Tan Color Changes

The way ebony acts when combined with beige can be very unique.

Individual family lines reach their final tan coloration at different ages in different ways. Most reach it around 18 months of age, but some can take as long as two years. The more common coloration changes you will see are chins that are born light with dark tails and darken to their tail color or are born dark with light tails and lighten to the tail color. Some are born a color and stay the same throughout their lives, though most change shades at least once by adulthood.

On the odd occasion they are born looking like the one below, who might have been mistaken for a white when younger. Generally, you will see them either prime out in patches (not all spots on a chin’s body prime out at the same time) or spot out like the female pictured at the bottom of the page.


2015 - Baby girl that is slowly turning chocolate, newborn to 8 months old.

Tan Chinchilla 1 Tan Chinchilla 2

Tan Chinchilla 3 Tan Chinchilla 4

The images above are of a dark tan male in 2001, young adult to 16 months. He was born with a darker belly, black tail and very light body. He eventually turned into a chocolate, but had some dwarfisim issues with skull shape/size, and died at 18 months of age.

Tan2 Chinchilla 1 Tan2 Chinchilla 2

Tan2 Chinchilla 3 Tan2 Chinchilla 4

Tan female from 2004, from 10 weeks to 16 months.