Pastel

The Pastel is one of the most common mutation combinations involving the Charcoal, and is a combination of Homozygous Recessive Brouke Charcoal and Tower Beige. The colour of this chinchilla is of a Beige, but with the veiling coverage spreading all over the animal, including it's belly fur. The Pastel strongly resembles a matt Beige colour. The Pastel is one of the main combinations involving Charcoal, others being the Char Black and the Dark Pastel or Char Brown...

The Charcoal, as has been stated, is a simple recessive Mutation, which only shows itself fully in the Homozygous state. A Heterozygous Charcoal, or a 'Charcoal Carrier' will resemble whatever the 'base' colouration the animal is which carries the single Charcoal gene. If this was a Standard, the chinchilla would look like a Standard, and if it were a Beige, then it would look like a Beige, etc, etc.

If you wish to breed Pastels, then the best method is to mate a Charcoal to a Beige. All kits from this mating will carry a single Charcoal gene, and will therefore be either Beiges carrying Charcoal, or Standards carrying Charcoal. Once this mating has taken place, you have a selection of Charcoal carriers, some of which will be Beiges. If you then mate these to Charcoal animals, there are four possible combinations.

Mating	Progeny
Pastel x Standard	50% Beige Charcoal carriers 50% Standard Charcoal carriers
Pastel x Standard Charcoal Carrier	25% Pastels 25% Charcoals 25% Beige Charcoal carriers 25% Standard Charcoal Carriers
Pastel x Charcoal	50% Pastels 50% Charcoals
Charcoal x Beige	50% Beige Charcoal carriers 50% Standard Charcoal Carriers
Charcoal x Beige Charcoal Carrier	25% Pastels 25% Charcoals 25% Beige Charcoal carriers 25% Standard Charcoal Carriers

Pastels are a complex mutation to breed, since they involve the Charcoal mutation which in itself is a recessive. It is imperative that when attempting to breed a Pastel, that only the finest examples of Charcoal and Beige are used, paying specific attention to the fur qualities, and the clarity of your chinchillas. The colour which the Beige adds to the Charcoal to become the Pastel is not attractive if the clarity of colour is poor and if the animal is tinged or not blue (the blue hue which all chinchillas should have, if of high quality).

Pastels possess the same problems as the Charcoals, namely that they have a tendency to be small, to have a soft fur type, and also to be off-colour or be brownish, rather than clear and blue. Again this does not have to be the case if the best Standards and Beiges are used in their breeding lines, and only the best Charcoal carriers produced selected for breeding.

Pastels generally are judged in separate classes at present, but with the onset of Tans appearing on UK show tables, they will be judged in the same class, called Self-Brown. The reason for this is that phenotypically (by looking) you cannot distinguish a Tan from a Pastel easily.