"Blue"

When we talk about a chinchilla being "blue" or having that sort of coloration, a lot of people can't quite grasp what that means.  I get it!  It's one of those things that can help to "see" to understand.

But I found a great example for you all!  At Jim's house, here's some lights:

I'm pretty sure, in looking at that pic, you can see that the light on the left has warmer / yellow tones and the light on the right has cooler / blue tones.

Is it bright blue?  No.  The same is true on an animal.  Are we expecting robin's egg blue?  No.  But you can definitely tell the difference in the lights, and the same is true on animals!  It's easier to see on the lights, which is why I give that as an example, but you can also see this on chins.  The easiest way to see this (to an untrained eye) would be to put chinchillas under show lights and look at them that way.  By the way, blue is desirable.  Yellow / red coloration is not.