round and sexed Cheech for us and told us she was female. I still bonded them and they had two kits. One of them, Snake, has malocclusion. She has a constantly watery eye which sometimes gets infected and I know in the future she is going to be in a lot of pain with it and will have to have a lot of vet treatment. I feel so sick with myself that I let that happen. I brought a kit into the world who was broken. She's so shy and doesn't like to push around with the others for food. I worry she gets left out and feed her a little on her own. It's not worth it. I also had to separate Chong after the birth. He was so sad and pined for his partner. It took me a year to find a vet I trusted to neuter him. He is now neutered and lives with his mate and two daughters.

Chong was from a very reputable breeder, but getting him as a baby we just didn't know his personality. We changed the layout of our room when he was about 6 months old and it stressed him out so much he went into stasis. I found a very good vet by pure chance and she helped me nurse him back to health. He very nearly died. Chong is a stress head. I knew that when I bonded him with Cheech. Snake is just like him.

Now I know a lot more. I know how to find a good vet and I know breeding is a bad idea.

And another reason. A few years ago I found out about chinchilla rescue centres in the UK. I didn't even know chinchillas could end up in rescue centres. I was shocked and upset. There are so many unwanted chinchillas that I would never buy one again, not even from a reputable breeder, I would always adopt.

[Snickerdoodlesmom]

News, everyone: petco gets their chinchillas from a private breeder. Does this change anything?

[chinclub]

Nope, not without knowing who the private breeder is and where they get their chinchillas from.

[ABC Chinchillas]

Petco and petsmart do not get thier chinchillas from a private breeder. They are a cooperation and get thier chinchillas from a wholesaler who buys them from ranchers they have contracts and cannot legally buy from a private breeder. And no any chinchilla dumped off at a petstore should not be bred.  And private breeder or not it is dumped at a petstore. 

Petstores only pay 25-40 for those chinchillas only lower quality animals will end up there. You are a BAD breeder if you breed pet store animals.  Just like pedigrees do not make a chinchilla worth breeding. A quality animal is critical. DO NOT BREED YOUR PET STORE ANIMALS. Breeders who sell to petstore sell thier lower animals to the petstore they sell thier culls not animals worth breeding.  And any breeder who sells all thier babies means they are not breeding anything worth keeping.

[lilchinchilla]

Well like I mentioned earlier in the thread, what kind of "reputable" private breeder or rancher would sell their chinchillas at a fraction of the price to a wholesaler or pet store, when they can sell the same chinchilla (if it is healthy and good for breeding) privately to other breeders or pet owners for double or triple the price they get from Petco or Petsmart?

I know at least in Canada here, most breeders who sell chinchillas to pet stores for dirt cheap, are the breeders who know they cannot sell the chin privately to a breeder or pet owner because of some issue with that animal's background or health or because the chin is just NOT breeding quality. That is why they say "pet" quality. Pet quality means it is not for breeding. If the chinchilla was healthy and perfect for breeding, then the breeder knows they could sell the same chinchilla to Petsmart or Petco for $30 - $40 each or they could sell a healthy breeding quality chinchilla to a breeder or pet owner for $100 - $350.00 each.

Do the math... most breeders do want to make money to support their raising chinchillas, not lose money, by selling their babies they raise. I'm fairly sure most breeders would rather get $100 - $350 for a baby chin of theirs, than get only $30 or $40.

 The pet stores jack the price up to make a profit off the chinchillas for themselves. They have to pay their rent and their employees, so that is why the increase in price you see in the store. The other thing with pet stores is they never usually tell the sources of their chinchillas, so it is an anonymous thing for a breeder to dump their not so good quality chinchillas in a pet store and have no one know.

 I know of a few breeders over the years who did just that and explained why they did(which I explained above.). They kept their good quality animals for selling privately and their not so good quality, their maloccluder carriers, etc.. went to the pet stores because they wanted them to be pets only - not for breeding.

[Snickerdoodlesmom]

I have given up on breeding snickerdoodle. But just out of curiosity, are there any genetic screenings for chinchillas like there are for humans?

[ABC Chinchillas]

Nope, no genetic screening, Just waiting and seeing.

[Snickerdoodlesmom]

So would you guys say that ALL pet store chinnies are breeder rejects?

[winterose]

because if a breeder could use the chin or get good money for a chin they wouldn't sell it to a pet store

[lilchinchilla]

I just know that if a rancher or larger breeder around here was selling chins to a pet store, the more than likely reason would be, because they cannot breed that animal nor sell it privately for some reason they'd rather not disclose. It could be something simple, like a female chin being too small to pass kits through her birth canal, to something more serious like genetic defects with the heart or malo or fur chewing.

I personally don't know how many times I have seen people buy chins from pet stores that either are fur chewed or have a heart murmur or end up with malo. I know I could not count the times on one or two hands though. I'd need to borrow other people's hands to count how many times that has happened. I have to say though, all chins deserve a good home, so I hope it doesn't deter people from buying from a pet store if they are choosing to have the chinchilla as a pet.

Sometimes it can be that the chin just is born out of a line of maloccluders (but the chin only carries malocclusion and isn't a maloccluder.) or a line that has congenital heart defects, etc... and not knowing whether the chin carries the genes (since they are recessive.) or is an actual maloccluder or a chin with a heart defect, they'd rather sell to a pet store to prevent the animal from being bred by a breeder and passing on those bad genes.
I don't like to call them breeder rejects... they just are chins that are not fit for breeding and are suited to be pets only... hence why they are in a "pet store".