Projects for the Future
I currently am trying to breed smooth hair, or American, and satin crested Lilacs. I've gotten a satin crested beige roan, which is is the brown version of the lilac, so I'm getting close. Here are a few ways that I may branch out to other breeds/colours.
Other Colours
Dalmations
This is a Teddy Dalmation, from Black Magick Cavies.
Dalmations cannot be bred to other dalmations, because a double dalmation gene is lethal. Dalmation is a dominant gene, so if you have one dalmation and one self coloured bred together, you will end up with about 50% of each.
Dalmations can come in almost any colour, the most popular being black and chocolate. I have seen pictures of beige, red, cream and agouti, as well as parti-coloured. What I am interested in is breeding lilac dalmations. They are not a recognised colour in the OCC, and so must be shown as a rare variety, I think.
Frosted Lilac
I kept coming across the term Frosted Lilac on sites belonging to lilac breeders, but I did not know what that meant. Finally I found that it was the name of a Dilute Agouti colouring where the tips are white, much like a Silver Agouti, but with lilac instead of black. Opals are lilac and cream, and Salmon agouti is lilac and orange.
Other Breeds
As other breeders in my area are breeding Teddies and "Curly Coats" such as Texels, Merinos and Boucles, it might be interesting to get into those breeds as well, with my same colours. Teddies would be the easiest, as they are also short-haired, but the others are all long-haired breeds. I've also always like the Silkies and Coronets, but those are even more work to keep up than the Texels, and have a short show life.