How to recognize a REAL chocolate

[Anne-Lise]

As I understand it, real chocolate chinchillas are extremely rare. We often mistake them for dark tans. A dark tan would be an eb (so call hetero) with a beige, and the choco would be the 'homo ebony' and the beige. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Then how would you exactly tell the difference between that Xdark tan and the real chocloate chinchilla. In fact I'm arguing with someone over her chin not being a chocolate but a tan and I want to understand the real difference in order to differentiate them myself.

Would you also have pictures to help me out? Picture of tans and chocolate (if someone do have one). I do have a tan here, but a very light one.

Here she is:

Is there any different with the underfur and actual single 'hair' they have on their fur?

Thanks a lot for your help guys :thumbsup:

 

[tunes]

We often mistake them for dark tans.

Actually, flip that. People often insist that dark tans are chocolates, and they are not. A TRUE chocolate is the brown version of a "homo" eb. Every hair shiny brown all the way down to the skin. A very well known breeder who was in the business for many years said she had seen what she would consider a chocolate one time. Other than that, they were just dark tans.

 

[Anne-Lise]

Loll yeah I meant the opposite, structure problem sorry! Thanks Tunes! Any link or good pictures?

 

[Spoof]

Some dark chocolate pictures;

 

[Spoof]

Actually, I have one on this thread.

For the line I breed I'll never get a darker one. The fur shaft when pulled will always have a slightly lighter bar. Many extra dark ebonies also have a slightly paler (non-shiny shaft) if you pull the fur.

It takes a specific line of beige to produce a chin with a dark shaft. I've only seen one and robbed it of some hair. It showed and placed as a medium hetero beige.

The lighter hetero beige was a lovely big gal, also classed as medium and showed very well. I stole her fur too

So the real question is, how well do you know the beige you're mixing with ebony?

 

[menagerie]

Some dark chocolate pictures;

Nice photos. It is dark and glossy and goes all the way down to the base.

 

[Laurie]

I know I like to call them dark chocolate tans because it sound so delicious! I would love to have either a dark tan or a chocolate chin!

 

[Anne-Lise]

Wow thanks spoof for all that info! I was in love with that picture of your little guy, he's so adorable! SO is he is considered very dark tan? So you need a line of beige that has a darker bar. My beige is from the Ryerson, I'll try and get a good pic of her hair, although I doubt I have that specific thing in her.

On the 2 pictures you posted, one is extremely light, that was a lighter tan no? I can see the light bar on the dark one though. So with a good beige for choco, that bar would be darker.

Without that darker bar, they can or can't be chocolate? AS you mentionned you can get one in ebonies too, I was not quite sure.

And on this link, in the tan section: http://www.sewardbreeders.com/page8.html there is onw tagged mochoa.

Is it possible wihtout looking at the fur directly to know if he's just a dark tan or a choco?

It's info like this I love, thanks a lot spoof!!!

 

[Riven]

I guess to me, in the end, it's still just a tan, just a like a "homo" ebony is still an ebony.

 

[Chin_Pig]

i was told mine is a light tan, i showed her as a light tan and the judged didnt say much about her not being a light.

ETA: my tan looks a lot darker than yours, Anne_Lise

 

[mishalaa]

Tans have their own class, unlike beige it doesn't matter how light or dark the tans are, they are all judged together. A true chocolate should not have any bar, the entire hair from root to tip will be uniform dark brown. You should be able to see if a chin has a bar or not, even without pulling some of the fur.

 

[Anne-Lise]

Yeah I got a very light tan. I know it's still an tan, choco is a tan per say, but I just want to get it clearly. Is there even such a thing as a chocolate chinchilla?

 

[CritterMom]

I thought a "true" chocolate was a brown color in relation to the charcoal gene. What color am I thinking of?

 

[Anne-Lise]

Well chocolate is not a 'separate' mutation like charcoal is. It is a combination of genes.

 

[LovableFuzziezandCrawliez]

Some dark chocolate pictures;

LOL nice! I want some of that chocolate!

I think the chocolate chinchillas are soo friggin beautiful! I would love to own one as well. How many breeders out there actually work with them? Do they find it difficult to keep producing high quality chocolates?

 

[starleomach]

I feel that a chocolate is a descriptive term, A chocolate is just a tan like nicole said like an ebony is an ebony, homo sems to be more discriptive then genetic

 

[Sugarmama]

I thought the true chocolates were over in Europe, not in the US? Doesn't Claire breed chocolates? Or is that charcoal? :hmm:

 

[Ash]

That's charcoals.

 

[Anne-Lise]

So is there really a agreement over the difference between dark tan and choco? Like Katie said, I would love to know who works with them as well. I know of a couple breeders who are in the dark tan, but is there anyone who was thought to have a 'chocolate'?

 

[Anne-Lise]

Just thought of something. If we can find some xdark ebs with a shaft, why do we expect the choco to have none? Are these dark ebs less likely to get a prize at a show for example?

Is that dark shaft thing a genetic trait? If so I guess in order to get a better chance at a chocolate we should pick an eb from a line that does not have this lighter bar?