dilemer

[jane]

hi i have a sort of friend that has two related chipmunks one is from the same litter as my suzie and the other one is from a previouse litter they both have the same parents, she breed them back in feb and the full litter died all deformed, we all told her not to do it but she went ahead anyway, i did offer my unrelated male to her but she didn't take the offer, just heard today that she did it again  and the litter died , am worried for the chippies as she's refusing to part them and is now thinking she can breed her female with a male born this yr to the parents of her's when it's old enough but in the mean time still continue to breed her female with the male she has, am considering contacting the rspca 

[Teresa]

surely this is cruelty to animals so I would contact the rspca.  Even though it may be hard to prove, a visit from them may be enough to stop her.

Teresa

[jinkim65]

I really have to agree with Teresa there. If against all proper advice your friend is still insisting on breeding siblings, this needs to be dealt with by the rspca.

Good luck

[judyw]

I would ring the RSPCA too.
I did it in the past. The animals weren't treated and looked after the right way.
Good luck

[jane]

thanks for the advise i think i'll give them a ring tomorrow, i don't think she's a true lover of the pet's and is just out to see what she can get from them.

[jennyb]

I would report her if she is deliberately breeding them when she knows the risk.

Sadly i know how bad inbreeding is. When i had my first litter in 2001 i didn't separate the two surviving babies (Hazel Nut - female and Ginger Nut - male) from their mum and in 2003 she had three babies sadly all were weak and died young and one was badly deformed and then Sandie had one more baby a few months later who died his first day. I didn't realise at the time i was quite young but after seeing the deformed baby i knew it was wrong and separated Ginger from his family. I kept Sandie and Hazel together. I would never inbreed again which is why all my Chippies are from different breeders so there is no way they could be related. I somehow think this girl doesn't care about their welfare and is breeding them to make money out of them, i hope the girl stops this before more babies die.

[candyfloss]

I wouldn't hesitate & would make the call.
I have always used selective breeding & have never inbred any of my chips. I am seriously thinking of giving up breeding purely because i fear that this could happen to some of my offspring.
Although you think that your babies are going to responsible owners sometimes it's not the case.
I live on an island & there are enough jokes of us humans being interbred let alone the animals! 

It's probably a silly question but i wonder if chips interbreed in the wild? 

[pinkpill]

i'm sure they must inbreed sometimes as the males will just bonk away surely  i'm sure my males would bonk any of his daughters in season given the chance 

[judyw]

I am sure they do. They are like squirrels, they inbreed in the wild.

[jennyb]

I think wild ones probably do inbred at times but most of the time they probably wouldn't because i think the mum once the babies are independant will often chase them away from her territory before she gets pregnant again and they set up new territories on their own elsewhere. This may be to prevent inbreeding.