Home-based business in Russia “Chinchilla breeding”: the basics
Chinchillas in captivity have been bred for more than 80 years, the demand for these animals and their skins around the world is always high. You have probably heard or seen on radio and television that products made from chinchilla skins are very expensive. Their fur is called “soft gold.”
Chinchilla is suitable for breeding at home, first of all, because chinchillas do not have sweat glands and the release of the animal is almost odorless. Chinchilla is a mobile animal, so they need a cage measuring 40/40 cm (cube), about 25 pairs of chinchillas can be placed on five square meters.
Chinchillas are better kept in pairs (for more information on this information, please visit. It is better to make a cage for a couple on a metal frame covered with a galvanized mesh 20 by 20 mm. A retractable tray is installed at the bottom of the cage to facilitate cleaning, with wooden chips or straw.
The daily ration consists of a grain mixture: barley, oats, corn, wheat, sunflower seeds, hay, crackers, dried apples, rosehip, etc. Chinchillas willingly gnaw branches, leaves of trees and shrubs (birch, willow, etc.). To provide chinchillas with good nutrition, it is necessary to make up for such a diet that includes high-calorie, fortified, well-digested food.
How to make the most useful diet from the variety of different existing feeds suitable for chinchillas? It all depends on the ability of the chinchilla, on his ability to properly assess the condition of animals, their needs. Chinchillas should daily receive a variety of concentrated feed and hay. As an additional feed raisins, apples, dogrose, tree branches. Feed must be given in certain quantities of 35-40 grams per day (tablespoon), so the cost of feeding chinchillas is quite minimal.
Chinchillas also need sand baths. After such a swim in the animals, the fur is fluffed and the skin is cleaned, which contributes to a good thermoregulation of the body. For this you need a broom (capacity) where the sand is poured. Many farmers no longer use special commercial sand and prepare this sand mixture on their own, which significantly reduces the cost of maintaining chinchillas.
Time-tested special recipes and methods for preparing sand dust, as well as food supply, can be obtained from one of the breeders.
The favorable temperature for chinchilla content is 12-25 degrees Celsius, the desired air humidity is 50-70%.
It is better to take a chinchilla by the tail, substituting the hand as a support, when lifting it by the tail and inspecting the genitals it is also possible to determine the sex of the animal.
Puberty females occurs about 6-7 months. Males may be slightly delayed in maturation of 6-9 months. Often, the time of pregnancy can be counted directly from the day the family was formed, if she was manned at puberty and the female was in the hunt.
Their rut occurs on average every 41 days, although this period can vary from 30 to 50 days. During rutting, the female usually behaves more aggressively and becomes more mobile. Can scatter feed. It is not uncommon that in the morning you can find clots of wool in the cage of a female. Lasts rut from two to seven days. With a monogamous content (in a pair of 1 + 1), the male does not need to be seated, he is an excellent father, and he will lick and warm. It happens that he is the best parent of a couple, more caring, which is one of the good qualities and can add him a point at the next appraisal of animals.
It is better to examine the female during the feeding period for milkiness, if necessary, feed the young. After 50-70 days, the young can already be sown. By 3.5-6 months, you can decide on a complete set of new families.
