Pet, Pedigree, Purebred

A pedigree animal has a recorded history. The word purebred is sometimes used synonymously with the term pedigreed, however pedigree refers to the written record. Animals can be purebred but not have a pedigree. Just because an animal has a pedigree does not mean it is purebred. Confusing I know.

A Pedigree Record

Typically speaking, a purebred animal should breed true. If bred with its own type, the progeny should possess predictable, consistent characteristics. However in the cavy world some varieties are bred using other types as carriers. Self blacks used to breed dalmations are an example of this.

In short, cavy breeds don't refer to different breeds so much as they do the same breed of animal but with different characteristics. Take for example the sheltie and texel breed. They are exactly the same animal in every way except one has the rex/curl gene. We refer to them as being different breeds however aside from the curl/no curl factor, they couldn't be more alike. For this reason a stud may breed both shelties and texels and may in fact breed them together. A litter of four, for example, may have two of each breed, yet all four animals can be purebred/pedigree and potentially showable.

A Purebred Cavy Pup

If you have a pet cavy, you can enter it in a pet class. A cavy with a pedigree who does not meet the breed standard can be shown in the same section. However if your cavy meets the standard for its breed, you can show it in breed classes.

You don't need a registered stud pre-fix to show cavies, only if you intend to breed pedigree cavies.

My interest is in longhaired breeds, so I will start with this topic. The originating longhaired variety is the peruvian. The sheltie, alpaca, texel, coronet and merino all originated from this initial variety through selective breeding.

If you make a pair with any of the following breeds the outcome will be purebred: sheltie, texel, merino, coronet, peruvian and alpaca.

A Pet Cavy Pup

If you put coronet and merino together the outcome will be coronet, merino or due to the dominant rosette gene that creates their crest, amazingly enough you may also get sheltie or texel pups.

In a similar twist of genetic fate mixing peruvian and alpaca may result in peruvian, alpaca, sheltie or texel pups. However putting a coronet or merino with a peruvian or alpaca can result in purebred pups or longhaired pets. These pets may be neither one breed nor the other but a mismatched combination of the two.

To simplify this data, I have created the following chart:

To my knowledge and understanding rex, sheba and abyssinian's must be kept to their own respective breed.

Shorthaired cavies are something I know little about. Unlike longhaired cavies, they are bred among other qualities, specifically for colour. Colour inheritance adds an extra dimension to the already complex world of genetics. If you are really interested in this area it is best to consult a competent and established breeder who specialises in them or read more in the Advanced Guide to Cavy Keeping.

The main aim in both showing and breeding, is the final outcome. When the cavy is on the judging table their pedigree is nowhere to be seen. The judge is rating the cavy based on their characteristics only. Impressive pedigrees don't always mean impressive cavies. A cavy with a lineage including champion cavies or fantastic stud names can mean nothing at all in relation to the quality of the animal because offspring can be variable in quality, even within a litter. So primarily when purchasing an animal to show, or to produce cavies suitable to show in a breed class you need to concern yourself with the purebred cavy before you, with reference to it's pedigree. When purchasing for pet classes you need to concern yourself with whether you think the animal is cute and cuddly because at the end of the day if you don't love and enjoy your animals, then what is the point?