Greenwood Chinchillas
History of Chinchillas -
Sapphire
Sapphire chinchillas at first glance can be thought to be pale standards - but on closer inspection do not have the dark veiling to the fur that standards have. They do have the same grey ears and black eyes as a standard and the same agouti patterning - though this is a pale blue rather than grey.
The sapphire first appeared on the ranch of Merle Larson in Indiana, USA. The first animals produced were a light blue colour with a clear white belly, but still displayed the same agouti pattern of a standard but with a light blue undercoat rather than the normal grey. Other animals of this type appeared in the same herd by line breeding, and they were bred between 1963 to 1965 to strengthen the strain before being sold to other ranches in order to increase the gene pool of stock.
Sapphire is a recessive colour, the same as Violet - but is generally a weaker strain and many breeders claim them to be slow breeding and weaker in their development, many expressing a lot of kits being lost in the first weeks of life.
Sapphires tend to breed good to their colour so long as good use is made of blue sapphires to breed carriers to cross back into the line, but the whiteness of the belly should be watched