From: jensen@rtsg.mot.com (James D. Jensen)
Subject: Chinchillas / Breeding - Possible problems
Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 21:59:23 GMT

In a previous post I mentioned that there are few problems with pregnancies
of chinchillas.  I mentioned that one of my chins had 6 litters, with 
no problems.  Well, unfortunately I had my first bad experience with
babies.  

The same female delivered on Dec. 29th.  All her other deliveries began
by 7:30 in the morning, so when I left for work at 8:00, I figured I
would have to wait another day or so.  I was wrong.  I got home that night
to find a baby lying away from the mother, that appeared dead.  It had never
been cleaned off by the mother.  I thought I may have seen slight movement,
but then I thought it was my imagination.  I removed it from the cage, ready
to dispose of it, when I decided to blow into its mouth (w/o touching it
to my lips).  It responded, opening its mouth, and moving its arms, but then
fell back kinda comatose.  

Since it was still alive, the idea is to get any fluid out of its lungs.
Also, I help it under a lamp to warm it up.  So cupping it in my hand,
I kept moving its head forward to remove the fluid.  There was already some
blood coming out of its nose.  I did get some fluid out, and the baby 
responded several times.  Also some rubbing of the body/ears gave me
some response.  Unfortunately, after having laid there probably most of the
day w/o warmth, it was too late.  Within 30 minutes it was dead.

It is impossible to stay home waiting everyday, but the thoughts of "if
only I had been there sooner" went through my head for days.

On the brighter side, she had 1 baby boy, which is doing fine, now 8 days
old.  The one that died was a female (of course).

The original thought was that the dead baby was a breech birth, which can
cause so much trouble for the mother, that she took care of herself and
ignored the baby.  The other baby could have come out hours later if
this was the case, or it could have been the first one out.  This theory
was later dismissed.  I found out for a breech, you would normally notice
some chew marks where the mother tried to pull the baby out.  There were
no such signs.

The next day I noticed a small black clump, about the size of a penny.
This appears to be a mummification of a baby.  After consulting an
excellent source, we decided that she probably conceived 3 babies.
For some reason, 1 died along the way, which is not necessarily rare.
This probably caused problems during the birth.  In fact, the baby that
died after birth may have had something wrong with it that the mother
could detect.  It is very rare that a mother just ignores a baby.

When a baby dies inside the mother, a poison can be released that can 
harm the babies/mother.  Fortunately, the mother is ok, and 1 baby lived.
I think the poison is more for a baby dying during delivery.  I know
someone who just had a 1.5 year old homozygous ebony female die due
to birth.  One baby did die during the process, and the posions got
into the chins bloodstream.  Medication was given, but not until the 2nd day.
She kept her alive for 3 days, but again, it was too late.  Also during
this delivery she had to use forceps to remove another baby.  I don't 
think any survived.


I don't want to scare anyone who breeds chins.  There are many joys, and
few problems, but you should be aware that problems can occur.  I kept
hoping I wouldn't have any problems, but now I have.

I will make another post later and discuss chinchilla genetics relating
to breeding problems.

Feel free to contact me anytime for more info on chins.  If I don't
know the info, I'll try to point you in the right direction.  Also,
be careful about bringing your chin to a vet.  Make sure they know
what they are doing.  Many don't!!  Although I haven't had much of a need
for one, my vet owns a chin.  That is always a good start.

Jim Jensen

Owner of Chinchillas - Yogi, Lupe, Max, Ginger, Snowflake, Snowball,
                      Fluffy, Samson, and the un-named baby, and
                      Norm the parakeet.