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Self Chocolates have for the best part of their existence only been bred and shown by a handful of fanciers globally. Fortunately this situation has dramatically changed over the past few years in the UK. It is good to see so many fanciers involved in the breed these days resulting in double figures of exhibits, especially in the adult sections of many shows around the British Isles.
And they are around in very good quality as well, with many getting high up into the challenges, winning age sections and even getting Best in Shows.
One of my own proudest moments since becoming involved with the breed was winning Best in Show at London Championship in 2004 with the legendary 'Salcey Queen'. She was the first ever Chocolate in the history of "the London" to achieve this.
HISTORY
There seem to be conflicting views about who was the creator of Self Chocolates. One document shows a Mr. Castle to be the originator of Self Chocolates when he isolated a mutation of the B factor (the gene producing black hair in cavies) in 1905 through Self Blacks and managed to produce the first Chocolates.
Another view is that a Mr. Allan Roberts produced the first examples out of a mixture of Self Reds, Buffs and the old Greys (an Agouti type cavy).
One thing that everybody seems to agree on is that the Chocolate is the fifth Self breed to be established after the Black, Red, Cream and White.
In line with some other Self breeds (no surprise, there), the colour of the Chocolate had been a subject of great controversy for many years. Originally, the colour was of a light shade, despite the fact that the standard had always called for a deep, rich colour. At one point in time, discussions were held to change the standard description for colour to a much lighter shade.
Fortunately this effort (attempt) never materialised and we must be grateful to all dedicated fanciers of yesteryear who worked tirelessly to eventually obtain the correct colour –a colour that all of us can work with now.
STANDARD
So what makes a good Chocolate?
To achieve success –the cavy should have sound type and shape, colour and condition.
The Self standard gives us an in depth description divided over 6 positions about the ideal pig we all hope to breed. We should therefore consult the standard as often as possible as a guideline in our breeding programmes.
Colour
Thirty percent of the points allocated to a Self cavy goes to colour (topcolour and undercolour).
In the Chocolate cavy, the colour that comes nearest to the required colour is that of plain “Bourneville” chocolate. The colour should be of an even shade all over the head and body. The belly colour lacks the lustre of the topcolour and therefore appears a touch paler than the topcolour.
Ideally the topcolour should carry right down to the skin, but unfortunately this is not always the case in exhibits shown, although there are some near perfect examples around these days.
Whilst on the topic of undercolour in Chocolates, I must confess that it is a constant battle to keep the undercolour as dark as possible. In my experience the undercolour always starts to fade after a few generations, so an outcross to an outstandingly coloured boar every 3 to 4 years is imperative. In common with most other Self breeds, the boars usually carry better colour all round than the sows.
Type and Shape
The second most important feature of a Self cavy is its type and shape. The standard stipulates a short, cobby body with very deep, broad shoulders and well rounded hindquarters. The pig should give off a strong, muscular impression.
This feature is quite easy to establish these days as there is so much quality stock available. Chocolates as a rule are quite finely boned (with a short, fine coat to match –an absolute doddle to groom!) and therefore do not appear as bulky as some of the other self breeds. Having said that, some of my adults have reached the 50 oz. mark in recent years! However, the Chocolate is renowned for its elegance and therefore sometimes referred to as the “Queen of the A.O.C.’s”!
The head should have good width between the eyes and a well developed muzzle. It should have a Roman nose and full cheeks. A lot of improvement has been made with the head shape of Choclates –the “horsy” shaped are definitely a thing of the past. What we must watch, though, is the Roman nose; studying my own Chocolates and everybody else’s over the past two years, it has occurred to me that most Chocolates have lost the rounded nose line and the overall majority have a bit of a “ski-slopy” nose. A thing to watch out for and in need of some improvement. It has to be done, though, without the loss of the lovely width of head.
Coat
The third most important aspect on a Self cavy is its coat. This is defined in the standard as “short and silky with a glossy sheen”. This is the position where the judge can easily award a Chocolate its full 10 points, because in my opinion the Chocolate has the silkiest and possibly shortest coat of all Selfs. (It must have as even I seem to manage to groom it down quite neatly!!)
Eyes and Ears
The next two positions of the standard, namely eyes and ears, are again positions where full marks can be awarded to Chocolates.
The ears should be rose-petal shaped, set wide apart, large and drooping. Most Chocs have a sound pair of ears, as required by the standard. I remember years ago that the ear tissue on Chocolates was rather thin, but we do not have any such problems these days.
The colour of the ears in reality is not quite what the standard describes, namely chocolate. Most chocolates seem to have a chocolaty-beigy-pink ear with a denser chocolate colour around the rims. It is actually rather strange that these days there are so many well coloured Chocs about that have beautiful chocolate-coloured pads, but a lighter shade of ear colour.
The eyes should be large and bold; this has always been a feature on Chocolates. Even in the days when they used to have snipey heads, Chocolates always had the most prominent eyes.
Presentation
The last position in the standard is presentation, i.e. condition, cleanliness and grooming. In my opinion, this position is the most important of them all, because it always reflects the husbandery of the owner. Apart from that even the most beautiful cavy (colour, type etc.) will not achieve much if it is dirty, louse ridden, unfit or with long guard hairs.
Whilst judging I often come across very good exhibits that are totally spoilt by lack of preparation and presentation. A waste of entry fees, petrol money etc.!
BREEDING
How do you breed a good Chocolate, that pleases the judge’s eye? In theory this question is very simple to answer: breed from the best pigs you can lay your hands on, making sure that the offspring are of a higher quality than the parents. In practice, it does not always work this way, though.
Initial Steps
The first step in the right direction, when taking on Chocolates, is to acquire sound breeding stock from a reputable breeder. These are not difficult to find, as there are plenty of them about. Moreover, Chocolates are a very addictive breed, in other words, people seem to stick with them for a long time and those that do the winning these days were invariably winning ten and in some cases 20 years ago. If you are patient, the breeder will find you a trio that is well suited. This trio will then form the basis of your own stud of Chocolates.
Buying stock from one stud initially is always better than buying stock from various studs, because the stock bred together from different studs might not always be compatible.
Sound breeding stock will get you on the way in your new breed and you will find that you can breed quite a few generations of good quality cavies. In the mean time the odd boar or sow from a different stud can be introduced to your own over a period of time.
So, all is going well until after some generations the going gets a bit tougher. Chocolates seem to have a nasty habit of not continuing to improve at all times. All of a sudden, you will find that some little fault has crept in unnoticed, e.g. the undercolour on your babies is getting paler or that the ears or eyes are getting smaller. When minor faults like that start to appear, it is time to introduce some new blood excelling in that department .
When breeding, we must always make sure that the boar and sow complement each other; if, for example the sow has a minor fault or a feature that is far from ideal, we have to make sure that the boar is outstanding in this aspect. This, of course, always works vice versa.
In my own stud the boars always seem to have far better undercolour than most of my sows; yet, my best coloured babies always seem to stem from certain good coloured sows irrespective of which boar they have been mated to.
Improving Colour
The most talked about subject between Chocolate fanciers with regard to their charges is how to hold on to or improve on the colour of their pigs.
The easiest way, as mentioned before, is to find a cavy that excels in colour and introduce it to the stud. Currently we are in a situation where there are so many successful Chocolate breeders that this option is quite viable. However, should there come a time that this is no longer immediately possible, the need arises to cross some Chocolates out to another colour. In an attempt to make the colour darker, the most obvious choice would be to cross out to Blacks. This is just about the worst thing you could do where the Chocolates are concerned. Whilst the Blacks would improve head shape, ears and eyes, they would certainly the ruin the already ailing Chocolate colour. Vice versa is far less harmful –crossing Chocolate into Blacks will not only improve size, but also improve the coat qualities of the Blacks. The colour of the Blacks does not suffer at all through the Chocolate input.
To improve colour on Chocolates, crossing them out to Reds is a far better bet. This, however, is not plain sailing either. Whilst the colour and undercolour of the Chocolate would benefit tremendously from an outcross to Reds, it would do very little for their type and head shape (no disrespect intended to Self Red fanciers!). Another feature that would be introduced this way would be a certain percentage of red hairs or even patches of red on our Chocs.
Probably one of the best outcrosses we can choose for Chocolates is the Self Beige; this will slightly improve the chocolate colour. It will improve the size considerably and the resulting offspring have very nice heads, ears and eyes.
Like many other Self breeds, Chocolates also suffer from odd coloured hairs. Exactly like Self Blacks. Chocolates can suffer from white, cream or red hairs. According to quantity, these odd coloured hairs are a fault on the show bench, but this does not make them unsuitable in the breeding pen. A few odd coloured hairs do not worry me at all. If there are loads scattered all over the pig, I tend not to breed from such a cavy. If the coloured hairs are confined to one small area, I might sometimes do a trial mating with such a pig; they would mostly be sows, though, as I would not contemplate breeding from a boar that is not near perfect. I will never breed from pigs with big coloured patches, coloured legs and/or feet. This will only perpetuate the fault in many generations to come. Last but not least, I would rather breed from Chocs with red hairs (as these usually carry the correct colour quite well) than white hairs.
Assessing Potential
When a litter of Chocs is born, it is possible –like with many other Self breeds- to assess the quality or the lack of it within the first two days after birth. Whatever the newly born babies look like in these early days, they will look like that again as adults.
It is important to assess the babies in these first few days as “they go off” soon afterwards. By “going off” I mean that the babies start their growing process and almost instantly lose their cobbiness and desired head shape which invariably goes a bit long; some of them even stick their ears up.
At the age of about three weeks the deep rich chocolate colour gets lighter and duller and the coat consists basically of thin longish guard hairs. The coat and colour revert back to their original length and colour after the first moult, which usually takes place at the age of about two months.
The type, head shape and drooping of the ears will take a little longer; depending on the stud, it can take up to five months to get these features back to normal.
As a final remark in this chapter, I would like to mention that some Chocolates can be temperamental breeders. When I first came to live in this country, nearly 20 years ago, some Chocolate boars had a habit of mating a couple of sows whilst young and then “dry up” soon afterwards, never to breed again.
These days it is not so much the boars that give us a head ache, but more so the sows. Over the last three years, I have had enormous problem with sows showing a complete lack of maternal instincts. They will be mated fairly quickly and have a fine pregnancy, but when the day of giving birth arrives, they mess it up completely by just plonking all babies in a heap or scattering them around the entire pen and more often than not do not even bother to take the membrane off. I must have binned around 200 dead babies over this period; some of which looked quite promising despite the fact that they were dead and still confined in their birth sack!! The answer to this problem is to breed the majority of babies during the warmer months, so that if the mother does not bother to clean them, at least they do not chill and consequently die.
Another small problem we encounter in Chocs is that they do not like the damp autumn and early winter days. I never seem to get any of my sows in pig in this period. Once we have survived Christmas for another year, the pigs seem to get in the mood usually resulting in hoards of babies around March and April. That is if the mothers have any intention to look after them properly!!
SHOWING
The ultimate test of a breeding programme is to enter the cavies in a show. No matter how grand and beautiful they look in one’s own shed, the cavies cannot be known to be of show quality until they have been scrutinised by a judge in comparison to other exhibits and awarded a card, whether this is a red, blue or yellow.
Preparation
Once we start showing a cavy we are constantly working on its presentation. Firstly there is the feeding –the pig must have plenty of greenfood, roots, hay and dry mixture, so that it feels fit and muscular all the time.
A bit nearer the show date, the cavy’s coat needs preparing. The competition amongst the Chocolate fraternity is extremely hot these days and to be in with a chance of winning a card, the exhibit must be immaculately prepared and presented.
As mentioned before, Chocolates have an extremely silky, short coar, so grooming is never usually too much of a problem. Great care has to be taken whilst grooming the flanks. As the undercolour will fade first and foremost on the flanks, it is better not to groom the flanks too fiercely if we want to retain the even shade all over.
Before the grooming process starts it is worth looking for running lice and hay mite and treat that first.
A Choc will always benefit from a bath after it has been nicely groomed up. Done about a week before the show, it gives the coat a chance of settling down. Check the nails and, if needed, clip them.
The last job to do is to check for odd coloured hairs and remove them with a pair of tweezers.
All these jobs should be done at home in a quiet and familiar environment –too often I see fanciers at shows frantically “plucking” their cavies in an attempt to make them look show-worthy.
The cavy is usually stressed out and so is its owner, especially where a clump of hair comes out or some other mishap occurs through lack of concentration.
Slow Developers
Generally speaking, Chocolates are slow developers –they take a long time to look at their best as an adult exhibit. Having said that, there are many U/5’s and 5/8’s about these days that really look the part and they do not suffer from growth problems either. Many of my genuine U/5’s weigh in at 33 and 34 oz. these days. It is just the stage after coming out of the 5/8 section that the development almost seems to stagnate.
To remedy this, I usually mate up all my “hopeful sows” at 6 to 8 months of age. After I have weaned the litter, I put all “future adult show sows” away in a large pen (preferably at floor level –so I do not see them too much!) and let them run on.
Invariably they will not be shown until they are about 16 to 18 months old.
I only ever breed from a show sow once, as it definitely puts size and weight on her in adulthood. Sometimes I do not breed from an exceptional prospective show sow, only to find in months ahead that she has not matured in the same way as all those sows that have had a litter.
FINAL REMARKS
Chocolates can suffer from nose stripes like all other cavy breeds. It is just more visible on Chocs because of their dark coat colour and their slightly paler skin colour.
The English Self Cavy Club passed a motion many years ago that nose stripes should not be unduly penalised any longer and actually attached this line to the list of “guidance to judges and exhibitors” incorporated in the English Self standard.
Unfortunately, this line was accidentally dropped from the standard during its latest rushed revision. I am sure this faux pas will soon be amended and would therefore urge all judges never to penalise them for the nose stripe. We don’t penalise Blacks, Goldens or Abyssinians, so why do it to Chocolates?!
