Why is breeding for quality in coloured animals so difficult?
January 9th, 2010 by Julie
Here’s something I have been musing about for a long while. We all know that the coloured animals – both huacaya and suri are of inferior quality to the whites – due to the culling of coloured animals over the years of breeding in Peru and the need to bring in inferior animals to reintroduce the colour. OK, I can accept that. However, in my 5 years of undertaking Embryo Transfer, I have noticed this – when a group of cria are born, from the same parents, the lighter ones are always better quality than the darker ones. Why? They all have the same genetic parents. Is it complete coincidence, or could there be some linkage between colour and quality – it doesn’t seem possible, but…


