_Breeding chinchillas is going to be my new project.  So far I have managed to create chinchillas by breeding a white/lilac argente with a pink eyed or dark eyed white, but these sometimes produce chinchillas with white patches.  It is best to only keep the ones without white patches and use these for future breeding, and stick to using pigs with ticking.   I have also produced chinchillas by using a pink eyed white with a black fox, but I have decided this is not really ideal as you are introducing the plain gene from the fox.   The matings above have all produced silver chinchillas, if you wanted to produce cinnamon chinchillas, this would be possible using a white/beige argente or a chocolate fox with your respective self white.   I did get a couple of cinnamon chinchillas from my black fox sow, but I think this was because she had chocolate fox in her breeding.   My next step has been to breed chinchilla to chinchilla and this has produced some chinchillas and also (unfortunately) some dark eyed and pink eyed whites, and also some self chocolates.   If I keep breeding only chinchilla with chinchilla, I am hoping only chinchillas will be produced, and they will breed true, and this will produce the chinchillas with the correct genotype (AA).  I have also found that the silver chinchillas with the best colour, ie not too dark, are those that are carrying the chocolate gene (Bb).

The proposed genotype for the silver chinchilla is AABbcrcrEE and for the cinnamon chinchilla AAbbcrcrEE.

Here are the guidelines for describing a chinchilla that have been accepted by the RVCC and BCC. 
We had to change the description of the colours to the ones below.  I will find it hard to change my description, they will always be silver or cinnamon chinchillas to me!!  These notes do not have to be taken along to shows now, the description has now been distributed to all judges.

CHINCHILLA GUIDANCE NOTES

A cavy with long ticked agouti-pattern all over the body except for white or cream areas that must be clearly defined and distinct.  These are restricted to eye circles, nostrils, jowls, chest and belly.  The belly should be wide and just visible when the cavy is viewed from the side, but not a crisp line against the ticked side of the body.  The Chinchilla has a paler base colour than the normal Agouti, to be as pale a shade as possible without losing the desired grey pigmentation on skin, ears and eye rims.  Too dark a shade of body colour is a fault.

Allowable colours are:

WHITE/GREY CHINCHILLA:  pale grey base with long white ticking, white markings.

WHITE/BEIGE CHINCHILLA:  beige/mink base with white ticking, white markings. 

CREAM/GREY CHINCHILLA:  pale grey base with long cream ticking, cream markings.

CREAM/BEIGE CHINCHILLA:  beige/mink base with long cream ticking, cream markings.

Here is a picture of Maxwell and Mozart side by side (father and son), so you can see the difference in a white/beige (cinnamon) and a white/grey (silver) chinchilla.  Then following the tradition is a picture of Mozart and Merlin, also father and son.  Mozart here is now darker as he is older and Merlin is very pale as he is only 6 months old.

_Here is another one to compare with Merlin and Sugar.

_And then Sherbet with her dad Merlin.  Sherbert is a cream/beige.

_Here is Leia, a good example of a silver (white/grey) chinchilla.

_Here is Leia again and her sister Topsy, when they were about 6 weeks old.

_Here is a picture of two brothers born in June 2009, sons of Mandy and Maxwell, Mozart is the one on the left, Magnus on the right has gone to live with my friend Anne.   They look very similar to Leia and Topsy above at about the same age.   It is better to keep the lighter (whiter) babies as they do get darker with age and gradually turn into the correct colour.   So the best coloured ones here are Mozart and Leia.   

_Here is a picture of Mozart on his own, so you can see how much lighter they are when they are young.  This is a very good example of a young silver chin with very soft ticking while young, which becomes a lot clearer  and darker as they get older.

_This is Maxwell (The Brick) he is a cinnamon (white/beige) chinchilla boar.

_Here is a young cinnamon (white/beige) chinchilla boar called Miracle.  Here he is about 11 weeks and all his correct ticking has not come through yet.

_Here is Pickle when she was young, she is a cream/grey chinchilla.

_Here also is Pickle's half brother Mylo, he is a cream/beige chinchilla, the same as Sherbert.   He belongs to my friend Jackie.