5th generation of chinchillas

We have made our 5th generation. That may not seem like much to rabbits but considering it's a 4month gestation and one of my fully adult pairs after a couple years of growing did not breed for another 2 years after pairing. Then lost their first litter to wait another 4 months it gives a better perspective of the challenge.

I have some siblings and mother and daughter breeding in the same cage so these are actually 2 different mosaic (white with black) from 2 different litters. I told my husband he should have gotten them in the same pic for comparison. The lighter one and the 2 ebonies are from Keck and the one with more grey is her granddaughter and 5th generation of breeding.





Possibly still all females :lol: She's produced 2 males total in her line so far and I kept one that might produce a litter any day or it could be next year... :roll: Periodically I check the female but you can't really tell with certainty unless you check them right before they are going to give birth when the nipples protrude and the abdomen finally has a noticeable shape/size change. I traded one of her female offspring for a male who is ready to pair with a female we kept a couple years ago from the only foundation male we still have.

Congratulations!

Cuties!

I'm guessing they're quick little devils, huh? Very cool though, definitely keep us updated.

That age they are still rather wobbly without much bounce but my husband did have to box them to get pics or they'd wander off too fast lol In a week they'll be bouncing across the cage and obstacles and starting to reach the shelves a foot high. The adults will hit walls and doors 3 or 4' high when loose and I've had some that could hit the opening between 2' high levels without a shelf to cleanly land on the next level. Hilarious when the male who had been confined to single level cages his whole life first tried to follow the female who was best at it. He totally missed the opening the first 2 times and then got stuck hanging on the bars halfway through a few more times before accomplishing it. I've had some that I think defied gravity. One would run laps in her 3' long cage but they weren't horizontal laps on the bottom. She'd do circles like those circus acts in a sphere cage. She'd run up one end wall, use the momentum to go the length of the 3' ceiling, down the other end wall, bounce on the floor only once or twice to cover the 3' length back to the first side, and do it again. That one actually loved a big empty cage instead of shelves because she could do anything with an open set of walls to ricochet off of.