Yes, this really is a common artifact of shearing. When you see the new hairs emerge from the skin, most of the color will be near the tips, it pales as the fiber gets longer and longer. While the Holy Grail of angoras is to have even color from tip to skin, it can be difficult to obtain. Some rabbits will go down to pure white at the base, as is apparently the case with this rabbit. Where the new coat has emerged from the skin, you can see the darker color and the rings, which is what I believe you are seeing on the back of the neck (the most common place for it to molt completely out and start again with new hair) and on the feet (which don't grow long hair on French or Satin Angora). Since the points on Satin & French Angora are free of long hair, the color is always darker there.
But now I am seeing some other details I didn't notice before, like these variations in color on his feet, ears, and head. Do either of you see stripes or patches, or am I imagining it, or being fooled by wool and satin sheen?
Yes, I've been looking at those spots as well, but I really think, with the exception of the big chocolate spot on the right of the face, that this is just the agouti banding of the hair. My camera is currently AWOL, so I can't take a new photo of a Satin Angora in chocolate agouti, but I have an old photo showing the banding on an English Angora. Notice the similarity in the color changes between this coat and the colors seen on the feet. except the colors are more washed out on the feet, which would be in line with the idea that this is a dilute rabbit--lilac instead of chocolate.
The chocolate splotch on the right of the face (the rabbit's left) does leave me confused. It just doesn't seem to mesh with any of the other things I see.
Okay, I've re-looked at everything, and have a wild and crazy idea. The eyes say 'dilute'. The fiber could certainly be lilac, which would explain the chocolate tint. The head says 'high rufus', which affects chocolate & the dilute lilac, and can be very confusing. It usually expresses itself at the head and the tips of the fiber. The eye rings and white belly say 'agouti', but looking at the main body fiber, it just looks plain lilac. Could we be looking at a high rufus lilac otter? Or is this just a very smutty fawn, or a rabbit with harlequin in the background. . .????
Okay, tort or self would have a dark belly. With the eye rings and white belly, that means we are either dealing with agouti or the tan gene (otter, too much rufus to be marten). Do you still have the fiber that was sheared off the rabbit, and if so, can you pull out an inch or so thick lock of it, stretch it out and put it on a different colored background and take a photo? If this is the tan gene, the fiber will look like a self lilac--with darker lilac at the tips and paler lilac as it goes down the hairshaft, probably going to white near the bottom, based on the color of the remaining sheared hair. There shouldn't be any of the yellowish fawn/cream colors in the middle of the hairshaft, which a lilac agouti (lynx) would have. If you look at the chocolate agouti photos above, you'll see the banding--chocolate on the tips, then fawn (the yellowish tint), then a paler chocolate shade they call 'dove'. If you have an otter, there will be no fawn in the middle of the hairshaft.
