Astutukset
Tässä kasvattajien ja harrastajien vastauksia kyselyyn, jossa ajatukseni oli kysyä ohjeistuksia lajin harrastajille, miten heidän tulisi astuttaa naaraitaan. Tässä joidenkin pitkän linjan, arvostettujen ja tunnettujen kasvattajien neuvoja sekä myös kotikasvattajien ajatuksia asiasta.
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"Chinchilla breeder's practices vary in the US as to how often they breed their females. I have had females that have produced up to 18 years of age and had no serious problems. The number of litters produced per year should really depend on the female. If the female is maintaining her weight, in good health, and not producing large litters constantly (3-4 kits), then they can often be left to produce at their own rate. If you have a female that only produces one kit per litter, and does not have any problems, she can often breed back safely. In fact, this type of female sometimes goes out of production if she is not bred back. 3 litters per 2 years is not at all out of the ordinary if the female is having average sized litters, and staying in good health in between litters."
Laurie Schmelzle, Chinchillas.com
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"We can tell you how we take care of our breeding females. First: we try to breed with the best and strongest females. Sometimes we do have an animal with an unique colour, which we put into breeding. However in front we know it's not that strong enough. Most of the time it's a disappoinment as a breeding animal. We put the females in breeding at several ages. From 6 months up to 2 years.We look more at their condition and their strainght, than age.
When a female does get a litter, it all depends of the size of the litter, if the female did suffer or not. A normal birth with 1 or 2 youngsters, we let the male with her for a few days. More than 2, we seperate them immediately. If the mother is not well directly after birth, we seperate them as well. Most of the time the mother recovers after a day or two, but even then we don't let the male with her. When the mother has a litter from a breedback ,the parents were seperated before in our case.
So it's possible that there are females, who gets only one litter a year and also 2 litters. It all depends of the condition of the female how long we have her in
breeding. When it's a very good mother, who always brings up her youngster in a good health , we let her in breeding untill about 8 years old.
The only thing we can say is: It all depends on the condition of the animals. To give you an example: We do know a top breeder in Germany. Years ago we visited him, he had a breeding female of the age of 9 years. She produced over 90 youngsters in the periode she was in breeding. This female was still in perfact condition and still in breeding.
So again: The condition of the female is the most important issue."
Bert & Coby Bouwens, Santiago
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"i breed my females after how good there condichen is, how there shape and when they get kids if there is in good shape then they will get a new sett of kids at onse then they will go too rest for a year. if they are thin and in bad shape then they get too rest intil there shape and body is back in shape.it take from 3 to 6 months.
a normale good breeding femail will not take harm og have 1 to 2 sett og kids of year afther there condishen. i will not have femails in my bredding if they cant handel this therms. but of corse there are always the bredders responsebility too se that the femail is in good shape. some of my femails are unhappy when they are alone and this will be not good for them they dont eat good and lost wait. dont late some tell you what to do. you know your animals best and can see that they is in shape or not your self."
Linda Olsen, Galant's
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"How many litters do you breed for female per year?
First: SCAFs ("Swedish chinchilla breeding association") rules states that it is ok to breed a female 3 (or maximum 4 litters) in a period of 2 years before giving her a longer break! SCAF also have a rule that states that female must be one year old before breeding. At SCAF "education for breeders" we talk alot about breeding and it´s understod that these rules must be used with comon sense, becouse somtimes the female needs longer breaks between litters and some females need more than a year to be fully grown!
Personally I don´t take more then 2 litters in a row before giving the female a few month´s break.
How long the break will be depends on the size & condition of her litter, her ability to get in shape and also how many other females I have in breeding (don´t want "to many" babies.) Sometimes I seperate male from female to let the female get only one litter, and then she gets a break until the babies is old enough to move, becouse I want to try female with another male.
If you backbreed, when you do it?
I use backbreed when I want a second litter with the same male! The male stays with female and first litter (they are great fathers) and usually the female is then mated again, right away or very soon after birth. Sometimes the female turns down the males attempts to mate and the female takes her own "breake" whilst raise babies!"
Frida Henriksson, Paletten´s
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