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Formed in Cape Town on April 20, 1996, and is affiliated with the Southern African Cat Council.

One of the group's concerns was the lack of performance by Chinchillas on our local shows. While Chinchillas once were very popular and dominated the long haired benches on the shows, their numbers are decreasing rapidly. On the other hand, our fellow Persians are doing well, in many colours and shades. The last major prize awarded to a Chinchilla in South Africa, was 16 years ago, when Stella Slabber’s Supreme Champion Cherie Dear Niki was named South African Cat of the year in 1980. Today, few Chinchillas make it beyond champion status on shows.

Why? Has the Chinchilla deteriorated over the years? Has it lost its popularity? If so, why? Has our gene pool became too in-bred? If so: why? And what can we do to improve the situation? It was for these reasons that a small number of Chinchilla breeders came together in Cape Town on April 20, 1996, to form a Chinchilla Breeders’ Group. Not all people had the same reasons why they joined, but they had one thing in common: a serious love for the Chinchilla.

One group felt very strongly that contemporary Chinchillas are bred to conform too much to the Persian standard. The desire to breed Chinchillas closer to the Persian standard urged many Chinchilla breeders to experiment with Persian cross breeding. This breeding practice produced cats with heavy tearing, breathing problems, weak chins and a loss of eye, nose or lip liner. They agreed that there were tremendous room for improvement in the local Chinchilla stock, but there was also a need to preserve the "purer" Chinchilla . For this reason, they applied for a separate Standard of Points for the "Traditional Chinchilla" to differentiate them from the more "Contemporary Persian-type Chinchilla". Two main differences are:

• Nose:
  Traditional Chinchillas should be allowed to have longer noses than contemporary Persians, giving them sweet, smiling faces, as opposed to the more flat, "drooping" or sad face of the proper Persian.
  Reason: The longer noses allow proper space for tear glands, resulting in clean, healthy eyes. Teary eyes are in particular very observable and ugly in white cats, and spoil the passion for many Chinchilla owners as they have a constant battle in making their cats look respectable and clean without tear stains.
  In addition, the longer nose also avoids overshot jaws, which are a problem in the Persian Breed.
• Weight:
  Chinchillas are smaller than Persians.

Who formed the CBG?

The people present at the founding meeting in Durbanville were:
Brenda Bodill, Lynn Chamberlain, Alida Delport,  Irene de Villiers,  Irene Langsford, Ann McGregor-Matthews, Julia Rayburn and Stella Slabber.
The meeting was facilitated by Dr. Johan Lamprecht.

The other founder members were:
Freda Auth, Mr. JF Eichbaum, Sarel Jooste, Janet Longman, Francis Montch, Shirley Perring, Mrs DM Steyn, Rene Thomason and Rose Woodroffe.

Who are our current members?

Patron: Johan Lamprecht.

Committee: Stella Slabber (President), Alida Delport (Chairman), Ann McGregor-Matthews (Secretary and Treasurer).

Members: To see our list of members, click here.

The Objectives as set in 1996 were:

• To obtain a separate Standard of Points for the "Traditional Chinchilla".
  Note:
  This objective has been achieved by the acknowledgement of Breed 99 sepatare from Breed 10.
• To breed towards world exchange standards.
  Note:
  This objective is being achieved by one of our members, Ann McGregor-Matthews, with regards to the contemporary Chinchilla. Ann imported blood lines from world class stock, and she now has the first Breed 10 Supreme Champion in many years in SA. There are some Gauteng breeders who also imported new Chinchilla blood lines recently, but they have not joined the CBG group yet.
• To breed towards healthier cats
  • Avoid tearing eyes
  • Avoid breathing problems
  • Avoid jaw mis-alignment.
• To promote scientific breeding programs in SA.