February 17th February 17, 2008

For the week of February 17th - 

Nothing to report this week.  One of the tenrecs is coming out of torpor and the other 3 are still very much in.  I can’t wait for them to come out so we can pair them up and see what happens.

No new Chinchilla babies this week thank goodness since my hard drive crashed on my computer and I wouldn’t have been able to enter them in!

Hedgehog babies are due in early March and I have high hopes at least two of the girls are pregnant.  Hopefully all 6 are pregnant as the weather is stabilizing and they are eating more and sleeping more.  I am hoping to see them all start nesting in a couple of weeks when we do the final pre-baby cage cleaning.

February 10th February 10, 2008

For the week of February 10th -

The website is updated with all of our available babies!  YAY!  As hobby breeders we have limited space and a LARGE number of chinchillas kits available so we’ve decided to offer them at reduced prices to good homes!  Go check out the list of available babies!  Please let us know if you want weight information or pictures of any of them! 

We also paired up several hedgehogs so we’re hoping for babies in early March!  Our last pairings didn’t yield a single baby, the only thing I can think is the weather was so unpredictable they just didn’t know what to make of it.  In all my years I’ve never bred 4 girls without getting a single baby.  This time I’ve placed 6 girls in with males so we’ll cross our fingers! 

This week also brought a huge amount of heartbreak for me as Choco, my oldest male hedgehog crossed the bridge.  I try to not play favorites but we had a special bond and my heart is really broken.  He lived a long, full, happy life and I know he’s happy across the bridge with unlimited mealies.  He was always a very special boy and he was a real ladies man so there are lots of youngsters out there with a little bit of him in them.  I hope they all bring as much love to their families lives as he did to ours!

No new chinchilla babies this week.

February 3rd February 3, 2008

For the week of February 3rd -

It’s been a week full of both blessings and heartbreak.  A litter of triplets was born to our Ebony female and a fourth was caught in the birth canal.  She was able to pass the 4th baby with a little help but the baby was not fully gestated.  The other three did well for the first day despite being the tiniest babies we’ve ever had here but all three died by the 3rd day.   

Our violet carrier female (Elsie) also gave birth to twin girls (our 3rd and 4th girls of the year) the violet girl continues to do well and was a HUGE baby at 64 grams, her sister was half her size and didn’t make it through the first night. 

Times like these are very difficult and unfortunately are much too common in the life of a breeder.