Color question
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RabbitsOfTheCreek
Netherland Dwarf Breeder & Well-known Member
Looks like a Tort in the first two but a Blue in the last
Yes! Someone said blue tort... she does have some lighter ticking on some areas that made me wonder about opal but not sure anymore...
Agouti patterned rabbits, like opal (blue agouti), have some distinct things to look for. There is usually a triangle behind the ears (base part of the triangle closest to the ears) which is yellowish on full-color agoutis, and pearly white on chinchilla agouti. The belly is generally white, white rings around the eyes, white under the chin. These can be darkened to a reddish shade with rufus modifiers, but I'm not seeing red here, so we can disregard that. Here is a chestnut agouti with the light eye ring. You can see the dark tipping on the hairs:
Agouti rabbits also have multiple colors on a single hairshaft. Standard black agouti (called chestnut, castor, or sandy depending on breed), has a black ticking at the very end, then a chestnut brown band, yellowish (fawn) band in the middle, and gray at the base. Opal (blue agouti) has blue ticking at the very end, blue band next, they often have a rather narrow fawn band, and then back to blue, giving an overall impression of blue. The ticking is often most obvious on the shorter face hairs, which follow the same pattern.
Non-agouti rabbits, also called 'self' patterns, only have one color on an individual hair. Their bellies are not white, they have color there. No white eye rings, no triangles. Black, and the lighter blue; chocolate, and the lighter lilac, are all self colors. The entire rabbit is the same color. The kit on the left is a self black, same black everywhere. The kit on the right is a black agouti, a chestnut. You can see the lighter triangle behind the ears, white inside the ears, and light around the eyes.
Any of those colors with the fawn 'ee' recessive gene added, will have the body color replaced with a yellowish/beige/tan/orange color, with the points (face, ears, feet, tail) retaining the original color. We call these tortoiseshells, torts for short. This is a chocolate tort, you can see chocolate around the edge of the ears, on the face, and around the eyes. The body color has the fawn color.
Tan-patterned rabbits are halfway between the selfs and the agouti. They have the agouti patterning with the triangle, eye rings and light belly (tans can have the markings tinted tan with the full-color gene, called otters; or creamy white marking with the chinchilla gene, called martens.) However, tans have the single color hairshaft of non-agouti self rabbits.
How does this relate to tour rabbit? Look for the agouti markings. Do you see white belly, eye rings, triangle behind the ears? If not, both tan and agouti can be ruled out. If you do see those markings, then look at the hair. Is it all one color (sometimes the color will shade lighter towards the skin, but it's still the same basic color), or are there multiple colors on the hairshaft? If it's all one color, you have a tan pattern, if it's got multiple colors, you have an agouti pattern.
Once you determine the pattern, you look for the main color on the face. In the example of the tort pictured above, you can see chocolate brown on the face, so we call this a chocolate tort. If it was blue on the face, we'd call it a blue tort. When I look at your rabbit, I see color around the eyes, it doesn't look like agouti patterning. And the body color looks tan-ish, so I'd go with tort. I can't see the color well enough to say what color of tort, I'd definitely say not a black tort, not dark enough points. But whether it's a chocolate, lilac, or blue tort, these old eyes just can't tell. Looks different in different photos.
Agouti rabbits also have multiple colors on a single hairshaft. Standard black agouti (called chestnut, castor, or sandy depending on breed), has a black ticking at the very end, then a chestnut brown band, yellowish (fawn) band in the middle, and gray at the base. Opal (blue agouti) has blue ticking at the very end, blue band next, they often have a rather narrow fawn band, and then back to blue, giving an overall impression of blue. The ticking is often most obvious on the shorter face hairs, which follow the same pattern.
Non-agouti rabbits, also called 'self' patterns, only have one color on an individual hair. Their bellies are not white, they have color there. No white eye rings, no triangles. Black, and the lighter blue; chocolate, and the lighter lilac, are all self colors. The entire rabbit is the same color. The kit on the left is a self black, same black everywhere. The kit on the right is a black agouti, a chestnut. You can see the lighter triangle behind the ears, white inside the ears, and light around the eyes.
Any of those colors with the fawn 'ee' recessive gene added, will have the body color replaced with a yellowish/beige/tan/orange color, with the points (face, ears, feet, tail) retaining the original color. We call these tortoiseshells, torts for short. This is a chocolate tort, you can see chocolate around the edge of the ears, on the face, and around the eyes. The body color has the fawn color.
Tan-patterned rabbits are halfway between the selfs and the agouti. They have the agouti patterning with the triangle, eye rings and light belly (tans can have the markings tinted tan with the full-color gene, called otters; or creamy white marking with the chinchilla gene, called martens.) However, tans have the single color hairshaft of non-agouti self rabbits.
How does this relate to tour rabbit? Look for the agouti markings. Do you see white belly, eye rings, triangle behind the ears? If not, both tan and agouti can be ruled out. If you do see those markings, then look at the hair. Is it all one color (sometimes the color will shade lighter towards the skin, but it's still the same basic color), or are there multiple colors on the hairshaft? If it's all one color, you have a tan pattern, if it's got multiple colors, you have an agouti pattern.
Once you determine the pattern, you look for the main color on the face. In the example of the tort pictured above, you can see chocolate brown on the face, so we call this a chocolate tort. If it was blue on the face, we'd call it a blue tort. When I look at your rabbit, I see color around the eyes, it doesn't look like agouti patterning. And the body color looks tan-ish, so I'd go with tort. I can't see the color well enough to say what color of tort, I'd definitely say not a black tort, not dark enough points. But whether it's a chocolate, lilac, or blue tort, these old eyes just can't tell. Looks different in different photos.
Wow thanks! I think either blue or maybe lilac tort with the information I've gathered so far
Look close at the color around the eye and inside the ear in good light. If it is a blue tort, the color will be gray. If the color has a brownish tint to it, then you are looking at a chocolate-based color. You can see the chocolate tort color above. If it is a dilute chocolate, called lilac, the color will be softer, more pastel, than the chocolate.
