Possible California White Tail Chinchilla

[chechinchillas]

This is what I got from Laurie today at .com
The original fading whites appeared in the PSK herd, out of some breeding stock they bought from Doug Wilson in Missouri. Sue dabbled with them a little bit, and then some of them may have gome to Bill Booker's herd and elsewhere when they dispersed. I liked them, but the problem with them is that they were born normal standard, and then did not fade until they were close to two years old. So, you had to keep everything you had for two years or more to know if you had a fading white. They didn't turn completely white. They had a distinct pattern of fading. The quality was very good overall in the fading whites I saw at PSK in the 1990's. Yes, they got rings around their ears, and some faded more dramatically than others.

 

[Amphy64]

I feel that it's a more common anomoly than many realize. Over the years I've seen it happen in gray appearing animals, violets and ebony/ebony crosses. Is it a mutation all it's own? IDK. It usually only happens in advanced age and I've NEVER seen it progress to the point of a solid white (or even close) animal.

It's kind of interesting that it only appears with increasing age. I wonder if the mechanism behind it would be similar to that causing greying in other animals (ie. dogs, horses, even humans I guess), the melanocytes in certain areas are producing less melanin, so the chin turns white there due to a loss of pigment. I think it's that the areas that typically fade, round the ears, the base of the tail, the nose, may have less melanocytes (melanin producing cells) to begin with.

So, I suppose in that case it would be a bit different from most mutations, definitely genetic though, same as some humans greying very early (but chins don't normally show the effect at all, do they, so it's still quite different from usual).

Very interesting to see, anyway, I'd only seen pictures of standard fading whites before, didn't know it could occur in violets and other colours too.

 

[jags]

I have had standards, ebs and violets with this color pattern. Some take years to change but I have some that change in 6 months or less. The eb I had turned almost completely white from an extra dark. I got a standard like this from a herd bought in Canada with no history of any violets ever in their herd and no imported animals from outside their own herd for many years.

 

[eeniemi1]

Hello. I have a hetero beige female. She turned to "crw" few years ago. Now her grandchildrens are fading too.