UNDERSTANDING CHINCHILLA PEDIGREES
First a breeder will want to pick a 3 to 4 letter/number ranch brand and register it with Empress Chinchilla and MCBA. My ranch brand is CHE. So, everytime I have a litter each baby will have the prefix CHE at the beginning of their "ear number". Then the breeder will look at the Chinchilla Year Letter Chart, which looks like this:
2000 K
2001 L
2002 M
2003 N
2004 P
2005 R
2006 S
2007 T
2008 V
2009 X
2010 Z
2011 A
2012 B
2013 C
2014 D
2015 E
2016 F
2017 H
2018 J
So, I would take my ranch brand, CHE, and then go to the current year, which is this case is 2010, and see that the letter to use for this year is Z. So the first part of my ear number is CHEZ. Now the rest of the ear number is simple. When counting how many babies you have had, it's just what number that particular baby is. So, if I have had 132 this year so far and I just had another baby today, which would be baby number 133. That babies ear number would be CHEZ133.
Now on my pedigrees there is spot for the name of the chinchilla right above the ear number. If the pedigree is for one of my breeders I also put CHE in front of their name, for example CHECALYPSO. If the chinchilla is not one of my breeders and is a baby for a customer I will just put the name of the chinchilla without the CHE or if the customer has not thought of a name yet, I will leave that spot blank for them to fill in later.
So, first the name, then below that the ear number, below that the weight (weight is optional because it can change), below that variety, (which is the color of the animal), below that the chinchillas date of birth (DOB), below that would be the sex; male or female and below that is an optional Modifiers area, which is the show winnings area (if the animal has been shown you would list what title(s) the chinchilla has won. For a chinchilla born to me today that was my 133rd baby born, was a violet female and the customer who purchased her name her BELLA, this is how their first part of the pedigree would look:
BELLA
CHEZ133
Weight:
VIOLET
DOB: June 30th, 2010
SEX: FEMALE
Modifiers:
SO, this information tells me the chinchilla's name is Bella, born to Che' Chinchillas. She was born in 2010 and was Che' Chinchillas 133rd baby. Her color is violet and her actual date of birth is June, 30th 2010. It is a female and does not have any show titles/winnings.
The next part of the pedigree would be baby Bella's mother's information. The mother is called the "DAM". Her information is placed a space over to the right from Bella's and a space above. The father's information (the SIRE) will go a space over to the right from Bella's and a space below looking something like this:
CHEABIGAIL
STANDARD VC (VC STANDS FOR VIOLET CARRIER)
BELLA
CHEZ133
WEIGHT:
VIOLET
DOB: JUNE 30, 2010
SEX: FEMALE
MODIFIERS
CHEFREDERICK
MODIFIERS: 1ST PLACE 2008
Now many times a pedigree will only show the ear number for
the mother and father and nothing else. Many breeders do not
put their ranch brand at the beginning of the ear number so it will only show the letter of the year they were born and the number. Some pedigrees will have only the baby, the mother and father's information and some will show as far as great grandparents. The grandmother's information on the mother's side would be placed a space over to the right from the mother's information and a space above the mother's information. The grandfather's information on the mother's side would be placed a space over to the right from the mother's informationa and a space below, and so on.
