Two days before our breeder does are due to give birth, we put in about 2-3 inches thick of shredded newspapers inside their nest box and scatter the rest of the shredded newspapers on the floor. As soon as the nest box is inside the cage, the doe will jump right in and would make a scratching motion as if she is digging for gold and everything would come flying out of the box. Then she would lie down to take a rest and get back with her mission of digging once again. Soon after, all the shredded newspapers strewn all over the floor would be gathered by using her lips and she would bring these back inside the nest box. Huh? Doesn't make sense but that's how it is and that's how it's always been with them. They arrange their nest according to their own design. So their next job is to pull some furs from their dewlap and put these in with the shredded newspapers inside their nest box. Then once they are content with their work, then they do what they do best, give birth to their litters.
We usually breed our does by twos or by threes or sometimes even by four does at a time. The advantage of this system is that the does with a fewer litter could foster the kits of the other does with a bigger litter. So anyway, we were expecting these two does to give birth that night. The next morning, my sister-in-law Emy was wondering why one of the expectant does did not come out of her nest box whereas the other doe was already out and about. So Emy looked inside the box and found this Chinchilla doe stretched to her full length inside the nest box and was already dead. The doe was doing fine just last night when we fed her and we were expecting her to give birth that night.We do not know what caused her death and this is our first time to lose a doe in giving birth. There was no injury on any part of her body so we just assumed that she may have had a difficult time in giving birth last night. So we were all saddened by this loss. She was a very good breeder and we wanted to honor her life so we buried her in the flower beds in the garden.
