COLONY
BREEDING CHINCHILLAS
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Article Written By - Anjela Ross
Of Crystal Chinchillas
I have found it difficult to obtain good information
on colony breeding and do not personally know of anyone who
uses this method. The only solid information that I
could find on this method was out of books and other references,
as I have not personally tried colony breeding on a large scale.
I have however, previously experimented with polygamous
breeding without the use of collars or tunnels.
Simply by allowing two females and one male to live together in the same
cage. This has in my experience, on the whole
worked well. When the time came for one female to litter, the
other female who was also either about to litter or already
nursing, was prepared to help out her female friend
with feeding and keeping the babies warm. Sometimes even appearing
to take on the roles alternately, allowing the other female concerned
to rest, kind of like a babysitter. The only major
problem was that I was scared about breedbacks and decided to
take the male out if one female littered and the other
was already pregnant. This is where it got difficult, when trying to introduce
him back in with the two females. But
it seems that the experience I have had here is only the first
stage of actual colony breeding.
Anyhow, here is how it is recommended to commence building up your colony.
It is suggested that a large enclosure at
first houses two or three females with one male. Then as the animals
settle in, more females can be added. This can
then amount to as many as fifteen females being allocated to one
male, this would be a single colony. Obviously, the home
would have to be of a good size, in order that each female can
have her own territory, where she feels safe.
I personally would not allow a single male so many females and perhaps would
keep the colony on a smaller scale,
with eight to ten females being the maximum.
Not every Chinchilla is going to get on well, as many breeders using
different breeding methods will be all to ready to advise you.
It takes a lot of time introducing animals and some simply are not compatible.
It may take some time to establish a
harmonious colony, by removing agressive males and females and replacing
them. If a male senses a female is in oestrus,
but does not know for sure which one, he may try mating all of the females
available. This can then upset the colony
and cause females who normally may get on well to become agressive towards
one another as well as towards the male.
Another problem is whether to leave the male in when a female is due
to litter. Do you risk removing him and
missing him mate with another female? Or do you risk him breeding back with
the female that has just littered?
If he stays away too long, will the females take him back again? Is it better
to remove the female in her late stage of
pregnancy and risk the move causing problems with her pregnancy? Will the
other females accept her back then in to the
colony after she has littered and weaned her young? These are all important
points that need to be considered,
before deciding to set up a colony.
As mentioned above, when I tried having two females in a cage together,
they did help with each others young. However,
would this also be true if their are ten females all living together? What
would happen if your male died? I would
not like the job of having to introduce a new male into an established colony
of breeding females. This would be sure
to take a long time or you would have to get lucky enough to find a male
that was so easy going and perfect at handling females,
those are not very common though. This would upset the colony having a new
male introduced and would also cause
a lot of stress to the new male and the females, more so if any of them are
pregnant.
Another issue, is if you just have one colony, all the offspring would
have to be sold. Unless you then set up another colony
with the youngsters, perhaps keeping female young and then buying in a new
male to go with them. You could not keep
any females that you have bred really, as then it would be their father that
they then were going to be bred with.
I can honestly say, that I understand why colony breeding is not that
common. I can easily understand why breeders
have reverted to pair or tunnel breeding rather than using the colony system.
One point in the favour of colony breeding though,
it that it does seem to be more natural, when you look at how Chinchillas
would be living in the wild. Although, really
the Chinchillas that we know and love as pets these days are a far cry from
those wild Chinchillas. It is nice to think of how
it would work in the wild though. With the male who is the most dominant
and strongest taking over a colony of females
and passing on his genes to produce further strong, healthy Chinchillas to
build up for future generations. I am not so sure
though that the Chinchillas we now have need to bred in such a manner,
with them being so distant from the wild Chinchilla.
Colony breeding in a sterile environment, can it really work?
I do not wish to appear negative with regards to Colony breeding, written
here are my thoughts and views on the subject.
Here are the facts, laid out for you to read and digest and think about for
yourselves. So, I do not want to appear to
be turning breeders away from embarking on this breeding method. However,
it is not common practice these days to
use this method and it is also quite difficult to obtain good information
on the subject. However, if someone feels
that it would be worthwhile to reintroduce colony breeding as a valid breeding
method for Chinchillas and has the time to
research into the subject and work at establishing methods of introduction
etc.. then I am sure that you would have a
worthwhile venture on your hands that could provide us with a good insight
into working with such a system. If you
are someone who does currently participate in colony breeding on any scale,
then the Chinchilla club would love
to hear about how it works for you, so do please get in touch with us!
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