I have noticed a lot of people, especially those new to chins saying they want to breed.
What I have to say is not meant to offend anyone, but I do think it is important for people to read this as it is something that is becoming a big concern

Please think very carefully before you go ahead

Apart from all the problems and vet bills you could face if things go wrong there are so many other things to consider too. Over the years that I have run my rescue the number of chins coming in has risen greatly each year. So many people are now breeding chins with no proper backgrounds that things like malocclusion are being
bred into a great number of chins now, most of these chins will die a painful death or have to be put to sleep

Often, many end up in the rescues
The number of unwanted chins coming into the rescues now are so high that rescues are finding it much harder to re-home them. With the way the numbers are rising they will soon be at a point like with cats and dogs that there are not enough homes to go round and they will have to be put to sleep.
This point has not been reached yet - and it should be the last thing that any chin owner wants to see happening to their own chinchillas offspring

what will happen when all the rescues are full?
There are not enough people left wanting to re-home them and nowhere left for the unwanted ones to go

I have never known the rescues as busy as they are now, full to brimming point most of the time.
A very large number of chinchillas with malocclusion and other hereditary health problems are arising with inexperienced breeding, If you are considering breeding, please think carefully before doing so
If you do not know your chinchillas background you could be breeding any of these health problems in to the babies. If these babies are bred they again will pass them on to their babies and this goes on and on. Most of these chinchillas will die from these health problems.

If you go ahead and breed from your chinchillas - do you know for sure you will be able to find good knowledgeable homes for them?
And what would you do with the babies if you couldn't find them homes?
They have a long life span, would you be willing to keep them for the rest of their lives?
We all love cute cuddly babies, but remember, that unless you castrate or separate chinchillas for periods between pregnancies they will continuously breed.
This will put the mums health at risk and add to the problem of the amount of unwanted chins in rescues

I never want to see fit healthy chins put to sleep due to lack of homes but it will happen very soon if people are not careful about breeding.
So to anyone considering breeding, PLEASE PLEASE THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE DOING SO, and to those that
 do go ahead please be responsible and very careful about where you babies end up.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

I feel I should add that my posting this is due to some of the things I have seen happening to chinchillas
that have come into my rescue. I think other rescue will have found the same things

People who know nothing about chinchillas will go out and buy a pair of chins, they breed and babies are left with parents, this creates 'interbreeding' and more babies are born etc etc. Eventually, it all gets out of hand, they cannot cope or the chins health suffers and they come into the rescues.
Cases like this are very very common and the awful thing is that these chins are often carrying malocclusion
The number of children that are breeding is very high too. So many people are seeing breeding chins as a way of making quick easy money, any good breeders out there will tell you this is definitely not the case.

I am not against responsible breeding, i am just very concerned about what I am seeing too many people are going into this without proper experience and knowledge, so many chins die due to irresponsible breeding.

The consequences are devistating.
I receive lots of calls for help and advice from people with sick chins who do not want to pay or who cant afford vet care. If you cant afford a vet please do not buy a chinchilla!
chinchilla  health problems can be very expensive and very hard work - they need specialist treatment and this can be costly in the long run - running into the thousands of pounds

Below are some images of a deformed baby caused by irresponsible breeding.
The parents of this baby had no known background and had been interbred.
The baby had a cleft palate, hare lip, there was no wall at all between the nose and mouth so baby was
unable to feed without choking and there is a mass just behind what should have been the upper lip
These were just the deformities that could be seen.
There was also internal deformities and another baby from the litter also had internal deformaties.
These babies did not stand a chance of survival at all

For those that do not know, these babies were from the rescue 8 iI took in the year 2006. Another female from them had 2 babies and one was very very teeny and under developed. I have reared many premature babies but he was no bigger than a baby field mouse. sadly he only lasted a few days.

I will admit that when I got my first chins years ago, I bought ones with very good pedigrees
 with the intention of breeding and showing.
I was advised to keep them in polygamous systems, but after seeing these systems i did not like them and all my chins were kept in pairs.
As time went on and I realized how many chins were unwanted, neglected and being bred with health problems I decided to separate all my pairs.
They have remained separated since, and live in adjoining cages so they can still kiss and cuddle through the bars and they still enjoy playtimes together.
I have so many pregnant chins come into the rescue and see first hand what problems can arise, in some cases even death. I do not regret separating my own chin as I would never ever want them to go through these problems that I have seen with the rescues
They are my babies and I love them too much to risk loosing them.
So before going ahead and breeding even pedigree chins, stop and think!
Do you really want to take the risk of loosing your much loved pet?
Every pregnancy is a risk and every baby is one more in the queue hoping to find a loving home

There are just too many chinchillas - and people just cannot find homes for them
(Even top lines with pedigree) The value of chinchillas are virtually nil now.
Half the chinchilla population have hereditary health problems.
 The problem is so big that chins are being destroyed, turned loose and severely neglected.
 Rescue Centers are having to turn them away because they are already full to brimming point with chins that homes cant be found for.
Even big show breeders have either cut right down on breeding or have stopped totally.

Despite this situation, on a daily basis I see people with no real experience of chinchillas (and I mean health as well as just keeping them) that are still determined to breed just for the fun of it, or because they want cute babies They actually call themselves chinchilla lovers!!!!
 If they really loved chins they wouldn't do it.
 They are putting their own pleasure before the welfare of those chins. They should come and spend a week in one of the rescues, see the heartache we go through on a daily basis, see the work we have to do. They forget that the chinchilla in our rescues are there because of people like themselves who decided to breed for their own pleasure. The same people who ignore posts like this one because they think it doesn't apply to them....
 I wonder how long it will take before they are phoning the rescues crying for help???

 People really need to open their eyes, look round the different forums, read the threads and see what is really going on in the chinchilla world. Sadly so many just do not seem to care. Thousands of chinchillas are dying needlessly, should we be trying to stop this instead of making the situation worse?

PLEASE PLEASE THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE BREEDING

I am sorry if this topic seems harsh, I have come across people that re-home chinchillas either from rescues or newspapers etc and think this makes them a rescue. These people then post on forums begging for money to keep these animals and asking for help and advice. Rescues DO NOT go out looking for animals, they DO NOT search the papers and forums for chins to take in.
Any good established rescues will have people phoning them asking them to take chins.

What is a rescue chinchilla?
 A rescue chinchilla is one that is in desperate need, that is sick , neglected or is in a situation where its health or welfare is at risk if it stays where it is. A chinchilla that is healthy and is in no immediate danger is classed
as a re home. Most of the chinchillas on forums and in papers are re homes, not rescues!

A rescue centre takes in the rescue chinchillas. They nurse them and try to get them well, they spend day and night hand feeding often for weeks at a time. They make life and death decisions. It isn't easy deciding which chins stand a chance of recovering and which should be put to sleep.
 The work of a rescue centre is hard and heartbreaking. Many of us do take in re-homes too when we have the room but most of them are chinchillas who could end up in a bad situation if they are not taken by a rescue.
 Once we feel that the chins are 100% healthy, we then try to find good loving homes for them, where they will not be bred. Some of the chinchillas need ongoing treatment and care for the rest of their lives.
These generally are the ones that become permanent residents in rescue centers