| Chinchilla Colors at a Glance |
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| Gray, normal, standard gray - the color of some 90% of chinchillas yet not totally dominate. Gray is 50% dominate to bv, white and beige. |
| Click on the separate pics below for more info on each |
| GRAY |
| WHITE |
| White in the original (dominate) form is called "Wilson White". There are also various other names like mosaic, silver and pure white. All of them being the same gene, but different effects on the base color. Commonly that base color is gray but can be combined with other colors. This color can only be seen in heterozygous form. |
| BEIGE |
| Beige (Tower Beige) can occur in both homozygous and heterozygous forms. Beige can be combined with other colors to make some interesting colors |
| Black Velvet |
| The Velvet gene (touch of velvet) creates the dark veil of color over the head, neck and back of the animals coat. When combined with gray the Black Velvet is created. Slower breeding & starting to breed later in life is a common trait in BV and other TOV |
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| Chinchilla Colors at a Glance |
| Three Types of Chinchillas (wild type) |
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| More on the differences of beige and the recessive beiges |
| EBONY/ Charcoal |
| The darkening "wrap" gene could be described as multi-layering of various recessive and dominate, some weakly dominate genes. That creates the varying degree in blackness of the fur. Heterozygous and homozygous lables are misleading with this color type. I suggest using light, medium, dark and very dark to clarify degrees of darkness in the ebony/charcoals. |
| TAN |
| Tan is the combination of beige and charcoal. Many variables may affect depth and tone of the tan. Homo or het beige with a very dark or medium ebony can create degrees of color know as Pastel (lighter), Tan (medium) and Chocolate (dark). Like the other char/ebs the color is wrapping the body. Tan could be combined with white or TOV. |
| beige X ebony |
| PINK WHITE |
| Pink white is "Wilson White" and beige combined. Like all whites, coverage can vary to create golden or beige mosaic, "Rose" , Starlight or Apple Blossom. PW can be combined with Char and TOV genes. The beige maybe either in homo or het form. |
| Brown Velvet TOV |
| TOV causes the dark veil over the back of the chinchilla. Beige and TOV make brown velvet. Velvet can be combined with all colors listed but can only exist in heterozygous form. |
| Violet Afro Violet |
| Sapphire |
| Recessive that can combine with all other colors and patterns. Other recessives can also be carried |
| Why did I try to explain chinchilla colors?? I guess that as I try to explain it, I keep learning myself! |
| Another recessive that can combine with all other colors and patterns. Other recessives can also be carried. |
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| Chin colors explained |
| Chin colors explained |