Obsidian
Rabbitry

Aside from there being over 17,010 possible coat colors for rabbits, each color comes in a variety of shades. Shading depends on the genetic background of the rabbit. Most color types come in four different sub-types- Black, Chocolate, Blue, and Lilac. For example, you can have black himalayan, blue himalayan, chocolate himalayan, and lilac himalayan. Each of these sub-types can come in a variety of dark and light shades. With agouti colors, there are rings of color (called bands) on the shafts of hair. Wide band shades will have more surface color extending farther down the body. Color is measured in density, richness, intensity, surface color, underlying color, belly color, and of course any markings. As a breeder, you should strive to perfect and/or improve any color recognized by the ARBA in your specific breed standard. You want to get just the right shade. For example, if you are breeding for red mini rex-you want the red to be more of a deep thrianta red as opposed to a bright orange red.

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Mini rex coat color is much different from other rabbit breed coat colors. By definition, the coat color of a mini rex should express the most extreme, intense, and true to rendition of what a particular color should look like. To summarize, the mini rex should be the example of rabbit color. What makes rex coat color unique, is that it is made up of three colors for the agouti shades and solids for the self shades. Agouti hair shading is made up of the tip color, intermediate color, and underlying color, and at times there can be as many as five of these rings, or bands. The length of each color level that runs up the hair shaft determines the intensity and shade of the overall coat color, these are called bands. Take for example the castor variety. If the tip color is short and a dull shade of black, then the intermediate color which should be a rich dark shade of red will show through more and this will give the castor a more amber look. Or, if the intermediate color is very wide and less intense, then the overall coat color won't be as vibrant and the tip color will show through more, giving off a greyer look. These bands are what breeders strive to work for when breeding mini rex. The color must be perfect to the standard of what it should be. Each band must be worked on to be perfect, to get it to just that right density, length, and intensity. If any of the color is off on either a solid colored hair or on any of the three bands on agouti hairs, whether they be too thick, too dark, or too light, they will throw the entire color off. Especially on agouti rabbits, this can determine whether a color can be defined as one shade or an entirely different one. Certain band colors must be present on certain parts of the body. The lack of certain band colors is how you end up with different varieties. For example, a red variety is basically an amber variety without the chocolate agouti ticking and a fawn variety is basically a lynx without the lilac agouti ticking. Too much ticking and the color could be misidentified as something else. Other factors, such as gene modifies, help determine and create the extent of a color on both the hair shaft and the pattern it creates. For example, take the tan pattern. If the mahogany coloration that is between the base color and the cream color is more physically dominant and extends and over takes the cream, then it is a true tan. If the mahogany color is very minimal, then it is considered an otter, and if it is not present at all, then it is a silver marten.

Castor Coat and Amber Coat Comparison

 

Rabbits with an agouti coat will not show their bands at an early age. At just a few days old, even if all of the kits are the same agouti color, they may vary greatly in light and dark shades. Once they are Juniors, their coats will change several times with their molt. Each time, the coat will look a little different (termed as "between coats" or "double coated"). When they are at this stage, if you blow into the coat, you will notice that the bands are not in the right order. This is normal, and the coat will eventually grow out. The coat grows out first with the tips of the band, then the midband, and lastly the undercolor. This is why it is difficult to show junior agouti based rabbits. If they are at this stage, then the tipping of the new coat will be showing at the base, giving off the wrong base color for the breed standard. Typically, rabbits molt out their fur starting from their back end on up. You can keep watch at this point to watch the correct color coming in. The surface color of a junior agouti rabbit may appear patchy or perhaps two toned. They should grow that out at about 5-7 months. However, at 4 months, the width of the midband and undercolor are not likely to change.

 

Below is a chart to help assist in what basic colors are good to intensify and perfect with other existing colors and what colors could potentially damage other strains. Keep in mind, that not all of these below colors are recognized and some may be undesirable and even damaging for other color strains.   These undesirable colors are only mentioned for easy recognition and the possibility of using them in creating new varieties.

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Color Crossing Guidelines for Mini Rex Colors:

(Note that many of the below varieties are not ARBA recognized. These guidelines are in place to help breeders maintain or correct color in their lines. Breeding the wrong colors together will result in mismarked/incorrect colorations. It will ruin the line and cause "mutant" colors to pop up generations down the road.)

 

Castor

Reds to improve rufus gene if needed, but red offspring would not be showable. 50% of under color should be a slate blue with the other 50% should be the rufus colored ring band.

 

Amber or Cinnamon

Breed only with reds, chocolate, and other ambers. The coat should resemble that of a castor except the amber has light chocolate ticking while the castor will have black ticking. The undercoat should be a light dove grey color.

 

Nutria

The color should be a rich golden brown throughout the entirety of the coat. The undercoat should be a pale pearl gray. Rust coloration is a fault. Breed only to other nutria.

 

Steel

Steels are either black, blue, chocolate, or lilac with either gold or silver tipped hairs. The Es gene ensures that the solid undercolor travels all the way up the hair shaft. it is often a hidden gene, however, agoutis such as castor and chinchilla, paired with a solid such as a black or blue can result in visible tipped steels

 

Red

Can only be bred to other reds. Other colors such as fawn can happen but are highly undesirable as fawn does not carry the rufus factor. Occasionally castor can be introduced since both red and castor are wide band agoutis. All reds are black based. There is no such thing as chocolate based. A clean red simply pushes the black tipping off of the hair shaft as well as the blue undercolor, leaving the cream/red coloration. 

 

Orange

Can be bred to other oranges and reds only. Should be a bright vibrant orange color with white underparts.

 

Fawn

May be bred to other fawn, beige, or red. The color is a dilute of red and is a solid light caramel color. The wideband gene is not present and the solid color should follow down the hair shaft to the skin.

 

Lynx

Should only be bred to other lynx. The surface color should be a very light orange that is lightly ticked with lilac. The intermediate band should be as orange as possible with a white under color.

 

Opal

Best to breed to another opal, but can be bred to a blue to dilute the fawn ticking if needed. May be bred to black as well, but it's not very desirable. The underlying color should be a rich medium blue while the intermediate color should be a golden fawn with a slate blue under color.

 

Blue

May be bred to other blues, black, chocolate, and lilacs. Also opal but the opal will be dominant in the offspring. The entire body should be a rich levi blue with a medium blue under color close to the skin.

 

Black

Can be bred to other blacks or to blues to improve blue intensity and fix light nail colors. It can also be used to improve the shading of Torts. The color should be a deep and rich lustrous black with a slight slate blue under color.

 

Seal

Only breed seal to seal. Breeding to black will only damage the color be creating a dark seal that is hard to distinguish between a black and actual seal. Occasionally you can breed to sable point as long as the seal carries non extensions. The color should be a very dark brown, almost black, which shades to a slightly lighter brown on the chest, belly, and flank.

 

Chocolate

Can be bred to other chocolates, blacks, blue and most preferably lilacs as they are the dilute of chocolate. May also be bred to lynx if absolutely needed. Do not breed to castors as that would eliminate the top color and black ear lacing. The surface should be a hershey brown with a dove grey under color.

 

Lilac

Best to stick with other lilacs, but they can bred with chocolate and to light blues. Never with blacks as black is dominant. The color should be a very light dove grey.

 

BEW

Can be bred to any other colors however it is preferred to stay away from himis and agoutis and just stick with other BEWs. The color is a solid clean white with bright blue eyes. It is highly preferred to breed with two Vienna carriers or other BEWs.

 

REW

Can be bred to any other colors however it is preferred to stay away from himis and agoutis and just stick with other REWs. The color is a solid clean white with red or pink eyes.

 

Ermine or Cream or Brown Eyed White

Can be bred to cream or chinchilla. Color is a cream and may have a very slight ticking to the coat. Eyes are to be brown.

 

Chinchilla

Can be bred to other chinchillas, blacks, or less desirably to blues. Never breed to a shaded rabbit such as a himalayan. intermediate color should be a shade of pearl with black ticking and a slate blue undercolor. The color can come in many varying degrees from a very dark black ticked coat to a soft white ticked one known as frosted pearl. Black ticking is the only recognized shade of chinchilla, however they can have blue, lilac, chocolate, and even red ticking.

 

Squirrel

Essentially, squirrel is a blue chinchilla. Coloration should be a light slate blue with clean white underparts. Breed with chinchilla and other squirrel.

 

Sable

Can be bred to other sable, sable points, and himalayan. The color should be a medium to dark sepia body with dark sepia points. The blue version of a sable is known as a smoke pearl which should be bred only to other smoke pearls.

 

Sable Point

Can be bred to other sable points, himalayan, seal, tort, and black. Do not breed to any agouti such as chinchilla, or harlequins, tris, tans, and BEW. This will cause problems to the sable point line. It should have a light cream body with dark sepia shading on all the points and belly.

 

Sable Marten

Can be bred to other sable martens, sable point martens, and any colors compatible with sables. The color should be that of a sable but with silver white undersides.

 

Silver Marten

Can be bred with any solid self colors. The color should be either a self black, chocolate, blue, or lilac with silver white undersides

 

Pointed

Can be bred with other pointed coats and himalayan. The base color should be a cream color with a shaded points. The points can either be black, blue, chocolate, seal, or lilac.

 

Smoke Pearl

Should be a medium pearl gray body with darker points around the eyes, nose, feet, tail, and ears. Can be bred with Himalayan, blue point, and dilute sable points. Often, a blue seal bred to a himi produces the best smoke pearl. Essentially, smoke pearl is a blue sable.

 

Sallander

Use only other sallanders for breeding. The body should be a light cream color with shaded points and smut marks on the body. The cream color should compliment the color of the shading which can be either black, blue, chocolate, or lilac.

 

Himalayan

Can be bred with any other shaded color. The color should be a solid clean white with distinctive solid points that can either be black, chocolate, blue, or lilac. Eye color should be pink.

 

Tan

Breed only tans with other tans. The color is that of a solid self with a rich tan red color on the legs, underparts and neck. The rufus gene must extend the mahogany color throughout the entirety of the area it must present in. Any fading into otter coloration is not acceptable. Outcrossing to selfs, otters, or red is permitted, however, you'll have to back breed the first generation to the parents in order to produce more tans.

 

Otter

May be bred to other otters or self colors such as black, blue, chocolate, or lilac. The color should be a self with white undersides that blend with a slight tan when touching the edges of the self color.

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Tort

Usually stick to breeding with other torts, but can be bred to black as well and tricolors and brokens. The surface body color should be a bright rich orange caramel color that smoothly blends into smokey darker points such as either black, chocolate, blue, or lilac. The undercolor should be a blue white color. Only black tort is a recognized variety.

 

Torted Tri/Harlequin

The color should be that of a normal tri color or harlequin, except there will be tort shading along with the normal markings. This is a result of the aa and eje gene. This color is undesirable.

 

Japanese Harlequin

Can be bred with other japanese, harlequins, and tris. The color should look like a mosaic of spots consisting of either orange/black, chocolate/blue, or fawn/lilac.

 

Tri

Can be bred with harlequin, brokens, selfs, and other tris. The color is that of a harlequin with a broken pattern of white. Only the orange/black tri is recognized. As with brokens, the amount of white must be more than 10% over the body and the colors must display a clean pattern-butterfly, ears, etc. The combination of colors must be clean and not "bleed" into each other or be too cracked.

 

Checkered Harlequin

Can be bred to another harlequin, japanese, or tri. The colors are the same as a japanese except the pattern is a bit more complicated and in the form of a sort of large checker board.

 

Magpie Harlequin

It is preferred that magpie be bred with magpie or a non extension - red. Chinchilla and japanese harlequin may also be a pairing (however some of the kits will be chestnut harlequins). The pattern is the same as a harlequin except the color combinations are cream/black, cream/blue, cream/chocolate, and cream/lilac, and in rare cases cream/sable.

 

Broken

It's a general rule to breed a solid to a broken. If you breed broken to broken, then you'll start losing pattern. The color should be any color with white, with the color showing through in the form of large patches or spots with clean edges. It is desirable to breed for proper butterfly, eye circles, cheek spots, ear base, side markings, spine/herringbone markings, blaze, saddle, undercut, and color stops. There are three types of showable patterns-Closed Blanket, Open Blanket, and Butterfly. You'll want to produce something with a smooth closed blanket. A closed blanket is the heaviest and most solid form of color over the rabbit. An open blanket is when the side markings and spine markings do not touch. The butterfly is when the side and spine markings do touch. The edges where the color meets the white should not be jagged, faded, or "bleed" into the white. Cracked brokens (uneven edges and stray spots) is undesirable. Charlies (mostly white with less than 10% color on the body) are not showable. Charlies can be kept as brood animals to help improve otherwise booted brokens. To get good pattern brokens, breed a charlie to a solid. Never breed charlie to charlie as the entire litter will consist of charlies. You can breed a charlie to a normal broken, but half the litter will be charlie. If you breed a broken to a broken, you'll get 50% broken, 25% solid, and 25% charlies. A true charlie will carry both dominant copies of the broken genes- Enen. While a false Charlie will not, but may exhibit the same color pattern, simply because it is a poor quality broken. A false Charlie will have at least one good broken parent. In some very rare cases, homozygous brokens can exhibit intestinal problems because the same genes that control this pigment also control nerve cells to the digestive system.

 

Dalmatian

This is a form of broken with solid white being covered in uniform spots (not patches) over the body. Small, speckle-like spots as termed as "buckshot" There will be no spine marks. Same breeding rules apply with broken.

 

Hotot

Should be bred only with other hotots. The color should be a pure clean white with a solid black defined lining around the eye. Eye color should be a dark brown.

 

Tuxedo (or booted)

Can be bred to other tuxedos, solids, brokens, and dalmatians. The color should be either a self or harlequin with white booted legs, belly, and chest.

 

Vienna Marked

Can be bred to BEW and any other color. This color is basically the reverse of a broken and can have an almost dutch pattern to them called sport. They are usually a solid color with white booted feet, white blaze on head, and a white v-neck. The eyes are usually blue, but can be a dilute brown, half blue and half brown, or blue gray. This pattern is also called vienna marked. The vienna gene is basically the gene that causes blue eyed whites and when these rabbits are bred with other colors, you'll get a vienna marked.