Chin colours

[Akunaferret]

Not 100% where to put this, but I've been curious.

I read somewhere that chinchillas in the wild are all a standard gray colour. Didn't domestic chins start out as wild chinchillas? Where did the colours come from then?

 

[xoxoimhis]

i'm watching this one. i'd like to know as well

 

[threewingedfury]

That's correct, all of the chinchillas in the wild are standard gray. The 11 chinchillas that we started with for captive breeding in the US were all standard gray in the 1920s. Over the years, mutations began to pop up in herds out of pairs - the first three dominant mutations were the Wilson White (1955), Tower Beige (1960) and the Gunning Black in 1960. Through the years, more popped up in herds - ebony, violet, sapphire, etc. Ranchers worked with the pairs and linebred to increase the number of these mutations and to try to improve them.

 

[timandben]

oh, so mutations like this happened in the wild right? but those chins died out because they were spotted to easily by predators or something right? but when it happened in the herd, the ranchers would keep those chins alive ad reproduce from them. is that accurate?

 

[xoxoimhis]

so they just randomly bred 2 standard greys and another color came
up in the babies randomly?? sorry if that sounded dumb lol.

 

[timandben]

well, it was probably a recessive gene or something, like how two people with brown eyes can have a blue eyed kid. sorry we had a semester on genetics last year and this thread is kinda dreading all that up

 

[Akunaferret]

I was thinking the same thing tim, it was their genes somewhere, but if they were all standards in the wild, where did the gene come from?

 

[Mt. Zion Chins]

spontaneous mutations happens all the time with anything - cats/dogs, etc. Then breeders decide they want to 'work with them'. It takes A LOT of work to 'perfect these animals'

 

[Stackie]

Like Barb said, spontaneous mutations happen in almost everything. Read up a little about genetics and mutations and you'll learn a lot.

 

[Brittany]

Here's a nice (longer version) of the history: http://www.prairiechinchillas.com/info.html#history

 

[RDZCRanch]

Because of the way mammals create gametes and reproduce makes room for random mutations though they do not occur often. The mutation that occurs can be either a dominant or recessive gene. Reading up on Meiosis and you'll learn a lot about what creates genetic variation in sexually reproducing organisms. Whenever DNA is duplicated, mutations (a change in the nuecleotide sequence) can and do occur from misreading of the DNA or other complications that come from the speedy process. When you change the sequence of the DNA, you can change what those sequences code for physically.

Our colors in chinchillas arose from random mutations in the coat color sequence and yes, they came out of two standards paired together.

 

[Akunaferret]

thank you everyone very much, I was very curious about this after reading that they were standards in the wild. genetics are just so amazing, no?

 

[mishalaa]

The color mutations we have today all occured spontaneously in domesticated animals out of standard animals. Any mutations that pop up in the wild population usually quickly die out due to natural selection - one exception to this though would be what we call standards.

Wild agouti coloring in rodents is brown hair with a yellow bar. A mutation occured on the C gene in chinchillas to wipe out the ability to produce pheomelanin, leaving them with black hair and a white bar. This mutation in chinchillas faired better in the wild than the agouti coloring and so now what we call standard is the wild type, and the original, non-mutated C gene is out of the gene pool entirely.

 

[xoxoimhis]

The color mutations we have today all occured spontaneously in domesticated animals out of standard animals. Any mutations that pop up in the wild population usually quickly die out due to natural selection - one exception to this though would be what we call standards.

Wild agouti coloring in rodents is brown hair with a yellow bar. A mutation occured on the C gene in chinchillas to wipe out the ability to produce pheomelanin, leaving them with black hair and a white bar. This mutation in chinchillas faired better in the wild than the agouti coloring and so now what we call standard is the wild type, and the original, non-mutated C gene is out of the gene pool entirely.

off topic, but your picture makes me squeal with
delight every time i see it!! SOOO cute!! lol