Shaded silvers are one of the prettiest of the silver varieties and are indespensable as a cross in improving the type of chinchillas.

They are usually much admired for their type, size, wealth of coat, and colouring.

Shaded silvers, as the name denotes, should be well shaded not too dark in colour, but even and bright, a dingy blue-grey colour or any "smutty" appearance must be avoided.

The head, tail, and legs should be as little marked as possible, more smudged in appearance; the eyes should be green. A shaded silver kitten, when born, has the very fine tabby stripes, usually in great numbers; these disappear as the coat gets longer; the only difference between a shaded silver and a chinchilla kitten, when born, is, that the whole tone of colour is darker in the shaded silver, the chinchilla having a nearly white face and legs, whereas the shaded silver must not be too light on the face and legs.

The great difficulty with amateurs is to draw a dividing line between shaded silvers and chinchillas. There is really a great difference between a good chinchilla and a good shaded silver, but it is hard to distinguish between a dark chinchilla and a light shaded silver.

In breeding this variety, smokes, blues, and blacks may be crossed with silvers. Sometimes a good smoke may be obtained, and therein lies one of the great attractions of breeding silvers.

From one litter one may obtain a smoke, a shaded silver, and possibly a chinchilla, but in breeding for the later colour the strain soon becomes too light to obtain smokes, and only shaded silvers and chinchillas will be the rseult. A blue cross is valuable, should there be any cream on your silvers. It is best to mate a blue female to a silver male as you want the silver colour to predominate: a blue female with green or greenish yellow eyes is preferable as the orange eye is hard to eradicate in silvers.