(From JACBA-Journal of the American Cavy Breeders Association)

BEIGE: -- can be bred to Beige, white, or Chocolate

BLACK: -- (very useful color!) - can be bred to the following:

Lilac Silver Agouti

Roan (blue or tri) Golden solid Golden Agouti Black

Dilute solid Dilute Agouti

Brindle Dalmatian Tortoise Shell Silver solid

BLUE - (Does not exist! See article by Harry S. Claus, page 10.)

CHOCOLATE - can be bred to Chocolate, Beige, or Red

RED - can be bred to Red or Chocolate

WHITE - can be bred to white, beige, or cream

CREAM - can be bred to White or Cream

RED-EYED ORANGE - can be bred to Red- eyed orange or White

(for type improvement only) [personal note - I would not use White or Himi unless I couldn't find ANYTHING ELSE with good type - whites hide too many genes to be able to predict offspring accurately - you can get agoutis, solids, brokens, and blacks, chocs or reds -- YMMV - Lu-C]

MARKED GROUP:

DALMATIAN - a dominate modifier always bred to a "self" color

TORTOISE SHELL - is not a separate gene from brindle. To

intensify color breed to Red. For clarity of patches (TS)

breed to TSW. For increased intermixing (brindle) breed to tri-roan.

TORTOISE SHELL & WHITE (TSW) - in TSW breed for intensity of

color and clarity of patches. Amount of color (i.e.: mostly

black or mostly white, etc.) and placement of patches are

variables that cannot be bred for so pay no attention to them.

HIMALAYAN - breed only to Himalayan. It takes at least 3-5

generations before you achieve anywhere near good intensity of

points. Himalayans will hurt undercolor of Blacks; this is not

good. Himalayans will help Dalmatians who are too "roan", but

the Himalayans from this cross will lack intensity of points.

Other than the above, Himalayans don't cross well outside their

own color.

BROKEN COLOR - THERE ARE TWO DISTINCT TYPES OF BROKEN COLOR

AND THEY SHOULD NOT BE BRED TOGETHER

INTENSE BROKEN COLOR - breed animals with these colors to

each other or to TSW.

Agouti/red/white Red/white

Black/white Golden Agouti/white

Chocolate/red/white

PASTEL BROKEN COLOR - breed these colors together. DO NOT

BREED "PASTEL" B/C TO "INTENSE" B/C OR TO TSW.

Dilute Agouti/cream/white

Cream/white Dilute Agouti/white

Black/cream/white Chocolate/cream/white

*NOTE: Breeding "selfs" to Broken Colors doesn't hold much

promise. You will spend many generations getting depth of

color back. As far as Broken Color babies, you will probably have

many, many poorly marked babies with white blazes and feet on

"self" colored animals (probably most will be red with white

markings.) It takes about three generations to get good

patches back.

SOLID GROUP:

ROAN - is a dominate modifier always bred to a "self" color

(white feet/marking/spots should be discarded).

BRINDLE: See Tortoise Shell (above).

AGOUTI GROUP:

Golden Agouti - can be bred to Golden Agouti, Silver Agouti,

Red, or Black (to improve type).