GENETICS GUIDE
Working with the White Mutation
By - Anjela Ross
Crystal Chinchillas
Co-Director of the Chinchilla Club
The white is indeed a useful mutation
to work with, producing various new colours
when blended with others.
Such as with black velvet or brown velvet for example.
Whites are always popular with people as pets, as it is not usual to find
two that look identical. The reason for
this is the tipping and spotting genes within a White.
Sometimes a white can have both the tipping and the spotting gene.
If you have a white with the tipping gene, you
are more likely to produce Silver type whites.
Where the animal is white, but the very tips of the hair are grey, hence
producing a silver appearance. When the
spotting gene is present, dense patches of colour can be seen, dependant
on the type of animal you have crossed you
white to. This is usually known as a white mosaic. Some of the most dramatic
patches, are when crossing a white to a black velvet.
Then it is possible to produce Black and white crosses, where the animal
is white, but with patches of black velvet, that are completely black mixed
in with the white. Working with the White can indeed
produce some pretty and unusual results. However, please note that the following
guide is for coat colour only and that due to the White mutation having not
so dense fur, that by continually placing Whites to mutations can lead to
the animals lacking density and having fur that can appear woolly in appearance.
So it is indeed wise to always put your white mutations back to Standards
every other generation, to increase the density and keep the size in the
animals.
