agouti

Agoutis are cavies that have a coat made up of hairs that are one color on the bottom half and another at the top (this is called ‘ticking’). They also have a ‘belly band’, which is the color of the top half of the hair. The belly band is what separates Agoutis from the Golden, Silver, and Dilute Solids. Though agoutis display a self color on the belly, this color is not considered another color. For example, the belly of the Golden Agouti is red; if you have a Golden Agouti and white broken cavy, it would be Golden Agouti/White, not Golden Agouti/Red/White.

Dilute Agouti

A dilute agouti has any one of the following base/tip/eye colors. Shown to the left are three examples of dilute agouti. 1) A lilac/orange agouti, 2) lilac base/white tip, 3) cream base/white tip (which is not a recognized color combination), 4) beige base/orange tip, 5) black base/cream tip, 6) chocolate base/red tip

Base	Tip	Eye color
Beige	Cream	Pink
Beige	White	Pink
Beige	Orange	Pink
Black	Cream	Dark
Chocolate	Cream	Dark, w/or w/out a ruby cast
Chocolate	Red	Dark, w/or w/out a ruby cast
Chocolate	White	Dark, w/or w/out a ruby cast
Lilac	Cream	Pink
Lilac	Orange	Pink
Lilac	White	Pink

Golden Agouti

The base color is a blue-black, the tip is red, and the eyes are dark. Golden agoutis should have a vibrant red belly band, free of muddiness.

A good Golden will have no eye circles (a circle of red, un-tipped hairs encircling the eye), a clean belly band, no ragged red streaks going up into the agouti around the chin, and tipped hairs on the feet. Flesh spots on the feet are a disqualification.

The red of a Golden Agouti should be very bright - Irish-setter red, and not gold-red or yellow-red. It's hard to tell the difference until you put a few next to each other, and then you can see which ones are darker and more mahogany (good) and which ones are yellower (bad).

Silver Agouti

The base color is blue-black, the tips are white, and the eyes are dark (ruby cast is desirable).