Author: Jamie Huggins
of Huggable Pets-Chinchillas
Photos by JoAnn
of Luv'N Chins
Homo or Hetero Beige?
- How you can tell
It can be very hard to tell if your chinchilla is Homozygous or Heterozygous for the beige trait. Some Heterozygous chinchillas appear so light in color that you can’t tell by fur alone. There are several ways to determine Homo vs. Hetero that will take the guess work out of it.
The first place you should start is family history. A Homozygous chinchilla will have received one beige gene from its mother and one from its father so your chinchilla should have had two parents with the beige gene. This could include any beige carrying color like PinkWhite. If your Beige chinchilla has only one Beige parent such as a Beige female bred to a Standard male you know it has to be a Heterozygous Beige and you need not go any further. If the parents of your chinchilla both carried the beige gene there is a chance yours is Homozygous.
It’s important to note that a PinkWhite chinchilla can be either Homozygous or Heterozygous for the beige gene. I have a beautiful PinkWhite chinchilla that was produced from a PinkWhite mother and a Beige Father. This boy received the beige gene from both parents and the white gene from his mother making him a Homo-Beige White Cross, otherwise known as PinkWhite.
So how do you tell for sure? Take a look at your chinchilla’s eyes. All beige carrying chinchillas will have red eyes. They can vary in color from light to dark. Some look black in regular house light, however, natural sunlight will prove they are in fact red. Homozygous Beige chinchillas will have light red eyes with a light ring around the pupil.
If your room isn’t well lit you may need to find a window with sunlight coming in to get a look at the true eye color. If your chinchilla is Homozygous for the beige trait you will see an unmistakable light ring around the pupil. If your chinchilla is Heterozygous for the beige trait its eye color will be solid around the pupil. See these pictures for help finding the ring.
Heterozygous Beige
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Homozygous Beige
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