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karyn1_gw

OT: Chinchilla update

17 years ago

We lost the runt late last night. Not sure what was wrong. Even though it was nursing it wasn't putting on any weight. It was obviously dying yesterday evening and the mother abandoned it so DD held it all night until it finally passed. It was so sad but the other 2 are fine. I also had another surprise this morning. I guess I can't be trusted to sex the chins which can be kind of difficult. Externally they both look almost the same and what I thought was a male has turned out to be a female and I have another litter! There's only one baby in this litter and I'm not sure if the mother will care for it or not. She's acting kind of skittish. I might see if my chin that had the first litter will accept and nurse her grandchild. Another problem is this is an inbred baby. The father impregnated the daughter which I thought was the son. Chinchilla incest. lol Here's pics of the remaining 2 babies from the first litter at 6 days old. They are so cute.


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Comments (20)

  • 17 years ago

    Ok Karyn I am sorry for the runt.... Boy those are adorable! Another one...Lol You need seperate cages hahahh....Very cute!

  • 17 years ago

    I did have them in different cages, separated by sex, I thought! lol

  • 17 years ago

    So Sorry that you have lost your baby. It is so sad when a pet goes and this one a baby. So sweet of DD to hold it all night too. Very swee gesture. Now, you have another one! You may end up being mommy like I was. Hopefully one of the mothers will feed it. They are sweet little things. Maybe you could take them to a vet and get them sexed. I guess the next options is have a seperate cage for each of them. I think you said that you can't get thet males neutered, can you get the females spayed?

    I have not read up on telling the sex of this little flying squirrel. My husband starting calling it EARL the Squirrel being funny. Now he and my son call it Earl. I told him it might be a girl and he said, Well then it can be Earlene if it is. haha Of course, I don't have to worry about the babies since it is just one.

    Again, I am sorry for your loss.
    Tammy

  • 17 years ago

    It was supposed to read oh Karyn not ok...Lol typo..:)))

  • 17 years ago

    oh Karyn,....I am laughing so much that I got to squeeze the I am sorry that one baby died, in here too.

    You just can not let any two get together lol

    Lucy

  • 17 years ago

    Karyn,
    How very sad about the little runt. Poor little thing. You really do have a soap opera going on with the Chins. I will be tuned in for the next episode. I hope the new baby will be fed. The other two babies look like they have really grown since your last picture. They sure are cute! I like the darker color. Hope you get all the housing arrangements figured out!
    Joyce

  • 17 years ago

    Those are so cute and small, Karyn! Sorry about losing the runt.

  • 17 years ago

    I am tuned in for the next episode. Will the mother feed the baby chin or will the grandmother have to take over? Will the new baby have an identity crisis? Hope to hear a postive update and hope the new baby is doing well!
    Joyce

  • 17 years ago

    The new baby seems to be doing fine and nursing well. The daddy is very good with it as well and lets it sleep under him when mom isn't in the box. The only reason the males should be separated after is to keep them from back breeding because the female can go into heat immediately after birth. Since I wasn't sure when this one was born and it has a skittish mom I don't want to change the living arrangements. I did have a problem with it getting out of the cage and running around the recroom. I had a heck of a time trying to catch it this morning. I took cardboard and covered up the cage about 6" up so I hope it can't get out again. I don't have another cage that's big enough with small openings to move them to and I really don't want to go out and plunk down a couple hundred bucks for another big cage but if it gets out again I'll have to. I was going to take a pic but it looks exacty like the light colored one in the other litter.

  • 17 years ago

    Good to hear the baby is nursing well. I hope it does fine. They are such cute little things! You may end up with more if they can go right into heat again. You are going to have a zoo! :) And I thought I was Ellie Mae. haha

  • 17 years ago

    Karyn you are serious? They are in heat right after birth? wow poor thing can not even be a baby for a while lol

    Lucy

  • 17 years ago

    Got up this am at 4 and the baby had escaped! I figured with 2 cats and a dog it was over but I found it behind a shelving unit. The unit weighs a few hundred pounds but I was able to move it enough to get the little bugger. It was ok, hungry and scared. I had to move mom and baby to a temp cage and wil have to get another bigger one. Hopefully she'll continue nursing and not freak out.

  • 17 years ago

    That baby was lucky to survive; good thing you found him/her Karyn. What are you doing up at 4 AM, LOL!

  • 17 years ago

    I was asleep by 11 last night. That's way too early for me.

  • 17 years ago

    Karyn that is just FIVE hours!!

    But you probably saved that little fellow's life. It might have come out and then....here is breakfast :-(

    lol you know karyn...your life is NEVER boring ha ha ha

    Lucy

  • 17 years ago

    Oh Karyn. I'm sorry about the one you lost. If I look at them any more I'm going to want one and I can't have any more pets. Its so hard to go on a trip already with what I have. Thank goodness for my friends that help me out but I hate to ask them unless I really need to. They are realllllly adorable though, lol. Good luck with the new baby escaping. Life is always throwing you something huh, lol. I know the feeling.

  • 17 years ago

    Kristy I don't know what I'm going to do when the girls next door are off to college. They take care of the animals when I'm away. I only have to pay the kids $100/wk to take care of everything and they know all the animals so I don't have to worry. If I had to hire someone I didn't know I'd be worried the entire time I was away and I'd have to pay them a heck of a lot more.

  • 17 years ago

    Yep, thats a bargain. It cost me more than that to board just Lucy Lou while we went to Hawaii. I just love critters but am having to learn to enjoy them at other peoples houses or look at pics, lol. I used to drag home all sorts of animals but that was when I didn't work or go anywhere. Good thing the boys took most of them when they moved out, lol. Maybe you can find some younger kids in the neighborhood to put into early training for when they grow up, lol. John was even eyeballing the pics of the chins saying how sweet and soft them look, lol. He was crushed tonight when I told him his firebelly was a toad not a frog like he thought. He said but I don't like toads as much as frogs. I said ok pretend its a frog, lol. They are so funny using their hands to stuff crickets into their mouths. The tadpole turned into a leopard frog I think. She is a cutie.

  • 17 years ago

    Karyn, they're so adorable! Don't worry about the back-breeding, as long as it's just one "incest incidence" it's fine. My first two were inbred.

    Theresa

  • 17 years ago

    Theresa I can't believe that all this time I thought that Tiny Tiny Bo was a boy. It's the one with the eye birth defect so maybe it has other parts that look a bit different? They aren't the easiest animals to sex but she definitly has a space, unlike my other female. At least she was over a year old when she had the litter. All the babies are doing great and are just so cute. I'll have to post more pics.