CHINCHILLA COLOURS

(under construction)

Standard Grey

picture courtesy of granite city chinchillas

Standard grey is the original colour of chinchillas found in the wild, what we see today with mutation colours has been developed over time within certain breeder herds mostly in the USA.  In more simple terms greys have a light to dark grey coat with a pure white tummy and chest often having a dark veiling over the back giving them a light to dark appearance from above (not to be confused with a black velvet).  Good quality chinchillas no matter what colour should ideally give off a blue appearance to their colour, but you will only find this in show quality well bred animals, quite often the blue haze is lost to unscrupulous breeding and my feeling is - nothing is more beautiful than a chinchilla that glows blue.

Black Velvet

picture courtesy of granite city chinchillas

A Black Velvet is a mutation colour and consists of a black colour over the back and head/face coming down the sides and eventually descending to a grey colour that you see in standard greys.  They have the same characteristic white chest and underbelly as has the Grey.  They display paw spats which is a flash of their black down the insides of their front paws

Brown Velvet

This mutation is derived from a Beige to Black Velvet breeding and their colour is brown (medium to dark) over the back and head graduating to Beige at the sides with a clear crisp white chest and underbelly.  Lighter coloured not so obvious browns are described as poor quality as they ideally should be a vibrant obvious brown that cascades well down the sides giving a definate and obvious indication that the animal is indeed a Brown Velvet.  Like the Black Velvet above they also display the paw spats but they are brown in appearance.

Wilson White

picture courtesy of granite city chinchillas

(also known as Mosaic or silver)

The Wilson White can vary in appearance, in general the animal can appear vastly white with no graduation of fur colour change to the under coat, they can be largely grey with white patches or vice versa but are still all known as Wilson White.  Silvers have more dark grey/dark guard hairs (this can be seen by looking across the chinchillas back at eye level and its dark guard hairs ( as above picture demostrates) will be more obvious and look like a grey veiling throught he white at a distance), this is what defines them as silvers rather than just Wilson Whites.

Hetero/Homo Beige (homo being a cross of two beige genes see below in Mutation Crosses)

picture courtesy of granite city chinchillas

The  Hetero Beige is mostly beige in appearance ranging from medium to dark and also have veiling which can range in medium to dark (depending on the standard greys used to breed them), they have a white clear crisp underbelly and chest.  Homo Beige is very light in appearance sometimes described as a champagne colour on some websites - they are a more light creamy beige and derive from two beige parents either hetero to hetero or homo to hetero, the latter giving a higher percentage in producing a homo beige offspring.  Both derivatives of beige have the characteristic red eyes and pink ears.

Pink White

picture courtesy of granite city chinchillas

Pink Whites derived from a beige to white mating and they are often a creamy white colour in appearance (depending on quality - quite often a well bred pink white can be more of a vibrant white, again this is down to what animals you use when producing them) often having more beige showing through over their coat colour, a high prescence of beige all over can often be referred to as a Beige White Cross rather than a Pink White, again like beige chinchillas they display the red eye colour and Pink ears giving them their Pink White names.

Ebony

picture courtesy of isabelle

Ebonys range from Light to dark  Black in colour - the lights often being mistaken for greys, in the breeding world this is determental to your herd as you do not want any ebony in your lines if you do not breed them - this can ruin the colours of your offspring and produce unwanted results.  I do not breed any ebony and it is a colour i dont like, although i did breed them in my early years i have no pressence of any ebony through my current lines.  Ebonys do not have white underbellys or chests, but are a uniformed dark colour all over giving a wrap effect.

There are many other colour combinations you can get from mixing certain mutations.  I breed show quality chinchillas and mixing mutations tend to produce lower quality animals.  Please visit the Silverfall Genetics Calculator too see which mutations produce certain offspring.

Sapphire

picture courtesy of granite city chinchillas

Sapphires are a described as a dilution or a kind of derivative of the normal standard grey colour, to many it can look like a standard grey - but seeing a good quality well bred sapphire produces a notable different appearance in colour to greys.  They also have clear crisp white underbellys and white chests.  They are a relatively weak mutation and there is one or two UK breeders working to improve the mutation, Etherdale Chinchillas have produced some colour champion sapphires in recent years (see link on my links page to find their site) 

Violet

picture courtesy of granite city chinchillas

Violets were originally known as Sullivan Violets (sullivan being the breeder that discovered the mutation), they are a beautiful Violet (lilac) blue colour and this appears to be all over until you look at the chest and underside, they should ideally have a white crisp clear underbelly and chest and the contrast of the white and violet is very eyecatching.

Ultra Violet

picture courtesy of granite city chinchillas

Ultras (known as TOV - touch of velvet - violets in the USA) are derived from a mating of Black Velvet Violet carrier to Violet, this produces a Violet but with a lovely often darker sheen across the back and over the head as does Black or Brown Velvets have.  Ultras are said to have Paw spats - a show of their colour going down the inside of their front paws  (clearly seen in above picture) - which of course is also seen with black and brown velvets.

Deutsch Violet

awaiting image

The Deutsch Violet is not yet available in the UK but are being bred by one breeder - Etherdale Chinchillas, they are said to be more of a darker violet, having been described as more of an Aubergine colour compared to existing violets.  They cannot be likened to the Violet as they are a different recessive mutation entirely.

Dominant/Recessive Mutations

Dominant mutations are Black Velvet, White, Biege and Ebony - these animals paired to a standard grey will produce 50% grey or 50% the colour used to breed with the grey.

Recessive mutations are Violet  (including deutsch) Sapphire and Charcoal.  When breeding recessive chinchillas both parents have to carry or be the recessive colour to produce the colour or a carrier of the colour.  Breeding Recessives can be quite daunting and a lot of care and consideration is needed to produce a good quality recessive or carrier.  Carriers tend to be poor in quality if good quality foundation animals are not bred from.

Mutation Crosses: (some, but not all the combinations  you can use to bred one)

Black White Cross - bred from a Black Velvet to White

Brown White Cross - a combination of Beige x White x Black Velvet

Brown Velvet - Black Velvet x Beige

Homo Beige - Homo beige x Hetero Beige or Hetero x Hetero or Homo x Homo

Pink White - Wilson White x Hetero Beige

Tan - Ebony x Beige

Royal Blue - Combination of Sapphire and Black Velvet (please see Etherdale Chinchillas for a more indepth description)

Pastels, Charblacks etc -  please visit Davidson Chinchillas, Claire is a fellow breeder and one of the very few here in the UK working on the mutation.  I have never worked with them so i will leave their descriptions to the people i know that are more knowledgeable than i am.

Ultra Violet - Violet x Black Velvet VC (violet carrier)  See above for more info on Ultras

Ultra Deutsch Violet - Deutsch Violet x Black Velvet DVC (deustsch violet carrier)