What colouring is my chinchilla? White Mosaic vs. Wilson White?

SariReanna · Oct 30, 2012

So recently a couple fellow chin owners have told me that they're pretty certain my chinchilla is actually a Wilson White, and not a White Mosaic (which is what I've always assumed since this is what he was sold to me as and I've had him for 3 years now.)

I've definitely debated over this myself before but from what I've heard Wilson Whites typically won't have any black tipping on their fur and usually a pure white tail with no grey at the base and Periwinkle doesn't fully fit these descriptions.

He also has blue-ish grey colouring around the pupils of his eyes, in case this makes any difference with these two colour mutations.

A close up of the black tipping on his face (and some on his body):

The black and grey on his tail extend about halfway up:

Belly colouring:

Dreamlite · Oct 30, 2012

Wilson white is just a certain 'shade' of mosaic. They have dark ears and a spot at their tail base, which she has. So yes she is both, a mosaic (which says she's white) and a wilson white (which describes where her spots of color are).

Anna35 · Oct 30, 2012

he is a very handsome boy

Jenn · Oct 30, 2012

He is a beautiful mosaic! My favorite!

Cuddlebug · Oct 30, 2012

A Wildon White is a mosaic. He's a very pretty boy.

aznmexaggie · Nov 2, 2012

A white is a white is a white. I do hear of many people who refer to a solid white chin as a Wilson white but Wilson white is the formal name of the dominant white mutation and technically whether the chin is predominantly white, a mosaic, heavily marked, etc., it is still of the Wilson white mutation. It's just like the formal name of the black velvet is the Gunning black, the sapphires are Larsen Sapphires, there's the Tower beige, Afro violet, and so on. For simplicity's sake, the full name of most mutations is shortened to just refer to the color.