Vinny
Chinchilla | B/_ | D/_ | _/_ | cchl/_ | _/_ | w/w | Light Chinchilla |
Chinchilla is indeed black based, dense color. But, it is an agouti pattern, technically a chestnut/castor agouti with the chinchilla 'chd' which removes the yellowish tones. So you need to add A/_ for the agouti slot. Recessive 'aa' chins are self black. Agouti 'A_' chins have the standard white eye rings, white triangle at the nape of the neck, white chin and belly.
Chinchilla light is another name for sable, or shaded. It not only has the elimination of the yellow tones like chinchilla (called 'chinchilla dark', ccd for short), but it also removes the intensity of some of the dark pigments, resulting in black looking like sepia brown. If Vinny is really a chinchilla, it is cchd/_, not chinchilla light/sable/shaded cchl.
Chinchilla is a full-extension E_, as the dark pigments extend normally down the banded agouti hairshaft. As has been noted, spotting is not on the wide-band ww gene, which doubles the width of the reddish/yellowish band on the hairshaft. ww is usually associated with non-extension fawn/orange/red rabbits, extending the reddish/orange/yellowish color farther down the hairshaft. Spotting is a dominant trait, coded En for the English Spot breed that carries this gene. En/En rabbits are called 'Charlies', as they usually have only 10% or less of color, the rest white. The color is usually a stripe or a few dark spots along the spine, and a little mustache spot reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin, hence the name. En/en rabbits are your standard spotted rabbit, ideally 40-60% colored, either in a blanket on the back or in spots. en/en rabbits are normal, not spotted rabbits. The same changes are going to apply to Dutch, also a chinchilla.
For Leo, change the w/w to en/en.
You are correct that you can't tell the 'C' locus from being a broken black, both a full-color self black and a chinchilla self chin could look all black, as well as sables with two sable genes--called seals--can also look almost black. But Oreo could be a supersteel Es/Es, which would also look black, so I wouldn't guarantee the E locus either. Normal extension E is the most common, but not the only possibility. If the spotting has more than 10% color, Enen is the most likely scenario for the spotting gene.
Since the tan genes (otter and the chinchilla version called 'martin') are recessive to agouti, the lower case a is usually used, at.
The tri harlequin does not have to be agouti. While it is the most common combination with ej harlequin, self aa harlequins with two harlequin genes ejej can look like regular harlequins, although they are often called 'torted harlequins' with more color than necessary on the usual dark tort points like the face. As has been noted by others, a tricolor is a broken harlie, white being the third color. Broken rabbits with 10% or less white are called 'booted', because the only white usually shows up on the front feet (boots), a stripe on the face, perhaps a little on the chin or around the neck, and can be confused with Vienna Dutch-marks. If there is no white at all on Tigger, it isn't a tricolor, just a harlequin. (By the way, harlequin patterning can come in black with orange, blue with cream, chocolate with orange, lilac with cream, black with cream (magpie), chocolate with cream (chocolate magpie), blue magpie and lilac magpie--the exact color combination should ideally be put on the pedigree.) Like the discussion with Oreo, if the white is 90% or more, the spotting is probably EnEn, normal spotting is Enen, non-spotted is enen.
Rosco as a Castor will be A_B_C_D_E_, it is the most dominant of the genetic combinations. Spotting would be enen, non-spotted.
). I got sucked down a rabbit hole and ended up making a hole chart for the 2 of us so we can always have something to reference when she breeds them. I am very familiar with horse genetics but rabbit genetics are like a foreign language. I tried my hardest to finish this but still don't understand so I thought I'd ask some real rabbit people to check it for me and get some feedback. Thanks!
