by Martie Lownsberry

Created on: July 25, 2009   Last Updated: July 26, 2009

There are only three reasons I can think of why someone would need to know how to care for a baby chinchilla.

1.You are either thinking about or have just purchased a weaned Chinchilla who is the appropriate age and weight to be sold and want to make sure you are properly caring for it so it can have a long and healthy life.

2. You have rescued a pregnant chinchilla or a young chinchilla without a mother and need to know how to properly care for it.

3. You have bred a pair of Chinchilla's without first looking into all the necessary information you need to successfully breed and raise chinchillas.

Hopefully, For the sake of the mother Chinchilla and the kits that will soon be arriving the last reason is not your reason for looking into baby Chinchilla care. Care for the mother is of paramount importance to having a healthy chinchilla kit, and no one should bred any animal without doing a great deal of research, talking to experts, and making informed decisions.

However, once the kits have arrived, they must be cared for properly and this article will give you the basics of properly caring for a baby Chinchilla no matter how the kit arrived in the first place.

Caring for a newborn kit

In most cases where a kit or kits are born to healthy mother caring for a newborn baby chinchilla is a very simple process. You need to do very little except let the mother and nature take it's course. Mother Chinchilla's are great at taking care of a their own kits and seldom need human intervention.

In these cases all you need to do is inspect the kit after birth to ensure that it is healthy, keep a record of weight to make sure it is growing properly, and play with it to ensure that it gets accustomed to being handled by humans. Human contact is important to the socialization of a pet chinchilla.

There are occasions however when the mother has difficulty feeding her kits. This usually occurs when she has a larger litter and does not have enough milk for all the kits to be fed properly. In such a case you may have supplement the mother's milk or feed the kit entirely by hand.

Due to the many people giving advice on formulas for hand rearing Chinchilla kits, you should seek the advice of a vet or an established breeder in your area. They can give you the best information and advice when supplementing or hand rearing a kit.

Sometimes, in larger litters removing the stronger and larger of the kits for short periods of time and allowing the smaller and weaker ones to feed

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