Violet Chinchillas

Violet is a recessive color and requires both parents to be carriers to produce a violet. They should have an even color and fur texture and bright crisp white belly. Ideally they will be a violet color and not dove grey. TOV Violets (or Royal Violet) are homozygous for violet and heterozygous for the Touch of Velvet (TOV) gene. There are two recognized types of violet, german violet and Sullivan (African) violet. The pictures here are of Sullivan Violets unless otherwise noted.


2019 - 6 month old Tov Violet wrap chinchilla. She is so dark that unless you use a camera flash you can not see that she has TOV veiling. Very beautiful color with the ebony causing the violet to wrap all the way around on the belly.


2019 - 3 month old Violet sc baby girl.


2019 - 8 week old Tov Violet sapphire carrier, his veiling is now showing through his baby fur. He will end up very dark.


2019 - Baby Tov Violet (sc) that is not showing paw stripes or much veiling. Sometimes they are born very light.


Baby Violet, born in 2015.


2015 Denmark (German Violet carrier) on the left, Light Sullivan violet on the right. Both are 10 month old sapphire carriers.


The two females from above, natural lighting.


2015 - Two four month old Sullivan violets. Light Violet sapphire carrier on the left and a dark violet on the right. Even within the Sullivan violet color there are many hue/darkness differences. The darker ones have done much better a show in the past, I have also seen very dark brownish tipped ones shown but don't have any pictures.


I get a lot of requests asking color or saying "My chinchilla looks just like that!" I put this together to show how close the colors appear to be in full spectrum lighting.


2013 - very light and bright young violet sapphire carrier.


2012 - Violet male in the sunlight. Violet is hard to photograph because it is easily influenced by background color.


2013 - Four month old Violet male indoor lighting.


2013 - Same Violet male with natural light.


2003 - Color class champion owned by Ronda Frazier - she is a dark TOV Violet.


2003 - She shows exceptional size, blockiness and the classic white belly.