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The standard gray is the wild coat type for the chinchilla and the most common color of chinchilla. With their strong fur qualities, these animals are the base of the chinchilla industry and all chinchilla colors. The standard gray has a white belly and the coat is blue-gray in color. However, if you look at an individual hair, you can see three distinct colors. The base of the hair shaft is called the underfur and is gray. Moving upwards, in the middle of the hair is the bar which should be white. The tip is dark and can range from a dark gray to a blue black to a jet black. The tipping on each hair over the entire chinchilla's body is called the veiling. It is this combination of color (called agouti) on the chinchilla hair that gives the chinchilla its characteristic look. The standard gray chinchilla is darkest along the top, from the nose to the base of the tail; the "line" that this dark color creates is called the grotzen. The standard chinchilla's color then fades to a lighter gray along the sides and eventually to the white belly. All non-standard animals are called mutations or "mutes" for short. 2
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