Know Your Guinea Pig Colours!
As I'm sure you know guinea pigs come in many different breeds, fur types and colours. We have discussed the different breeds in a previous blog post (click here to read). This week I really wanted to use more photographs of our piggies to demonstrate the common, and more unusual, guinea pig colours.
I thought I would start with a slighly less common colour. Billy is an adorable example of a golden/lilac argente. This means he has a lilac undercolour with golden 'ticking' (tips of his fur).
For showing standards, an argente would have to have the same colour ticking as his belly.
Annie is a dark eyed cream, (a DEC). She is a pale cream self - a guinea pig of one solid colour.
To show a DEC, it must have dark, ruby eyes and pink pads and ears.
Abby is a saffron guinea pig, which is slightly more golden than a cream, but not as dark as buff.
It is quite a common colour but still very beautiful!
Willow is chocolate, a common, but
lovely colour! One that is a firm favorite with both Laura and I!
She is not purely chocolate as around her ear she has flecks of white. I think this gives her more character!
Here's a more rare one for you!
Although hes not purebred, Gus is our closest example to a harlequin guinea pig. This is either a black/yellow or chocolate/yellow pig with what resembles a 'patchwork' pattern down their body.
Breeders work very hard to achieve this rare look and you can see why!
Treacle is our gorgeous ridgeback sow. No points to anyone who guesses her colour!
Although it is very common, black is a lovely, rich colour and with good diet and grooming, can be nice and glossy!
I hope you enjoyed this brief introduction to colours, especially the more unusual ones. See you next week!
