Show quality chinchillas

I've seen baby chins or ugly weak-furred chins of a "rare" color (beige or white...) advertised as "good for showing" or "from show lines".

Saying an animal is from show lines in chinchillas is... misleading. Any animal can be shown and bred to start a line of chins that can potentially be shown. It's a different story when you can look at the ped and say, "This chin's sire was a Class Champion at ECBC Nationals or the paternal grandsire took GSC at ECBC Nationals, etc." That at least specifies the quality of the animals in the background. This can be misleading too because someone can take a nice animal, breed it to crap, and get more crap...

The important thing is to the know about the breeder. If you are looking to purchase a show quality animal, has that breeder shown before? Have they done well in show and are they producing competitive animals?

However, for me to say that a chin I've bred is show quality, I expect him to do well in show (in my opinion, 2nd place or higher, preferably 1st or higher...). Sure, I have weanlings that look nice and are clear with good texture but I can't say they will do well in show - they may have potential but I have to wait until they are grown out, get more size, and come into prime. And if I chose the matings well, they should grow out to be nice animals.

I don't place a whole lot of value on the placing of the parents, but it's nice to know. It basically means odds of a nice kit are better. I evaluate each animal on it's own merrits. I never promise that kits will be show quality or even breeding worthy adults - too many variables even if they came from high placing parents. Ive shown animals that I have later deemed pet quality because they didnt grow much after being shown young - poppy case in point, got a 2nd docked for size, but got good remarks on fur, is now being sold as a pet but at one time she had potential for show quality and was shown for comments.

Agreed with Tiff on understanding a breeding tool - I see nothing wrong with showing breeding tools for feedback. I think sometimes people get a little too focused on the competition of it and forget that it's really about learning and getting feedback on pairings.

I personally don't trust or purchase from breeders who don't show. Heck even ranchers with years and years of experience show. I was recently asked about a breeder and gave the asker my opinion that I wouldnt purchase any animals of their breeding. Just poor practice and frankly no excuse for it when there are shows within a reasonable driving distance from you. If you can't stand to hear critiques on your animals and be willing to cull you shouldnt be breeding.

I never thought about the term this way before. I do say that we breed chinchillas for show, but for me it's just the fact that we keep most of our kits until they have been shown at least once that causes me to say this. I have one string that consistently produces very good show animals but I stress that there are no guarantees, especially with young kits, about how well they'll turn out in the end.

We prefer to say that we breed quality chins - that way, it stresses the fact that we breed chinchillas with health in mind, as well as how they'll do on the show table.