Jenn
ZooKeeper
I wanna purple chin...
I wanna purple chin...
It's called a violet. That's as purple as you're gonna get.
You have to focus on a goal when breeding, otherwise you are just another backyard/pet store/rescue breeder. Right now, that goal is to breed to pelt standard. That doesn't mean all the animals who meet, exceed, or fall below that standard are pelted. It means that you have to have something to strive for, and the pelt standard is it.
So sure, I suppose someone could try to breed a red chin. Nowadays, I suspect it would be ugly as heck, because it's not going to look like a fox. It's going to look like a nasty tinted chin that no respectable breeder would have anywhere near their herd.
A red chin - akin to a guinea pig or fox - is simply not possible without a new spontaneous mutation. Chinchillas do not produce pheomelanin pigment granules, only eumelanin.
The closest you're going to get with only eumelanin granules is rusty beige.
If done correctly and responsibly, quality can remain while something like color is developed.
Every knowledgeable rancher in the world can have the best intentions, but as soon as the backyard Bubba figures out he can make .50 cents more with the purty red chins, they will start breeding the crap out of them, mixing them in with everything and anything.
Which is exactly why it isn't being done. Take a look around, even you just on this forum in the past few days. Take a look at the "responsible" breeders. Every knowledgeable rancher in the world can have the best intentions, but as soon as the backyard Bubba figures out he can make .50 cents more with the purty red chins, they will start breeding the crap out of them, mixing them in with everything and anything.
Look how many people are foaming at the mouth to get ahold of the angoras. Why? So they can breed the crap out of them and make money. Quality won't matter. What will matter is how much Bubba can make off of his extreme/polka dotted/long furred/fire engine red chinchilla. Won't matter that it's 300 gm and shaped like a piece of pie. It would matter a lot to the people who have been working hard to do better than this.
I'm sorry Laurie, but a red (orange'ish) chin? Yuck. I would never want to see it.
If it ever happened it would be a disaster for quality. Every off color chin would be a "red carrier". They would be passed on to the unknowing as something special, and off color chins would run a muck.
As a further note, nobody has "developed" a color in chins, closest we have was gunning, but he still started with a mutation. There isn't a red mutation. We have allels we try to breed away from that lead to red tints, but they have been around for eons. If they had the capacity to produce a true red chin that was distinguishable as red and not a off color standard that chin would exist by now.
Just because you "can" doesn't mean you "should". Red is a highly undesirable trait in the show world to begin with. I can't see any responsible breeder wanting to make a chin even more red.
Red is off color. The two are equal, how can you breed for red chins without passing on the red? Again, you don't seem to understand what a mutation is...there is no red mutation. There are allels that lead to red tint that have been around for eons, we pretty much know what they cause and they do not cause a red colored chin, they cause off colored red tint.The off color wouldn't neccesarily have to be passed on. Lets say I have said chins. "red carrier" + standard = off color, red tinted standard. I would end the line right there by taking said kit out of breeding.
Without a random mutation this won't happen. It is like you playing cards with a standard deck and expecting to draw a knight. That card isn't in the deck. As for improving clarity, clarity is a lack of red and yellow, so how do you improve clarity while keeping red?By developed, I don't mean "developed". I'm talking more along the lines of, the color was brought out, made better, quality and clarity improved, etc.
Again you are making a false assumption. Ever since the industry made the push for extra dark blacks and standards in the 70's off color animals have been bred, and I am sure they were before. What many people fail to realize is that a extra dark standard that is off color and would never be shown is worth much more as a pelt then a grand show champion medium standard. There are many of these animals bred around the world for pelt production, and there were even more in the past...yet no red chins...just more off color extra darks. Again as I said before, the genes have to be there, and they simply aren't in the gene pool, and nothing anybody does is gonna change that.Maybe i'm just not understanding what you mean, but after many many generations of breeding "off colored" standards together, wouldn't it eventually lead to chins that are mostly off colored and hardly have any of the original standard color showing through? We don't know because usually any chin with an off color is never put into breeding, let alone bred for many generations.
Do you have any understanding of why red is avoided? It's not just something somebody picked, it is driven by the market. For one red tones have been found less appealing to the eye, but that one is easy to see with two chins under show lights. The other reason is reds oxidize into oranges and browns and coppery tones. Over time every garment oxidizes and nobody wants a coppery orangey garment.Lets say, just for example, black was as highly avoided as red. People don't want any black showing through in their chins. Why? If this was true, no "responsible" breeder would ever try to bring black out in a chinchilla, and therefore no black chins would exist today. (fyi, I'm aware that chin genes don't work like this, i'm just using it as en example)
The red that is in the chins today isn't a separate mutation. It's a trait like a pointy nose or anything else off color.
Orange chins are not pretty, they make me angry when I see them. They make me angry because it means that the breeder was not at all selective in the chins that were put together. Mostly likely it means that the "breeder" decided that any two chins would do and threw them together. Thankfully most chins have been bred well enough to not have an orange tint to them.
I know that when I breed chins I want them to be very clear in their coloring, I want good veiling, I want nice shape and I want a healthy animal as a result. There are standards. Reddish tint is ugly and it usually demonstrates what I said before. It generally means "POOR QUALITY" when breeders or ranchers see it. Oh, and if it is so bad that you can see it without bright lights, it's just an abomination.
People do have access to red tinted animals. I have an ebony that I adored and just loved her size and her fur quality. At about a year of age I could see the brown/red in her belly fur and also on her head. I'll probably keep her here not because I am embarrassed by her, but because I don't want someone to think that because she was born HERE that she is breedable.
I agree with Peggy. There is a higher purpose in not creating these undesirable chins! It isn't about the money. We're trying to hopefully preserve something of quality and I don't think any breeder wants to have a bad reputation for purposefully breeding red chins. It's important! A herd can be absolutely destroyed by breeding in off color chins!!!
A) Are you a breeder? I had no idea, I've never heard of you until you joined here. It was my understanding that you were a rescue. So, obviously, no I was not talking about you.
B) They will get their hands on chins just like anybody else. It's called "buying." You put your money down on the table and you receive what you were purchasing. It's the same way, I'm assuming, you got your chins and everybody else got theirs. Ranchers run a business. They sell their chins to support their business. Of course people are going to get ahold of them, just like they have with any other mutation. If only ranchers were going to have them, what would be the point? Anybody can walk up and say "I'm a responsible breeder, so you should sell them to me." How are they going to prove any different and why would they bother?
C) I'm going to bet, pretty highly, that people are not going to pay $3500.00 for a "pet" chinchilla, which is what angoras are going for, and sometimes higher than that. Right now they are only being sold overseas for exactly the reason I mentioned above - so Bubba can't get them, breed the piss out of them, and ruin any potential they may have. They corner the market right now, because they are the only ones who have them. Take a look around at some of the people dying to get their hands on Goldbars. Not because they want to better them, or further them, but because they are, in your words, "unique" and unique equals cha-ching. These people don't even believe in having standards in their breeding program, because they think they are ugly or won't sell. Most people who breed Goldbars, thankfully, won't just sell them to anybody, but that doesn't mean anybody doesn't keep trying to get their hands on them.
The first 5 month old angora male kit was advertised & sold here in the Uk the other week. Some muppet paid £2150 for it.So, no Bubba's exist overseas? I'm willing to counter your bet and say that someone over there is just as likely to breed the piss out of them as someone over here. Unique doesn't equal "cha-ching" for everyone. "these people" that you are talking about have different views, and different opinions on breeding, you cant just summarize them into one big group. I would like to have a goldbar myself, just as a lot of other people would, but I wouldn't breed it for the money, i'd breed it to higher the quality. And I wouldn't have a pair without one of them being a standard, or fathered/mothered by a standard.
I think a pure red chin like a fox would be adorable, not an "abomination". Who's to say what colors are desirable and which arn't? its a matter of opinion. Just like some people find the red eyes in certian chins to be ugly or creepy, others love their red eyed chins. I would love to own a red chinchilla.
Red is off color. The two are equal, how can you breed for red chins without passing on the red? Again, you don't seem to understand what a mutation is...there is no red mutation. There are allels that lead to red tint that have been around for eons, we pretty much know what they cause and they do not cause a red colored chin, they cause off colored red tint.
Without a random mutation this won't happen. It is like you playing cards with a standard deck and expecting to draw a knight. That card isn't in the deck. As for improving clarity, clarity is a lack of red and yellow, so how do you improve clarity while keeping red?
Again you are making a false assumption. Ever since the industry made the push for extra dark blacks and standards in the 70's off color animals have been bred, and I am sure they were before. What many people fail to realize is that a extra dark standard that is off color and would never be shown is worth much more as a pelt then a grand show champion medium standard. There are many of these animals bred around the world for pelt production, and there were even more in the past...yet no red chins...just more off color extra darks. Again as I said before, the genes have to be there, and they simply aren't in the gene pool, and nothing anybody does is gonna change that.
Do you have any understanding of why red is avoided? It's not just something somebody picked, it is driven by the market. For one red tones have been found less appealing to the eye, but that one is easy to see with two chins under show lights. The other reason is reds oxidize into oranges and browns and coppery tones. Over time every garment oxidizes and nobody wants a coppery orangey garment.
But couldn’t you take all those rusty-beiges and breed them together to make a completely rust colored chin?
Enter your email address to join: