Chinchillas (Laboratory) - Pathology
Introduction
The chinchilla is a type of hystricomorph rodent and there are two types; the Chinchilla langier, or long-tail and the Chinchilla chinchilla which has a short tail. Chinchilla are found in the wild at altitudes of between 9,000-12,000 ft within the Andes in South America. Chinchilla have been kept in captivity since 1923 when a small number of animals were brought to North America.
Strains and Stocks
Physiology
Most laboratory chinchilla are provided with a variety of components in their diet which includes pellets and hay. Although chinchillas eat large volumes of hay they do not drink a proportionate volume of water and chinchillas are known to survive on remarkably small amounts of water.
Chinchillas have very dry faeces and only produce very small volumes of urine with very little odour. The chinchilla requires room temperature (18-24C) and approximately 14hrs of daylight or artificial light if in labs, is optimal.
Within a laboratory environment chinchillas are not prolific breeders and they can be difficulty in maintaining breeding stocks. Puberty is not usually reached until approximately 8 months old and they have long oestrous cycles of 41 days with 2 to 3 days of oestrous. The length of gestation for a chinchilla is 111 days and the range of litter sizes varies between 1 to 6 with 1 or 2 'kits' most common. Larger sized litters may result in fatal fighting amongst the kits.
Kits are usually weaned at between 6 to 8 weeks and at this age it is possible to pass these young onto another lactating mother without any commonly encountered rejection issues. Chinchillas have a post-partum oestrous ans therefore it is possible to produce two litters in a breeding season which is between November to May, although the male is fertile throughout the year.
Copulation between chinchillas can be confirmed by the existance of a copulatory plug.
General Behavioural Characteristics
Unless regularly handled, adult chinchilla can be very aggressive. This is especially common in females and therefore these should be kept in separate cages. If weanlings or young chinchillas are introduced to another female it is likely that the adult will kill the young.
Most chinchilla require a sand-bathing tray for their grooming processes called dusting.