Pictures! What is his color and is that a freckle?

[chocochin]

Officially introducing Ganache! He's at just over three months
Questions: what do I call his color? Tan, dark tan, chocolate? Is there a difference?
Also, are the spots on his ears the beginning of freckles? the big one in the last picture appeared at about ten weeks and now a smaller one is coming in...just checking to make sure that's normal (I had thought only lighter chins got freckles?).

 

[threewingedfury]

He's a tan, or he would be classified as a dark tan at a MCBA show. Chocolate is a selling term.

Looks like a freckle to me - tans can get freckles as well. It's the beige gene that carries the freckles, not the darkness of the fur.

Pretty chin ya got there, and trust me, I'm not fan of tans at all!

 

[chocochin]

Oh thanks! I do think he's quite beautiful. The girl I got him from called him chocolate, and I guess it was a pretty good selling term
So tans are a cross between beige and another color? I'm interested in the genetics a bit (biology major haha) but I don't know anything about breeding chins. Would his parents have been tan or one beige and another darker color? He's all solid color except one lighter "scarf" around his neck, which you can't see in the pics since he's sitting in his normal scrunched up manner. Just curious about what makes him up!

 

[Lirana]

He's so cute! Ganache is an excellent name for him.

 

[EMSChins]

Hard to tell what his parents/grandparents were without seeing a pedigree. It would be best to get that information from his breeder. You cannot just look at most chins (unless it is a pure standard chin) and tell by looking at their phenotype what their genotype is. The only thing for certain is that at some point he had a beige parent (or a parent with a beige gene such as a pink white) and a ebony parent (or one with an ebony gene). The ebony gene is responsible for the color wrapping all the way around to his belly and what makes him a tan rather than a beige. The ebony gene can stay hidden in a line for some time before revealing itself but usually with something as dark as yours it was actually being developed and not a fluke. You can have quite dark beiges but they would have white bellies.

 

[Pookinaround]

I have a dark tan and yours looks darker than mine. I'd be comfortable calling him chocolate. A chocolate has dark fur all the way down to the skin. ME LIKEY CHOCO CHINNIE!!! LOL

 

[ticklechin]

OOOOOO Pretty!!!!!!!! Me likey also!

 

[Dreamlite]

Chocolate is a term often used for a tan with no barring. Even a med or dark tan will have some barring on the hair. Just like a homo eb who has a solid color hair so will a true chocolate.

 

[Pikaia]

I have no idea about colors, lol...but your chin is beautiful!!!

 

[Spoof]

Definitely a tan, and a very nice looking one too! You'll have to wait and see how dark he gets when he hits adulthood. I can see that he is pushing out new darker fur in those pictures so he is not yet finished. I'd call him a chocolate too.

A chocolate has dark fur all the way down to the skin.

This isn't always the case. There are two types of beige lines in the U.S., one has white underfur and one has dark. The only way to get a tan that has dark underfur is to use that beige line. I'll go into this more in depth on the other thread I started with pictures when I get home tonight.

 

[JessieVictoria]

He's so cute!! He's going to get a lot more freckles!! My 11month beige has about 10 freckles on her ear ^^

 

[chocochin]

"The only thing for certain is that at some point he had a beige parent (or a parent with a beige gene such as a pink white) and a ebony parent (or one with an ebony gene)."
Thanks that's all I was really wondering about! I guess I thought there was a specific "tan" gene too but I can see where it's a lot harder to control colors if they're producing a mix. Does that mean that tans would be able to throw an ebony or beige baby? Wouldn't that make breeding/color predictions really tough? (Okay I'm not interested in breeding him I swear it's curiosity)

" You'll have to wait and see how dark he gets when he hits adulthood. I can see that he is pushing out new darker fur in those pictures so he is not yet finished.
"
His breeder said he would get darker, although I guess it's hard for me to tell with seeing him every day and also not knowing much about chinchilla hair other than it's so dang soft!

Thanks for the great comments everyone! I'll post more pics in a couple months when he's bigger and perhaps darker
p.s. it's not letting me quote messages??

 

[Jenn]

Wow, Ganache is beautiful! He has the sweetest face. Is that his first freckle? I wonder how many more he'll get by the time he is done growing? (Hint - we'll need more pics as he gets older! )

 

[Spoof]

Does that mean that tans would be able to throw an ebony or beige baby? Wouldn't that make breeding/color predictions really tough?

That is correct. They can also throw standard babies. It makes it much less likely to get one that is this dark.

For example, a hetero beige (one beige gene, one standard gene) crossed with a pure black ebony has around a 2% chance of throwing a baby this dark. Most never see it in the breeding lifetime of the female. They get dark tans, but not as dark as your boy.

If you have a dark tan and an extra dark ebony, your chances are higher, about 10% of getting one this dark but they can still throw standard babies too!

The only way to guarantee you are going to get tans out of a pairing is to use homo beige (two beige genes). If you use a homo beige (tan) x ebony your chances of getting a tan are almost 100%. You'll still get the occasional hetero beige baby but mostly they will be some shade of tan from light to extra dark.

 

[CrazyForChinchillas]

Wow, so pretty! I love his color. Congrats! I look forward to seeing more pictures as he ages.

 

[chocochin]

Thanks! I think he is getting darker...Just found this pic of him from the first day I brought him home, and you can see that he is much lighter underneath (and tiny!). His fur wasn't as thick either, where it's pretty full and dense now. That was only a couple months ago, so he's probably got a ways to go yet. Now I'm sad this is one of the only tiny baby pics I got of him.. should've gotten more when I had the chance!
Oh, and I know the newspaper looks really bad here (not a very good pic) but I've since taken that out, in case someone was going to warn me about that

 

[javachin]

Oh wow, yes he's much darker now. Now I know why you named him Ganache! That's perfect!

 

[cindyv3737]

I love his color! He's a looker. It will be fun to see how much he changes.

My beige was born with one freckle. She three now and her ears get darker daily. She even has freckles on her nose.

 

[chocochin]

I counted 6 very light freckles coming in on his right ear last night.. so it seems like his freckle growth is starting to come in much faster! I think it'll be super cute, especially considering I didn't realize that he could get freckles until last week