Q & A Interview with Randy of JAGS Chins

[Jade]

Hey all,

Randy of JAGS Chinchillas (http://www.jagschinchillas.com) has agreed to participate in an interview consisting of questions from our members! Randy and his wife have over 20 years in the chinchilla business and were awarded the MCBA Master Breeder's award last year. They have over 500 chinchillas and a wealth of knowledge to share with smaller breeders or even just chin enthusiasts! They've always been willing to help out the 'little guys' and I'm thrilled that they've given us this opportunity!

So put your thinking caps on, and let's get some questions together that we'd like to have answered. I'll close this thread in one week, submit the questions to him, and post once he's answered.

[Jade]

How did you get into the chinchilla world and what keeps you there?

How many animals did you start out with?

If you could give any one piece of advice to a small, 'hobby' breeder, what would it be?

What temperature do you keep your barns at and why?

On average, how many kits do your females have in any one litter?

How often do you allow a female to litter per year? Is it dependent upon litter size or do you just allow as many matings as she will?

Do you retire animals at any one age or is it per animal? What criteria would cause you to retire an animal from breeding?

How do you set up your lighting? Is it on a schedule? Have you noticed if this has this affected the number of births and/or the health of your chins in any way?

What qualities do you look for in an animal when selecting breeding stock?

Can you briefly go over what is looked for in a show animal by a judge?

What is your take on the need to introduce standards back into a heavy mutation lineage? (Assume you're using a good quality standard and mutation)

Do you weigh new kits? If not, how do you keep track of who's doing well and who's not? What signs do you watch for?

[Chrisanne]

What is your take on the "lethal factor breedings" such as tov to tov?

[Chinchilla_Girl]

What are some common birthing complications and how do you recognize there is a problem?

Depending on the birthing complications, how do you handle them?

What qualities will you look for when choosing your show lines and what do you do to prepare them?

[DirtySouthChins]

Wow Jade and Mandie asked 2 of the questions I had in mind......
1. What qualities will you look for when choosing your show lines and what do you do to prepare them?
2. What qualities do you look for in an animal when selecting breeding stock?

Seeing as we are overseas in Italy right now, and sold off our previous small herd that we had back in the states, we are trying to get some good quality chinchillas over here in hopes of breeding them and then in the future breeding their kits with some good quality american lines.

Every country looks at chinchillas differently (such as quality of fur, build, etc.) what would be some excellent qualities to look for in a European line that would go great in the future when breeding with american lines???

What is the average age and weight you begin breeding your females?

[Jade]

What kind of watering system do you use and is the water filtered/tap/well? Have you ever used any other system and discovered advantages/disadvantages to either?

[Sassy]

What do you use, if anything, to help with a mother's milk supply?
What do you use to handfeed a kit if needed?
What type of pellets do you feed your herd?
How often do you give hay? Do you feed loose hay or hay cubes? (one ranch I visited gives hay once a week, another only gives hay cubes)

[CTChin]

How soon do you notice genetic malocclusion in your chins?

Do you feel other factors play into this developing this disease? If so, what?

Do you use "carriers" in your line?

Do you believe that if a chin with malocclusion in its line is bred a chin with none in it's line, all the kits will be simply carriers?

[Jade]

This is only open until Friday, don't forget to get your questions in!! Randy's been very helpful to novice and experienced breeders alike and this is a great opportunity to continue learning about chinchillas!

[Jade]

Thanks everyone for your questions. I'll pass this on and get it posted ASAP!

If you have other people you'd like to interview, please send me a PM! We're going to have this be a regular feature on PT.