Greenwood Chinchillas
History of Chinchillas -
Beige
also called "Crown of Sunset Beige"
or "Tower Beige".
The first beige chinchilla was a female, born September 29th 1955 to Ned Jensen, Oregon. Following some unsuccessful matings, he believed the animal to be infertile and unlikely to produce young. So he sold it to Nick Tower, who later succeeded in producing a healthy beige male which proved very fertile, the offspring from these pairing s became known as the Tower Beige
Beige genes created a change mutation of the Grey pigment that would occurs normally within the fur. It also affects the eye and ear colours of the animals produced - making any animal carrying beige genes easily identifiable by the red eyes and pink ears - there are a few different identified genes within the Beige coloured chinchillas, the main difference showing in the eye colour
Recessive
1954 Wellman Beige (dark eyes)
1958 Rzewski Beige. Poland (dark eyes)
1960 Beige Recessive (red eye) L. Sullivan & C.J. Reynolds
Beige genes work as a dilution gene; two genes (homozygous) make the fur lighter than a chin which has only one Beige gene (i.e. homozygous is lighter than heterozygous). Beige chinchillas do not have a lethal gene combination in their breeding as with whites or blacks. (see Which Beige to identify the difference between hetero and homo beige)
Many breeders say that the Beige is often a tricky mutation to breed. A good beige has a fantastic all over even covering with a lovely blue/clear glow. Many beiges unfortunately though have a stippled patterning to them which breaks up the way the light reflects off the animal making it look down in colour.
Additionally, breeding a standard to a Beige will produce 50% standard and 50% beige offspring. BUT any standards born from a Standard to Beige pairing may have an orange tinge to the fur rather than the required blue, so it would be unwise to use this standard back to a standard line.
To produce a homozygous beige both parents must carry a beige gene - if you intend to go this route then the animals carrying the beige should be as strong as possible in size, fur and colour - preferably from standard to beige pairings. This will create the strongest kits possible with the best fur strength and quality. But in order to continue to produce strong animals, out crossing to god quality, blue, standards should always be considered for future breeding from kits from this pairing.
Show Beiges are generally produced from strong furred standard to strong beige pairings. Good quality beiges should still have a clear blue tint to the fur when seen in sunlight or under show lighting and should not have a brown or orange tint.