To date, chinchillas have firmly taken a leading position in the ranking of pets. A little earlier people were interested in them only as a source of unusually beautiful fur. In principle, they are now studying and improving their quality characteristics. In the near future, a substantial improvement in livestock is planned. This is facilitated by the rather strong popularity of black chinchilla fur for tailoring.
Among all the color variations of these exotic rodents, the black color of chinchillas is one of the most valuable and popular. In addition, carriers of this genome are often used to improve other color variations of these funny animals.
The origin of black chinchillas
The appearance of this color goes back to the mid-50s of the last century. The first black velvet chinchilla was born in 1955. It happened on a farm in the United States.
This girl was born from a pair of standard color. Her unusual appearance led to the appearance of the nickname Dirty Pug. The following year, a herd with a unique girl was sold to Davenport (Washington). Their owner was the farmer Gunning, who has been breeding chinchillas since the 40s. It was he who became the founder of fur production in the state of Washington. Gunning was also considered one of the best magistrates at chinchillas exhibitions at that time.
To the great regret of all lovers of the described animals, in 1955 a fire destroyed the whole herd along with a unique girl - chinchilla black velvet. Over the next year, the farmer was actively buying animals for the new herd.
Since then, Bob has been intensively working on the development of a mutation present in an unusual girl. A little later, an unusual boy was born on the farm. Outwardly, it resembled a standard color. The only feature of the baby was that on its face was a small black mask. Chinchillas brought healthy offspring and after a few years they gave several litters. Most of the kids had a standard color, only some of them were distinguished by the presence of a black mantle.
Breeding Chinchilla black velvet
It was the selection of this color that Gunning took up. After some time, when selecting the best dark pairs, he managed to bring out animals in which the dark color had already spread through the neck to the whole back. As a result, only the stripe on the abdomen remained bright in the animals.
By 1960, the world introduced a new mutation of chinchillas - black velvet black velvet. At that time she was called gunning black velvet. It is this color variation of chinchilla black velvet that we observe in our time.
Genomic features
Connoisseurs of animals of black color affectionately call them “touch of velvet” or “black velvet”. Black chinchilla, the genotype of which has already been sufficiently studied, has some genetic features. This color is considered heterozygous, that is, two genes are immediately present in one allele - dominant (black) and recessive.
Black chinchillas have one negative feature - their color contains the so-called “lethal gene”. This leads to the fact that as a result of crossing two chinchillas with a black gene, embryos either die during development or do not develop at all.
Description of Black Chinchilla
Black chinchilla is effectively used to improve the saturation of other colors of his brothers. As a result, the animals are successfully crossed with chinchillas of any color, with the exception of velvet.
Description of chinchilla black velvet has some distinguishing features. These include:
- Clearly defined mask on the face.
- Gloves are clearly drawn on the legs with diagonal stripes.
- The fur is saturated black.
- Highlighted areas around the eyes are not allowed.
- The black pigment should be evenly spaced from the ridge to the sides.
- Burns and ripples are unacceptable.
- Light transitions from a dark back to a white tummy are unacceptable.
- Clear low line tummy.
- The muzzle is round.
- The skeleton of an animal is downed.
- The paws are wide.
One of the main anatomical features of black chinchilla is considered a hump on the nose.
Crossing Black Chinchillas
Black velvet cubs at birth have a color of a lighter shade, with age it darkens. Quite often, chinchilla black velvet is planted with individuals of other colors. As a result of this, various color variations of the planned puppies are obtained. The most common variations of cases are considered to be the options shown in the table below.
The color of one chinchilla | Color of another chinchilla | Possible offspring colors |
Black velvet | Standard (gray) | Black standard |
Black velvet | Beige | Standard, beige, brown and black velvet |
Black velvet | Homo-beige | Beige, brown velvet |
Black velvet | White | Standard, white, black and white velvet |
Black velvet | White pink | Velvet - black, brown, white-pink, white. Also beige, white, standard color |
The popularity of black chinchilla in production
Chinchilla black velvet is extremely popular in the fur industry. This is facilitated by a clear decorative contrast of the black back and white abdomen. The velvet texture of the black chinchilla is very pleasant to the touch.
In fur production, red shades are not allowed. Cold blue tones have the advantage. No less important is the purely white belly of the animals. Also, fur with a pronounced transition of the color of the dark sides and white abdomen is considered to be the best quality.
Chinchilla black velvet, reviews of which are mostly positive, is popular not only in fur production, but also as a pet. Some, however, believe that velvet individuals are not too sociable, but in practice it becomes noticeable that the complex nature of individual animals is completely independent of the color of the fur.
Interesting about chinchillas
Few people know that the structure of the skeleton of a chinchilla allows it to shrink vertically. Thus, the animal can crawl into unusually narrow slits.
In addition, chinchilla black velvet does not fade at all. In this case, in case of stress or danger, animals can, nervously, lose their hair.