Greenwood Chinchillas
Dwarf Chinchillas
Though they appear to be popular in the United States, miniature or more correctly named, dwarf chinchillas have not been grasped as popular so far within the UK. We personally do not breed dwarf chinchillas and have no intentions to do so - however this page is added to provide some of the history behind them for those people that do have an interest.
The facts about how the dwarf chinchilla has been produced and breed have been acquired from a variety of sources upon the net and from articles.
Dwarfism does not mean simply smaller than normal chinchillas, dwarfism is a genetic change in the make up of the animal itself - generally shown by oversized paws and head in relation to main body size. Animals that are genetically dwarves are most likely to be infertile - natures way of stopping the traits from being passed on.
Pete and Sue Kiseskey’s ranch, PSK Chinchilla, of Southern California is the original source of the main lines of fertile dwarfs being bred today .
A true dwarf standard male was littered by a normal violet female at PSK in approximately 1989, with the typical dwarfish traits of a large head, very large eyes, short legs, an extremely small round body and a 2 inch long tail. At 7 years old he was sold for a modest price, as an unproven male, by Sue Kiseskey of PSK to Gaby Scheidig of Southern California as a pet animal of low quality who was infertile and ok to pair to a pet female.
He proved himself fertile when paired to a normal standard female that was owned when a mummified kit was produced pre-term.
Not wanting to breed chinchillas and only keeping them as pets, after aperiod of living on his own, the male was sold to a mutation breeder in Encinitas, California who had expressed an interest in having him.
The breeder paired him to many standard females and produced standard sized animals with all the kits that were born. The first generation were all of normal size and proved to be fertile. When the offspring were crossed to each dwarf offspring were born - signifying that though the first generation were normal sized they were carrying the dwarf trait (heterozygous for dwarfism).
This then proved that the dwarfism producing these animals was genetically a homozygous trait, and needed to be present from both parents in order for a kit to be a dwarf.
The original male was long lived and very productive.
Selective breeding to additional standard sized animals produced further dwarfism carriers - which proved to be fertile in themselves. These were then sold on to other breeders where they proved to also be carriers and produced further offspring which were matched to other colour mutations to produce the wide range that are now available.
NOTE: Dwarf females should NOT be paired to normal sized males! There WILL be birth problems as the kits will be too large to be delivered. So only dwarf males and carriers should be used for breeding to normal sized animals.