nevous twitch or defect

[fudge_scrat_rust]

hello im wondering if anyone out there in this vast world has any idea of what is wrong with my dilute male i suspect in breeding as but cant be sure as i have no evedence well this is how it is he sits on his nest box and his head drifts to one side then he corrects it then it happens again and again you get the idea this chipmunk seems to be radged messed up in the head any ideas on why he does this

[xoxkayxox]

Can i also add that these 2 dilutes are my Tiffanys 2 brothers. I also suspect inbreeding from the breeder. The reasons:
1. The mother ate a baby at a week old
2. 1 male died a week or so after it was in its new home
3. Fudge_scrat_rust's dilute has an unknown tilty head problem

Also every chipmunk from the litter is extremley nervous and Tiffany is particulaly bad we cant even go into the room without her hiding in a corner scared stiff and shes been here for quite a few weeks and i would have thought she would have settled abit by now. Also the 2 dilutes from Fudge_scrat_rust's litter attacked his other chipmunk which is odd because ive usually found that chipmunks that young dont attack that badly.
I suspect inbreeding because surley a healthy strong litter wouldnt have all these things going on!?! Theres not 1 chipmunk that has left me that has had any problems at all so i cant understand why her litters so bad if its not down to bad genes.
I did ask her before i got Tiffany and she said they werent inbred. I for one most certainly wont be recommending her and am considering taking her off the breeders directory from my site.
Kay xx

[Crazymunk]

I'm supporting Kay on this one! When I spoke to her earlier on MSN my gut instinct was Inbred. As most of you know my Fidget has had two huge litters and I have never encountered any problems. One "fault" in a litter maybe but this seems to be the whole litter......

[drakkonia]

How long has this head drift been going on? I saw this in a juvenile wild squirrel once. He seemed fine when he was moving, but when he stopped, his head would drift to one side, then he'd jerk it back straight, it would drift back, over and over. I can't say for sure how long he had that condition, but he got better a week or two after he started visiting my backyard. He is absolutely fine now.

[squirrelfriend]

My Grumblebee does this "head drift" thing. I have a few squirrels here that have ballance problems of one sort or another. None are related to each other and all had it before they got here. That is why they are here. I have been trying to figure out what causes these ballance problems. Inbreeding has crossed the mind at one point but I know that is not the case in all of them. I know Weebles didn't have it until later in life. SHe doesn't have the head drift problem. She just wobbles and falls over when sitting. She used to have a drunken walk as well but that improved with time.

Best of luck on your little guy. I hope he ends up ok.

[xoxkayxox]

Hi everyone.
Incase you havent been reading the chipmunks thread(my dilutes of claire) ive decided to post in here aswell that Bargey was killed by the 2 dilutes today. Bargey was one of Max's babies who you all watched grow up in Max's baby thread, we(myself and the owners) are all very upset and also angry at the breeder.
We have both emailed Claire, heres the email i sent to her..
Hi Claire,
Iam writing to you as i have become increasingly concerned about the litter you sold/swapped to myself, Ian and Jo.
As you should realise it is an extremley bad litter and every few weeks it seems more problems arise with them.
Im going to go through every problem ive heard from this litter and i hope from reading through it you will realise how bad the litter has been and split the mother and father up, they should never be aloud to breed again as obviously they a bad match.
The first problem we came across was that 1 of the babies was eaten very young.
The second thing was that even though you 'tamed' them they were all extremley nervous, i think Tiffany is probably the worst, she hides when we walk in the room. Its not usual for such young chipmunks to act so scared, even in the wild the wouldnt be that scared they would be naturally curious.
The third problem was that Freddie(with Jo) became very ill and a vet diagnosed it as being a heart problem, this is also odd for such a young chipmunk, he then passed away.
The forth problem was that the dilute pair attacked and almost killed Ians chipmunk Scrat and have today attacked and killed his chipmunk(from my litter) Bargey who is almost the same age as the dilutes. Chipmunks as young as these arent aggressive in that way, they CAN become aggressive when they become sexually active but even then its rare that they would kill. Also another point to that is that dilutes are usually more timid a catty than agoutis. Its very strange that they attacked and killed the way they did.
The last problem i know of is that 1 of the dilutes, the more aggressive of the 2 is acting rather odd in that when he is sat still his head tilts and he will straighten it back up again but then will start to tilt again.

I hope from going through all those things you will do the right thing and split that pair up. I know you said you havent inbred as that would have crossed my mind so maybe one of them has very bad genes? Either way they shouldnt be bred from again. No other breeder including myself has experianced such a high number of problems in 1 litter, 1 small problem maybe but nothing like this.

Kay

[Crazymunk]

I have already spoken to Kay about this as both being Chipmunk breeders we talk on MSN messenger a lot. I'm as devastated as she is. I know just how much hard work she has put into her babies and to loose one is this way must be heartbreaking to both her and Ian...Lets pray it never happens again!