Cracked Pepper - I'm assuming he's the broken one looking into the camera - looks like a broken sable point, which would be <
aaB_c(chl)_D_eeEnen>. (Sable point is sometimes called siamese sable, but I prefer sable point because it helps indicate that it's a non-extension color.)
The term tri or tricolor means a broken harlequin, no matter what the breed. So, a tri will be white with spots in black+orange, blue+fawn, chocolate+orange, or lilac+fawn. Since C.P. has no yellow-derived color in his spots, you know he's either a chin- or a sable-based color. The two shades that appear on Cracked Pepper are courtesy of the variations in shading due to the sable allele, and to the pointed effect of two non-extension alleles.
I'd call the two lighter rabbits (to the left of the red rabbit) sable points as well. There can be a great variation in body color on non-extension sables, but a normal sable will have quite a bit darker body than those two, with less dramatic points.
As for the kits, I don't actually feel 100% sure those are chocolates - meaing self chocolates - from those pictures. They certainly
could be - that recessive chocolate allele <
b> could easily be carried by both C.P. and the steel doe. But it kind of looks like they have shading in the second photo, especially around the lower hindquarters of the solids and on the top left broken. I would not expect a self chocolate to have any variations in shade at all (other than possibly paler areas where the fur is thinner, like the lips, nape or belly on a very young kit). I understand that what I'm seeing could be just an effect of lighting or some other photographic factor, so it's your call on whether what I'm calling shading is real or not. And of course it is possible to have chocolate sables <
aaB_c(chl)_D_Ee>, too.
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I'm not sure if I'm clear on which litter you're referring to, but if the kits above started out looking like blues, that would also suggest they might be sables (darker than the sable points you're used to seeing). While you might expect C.P. to produce more sable points with a doe that was a non-extension color, like red or sable point, on the other hand you'd expect him to produce normal sables <
aaB_c(chl)_D_Ee> with a doe that was
not non-extension (like steel). He could also produce sable agouti, also known as sable chinchilla, which is not really a chinchilla <
c(chd)> but rather <
AaB_c(chl)_D_Ee>. I wonder about that bottom kit, which seems to have the light inner ears of an agouti...though that could be due to the broken pattern instead.
You might find out that your broken blacks aren't actually blacks, either. It's trickier with brokens, and I'm not sure which are the broken blacks, but it looks to me like at least two of the kits have light inner ears. Also, steels start out looking black and don't develop the steel ticking until a little later (though steels don't usually have light inner ears). Finally, if you get that steel allele <
E(S)> together with two self alleles <
aa> you'll have self steels, which do indeed look black but will not breed true - as soon as you throw an otter <
a(t)> or agouti <
A> back into the mix, steels or steeled otters/martens will pop out.
I'd love it if you'd post more photos of this litter in another week or two!
