American Chinchilla/New Zealand colour question..

[Mckatie]

A rew NZ doe was bred to an American Chinchilla buck 2x

What colours do these look like? Light ring patterns, gray stomach,gray eyes..

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

Squirrel maybe?

 

[Alaska Satin]

A rew NZ doe was bred to an American Chinchilla buck 2x

What colours do these look like? Light ring patterns, gray stomach,gray eyes..

I think you've got yourself a load of steel. Maybe some sable steels, too, and I see at least one that I'd call chinchilla. And I think I see a dilute or two as well. Now you know the REW doe is <cc> and the buck is <c(chd) c(chl)> if what I'm seeing are sable steels/chins. The REW doe is the source of the steel <E(S)> since that can't hide in an agouti phenotype like chinchilla (theoretically, anyway). And you know she's <E(S)_>, since if she was <E(S)E(S)>, all of her kits would be steel.

The gray eyes probably come from the chinchilla. I haven't cracked this particular code yet but sometimes chins have brown eyes, other times they have blue-gray eyes. Sables can also have slightly lighter eyes, though I don't remember ever seeing blue-gray, so I don't know how that would work (getting blue gray eyes on a sable, that is). Some of the bunnies may be dilute - blue steel or smoke pearl - in which case the blue eyes could come from that dilute allele.

Steel reduces the agouti markings and pushes ring color up toward the top of the hair. In my experience, these effects can be subtle - the markings are usually more or less there, just not quite right. So the baby in the first photo has a darker chest, color on the tips of the fur on the belly and legs, dark inner front feet. Compare that to the blue chinchilla/squirrel in the second photo, who has clean, sparkling white markings on belly, legs and footpads. You can't see her face, but her jaw markings were also bright white and clear, while the first bunny has very rudimentary jaw markings.


In the litter shots, it appears that you do have at least one chinchilla, which has much brighter inner ears and markings than the steels.


Steel surface color is also different than a normal extension chinchilla. Compare this baby's surface color with a chinchilla (2nd photo) and a squirrel (3rd photo). You can also see that while it has a clear eye circle, there are no apparent agouti foot or jaw markings on the baby, and the white ear lining is very much reduced.


Sable is always hard for me to feel sure about on a computer screen, but several of the babies have that "off" color I associate with <c(chl)>, for instance this one, who nose markings and lap spots are decidedly not black on my screen.

Also the one in the middle of this photo, compared to the one on the top: