Color?

[Rainbow_Rabbits]

Does anyone know what color this is?
It was not black like chinchilla's are as a newborn. It was copper colored.
It is now looking like a regular chinchilla, but that copper sheen is still there.
It has white lacing, siblings are steels and chestnuts, bred to two different bucks, thus the different littermates.
In general [where breed doesn't matter], what color starts out copper and then ends up looking like a regular chin???

 

[Dood]

A smutty chinchilla with a lot of Rufus factors

 

[JessiL]

What about either chocolate chin or the sable chinchilla (has cchl with agouti rather than cchd)? I used to get those with my Netherland Dwarves, drove me nuts...

 

[Miss M]

So the Rufus can cause red to show up in a rabbit that has the chin gene?

 

[Dood]

So the Rufus can cause red to show up in a rabbit that has the chin gene?

Yes.
The dark shaded gene only eliminates 1 of the 4 yellow and red pigments. Also there is some controversy as to whether there is actually a medium shaded gene (cch2 AKA cchm) that is the cause of these smutty looking chinchillas showing up in pure blood American and Giant chinchilla bloodlines.

In Europe they say it exists but is is rarely mentioned over here.

From - http://www.amysrabbitranch.com/Color%26 ... tColor.pdf

List of the C Locus Genes and Melanin Production
C ~ Complete Tyrosinase activity
cch3 ~ Some temperature sensitivity, reduced eumelanin
cch2 ~ Some temperature sensitivity, reduced eumelanin (less than cch3), no pheomelanin
cchl ~ Temperature sensitive but not to the point of ch, pheomelanin production not totally eliminated
ch ~ Temperature sensitive mutation, where the change in temperature caused by the gene changes the melanin production
c ~ Inactive Tyrosinase

What about either chocolate chin or the sable chinchilla (has cchl with agouti rather than cchd)?

The colour is wrong for a chocolate chin but a shaded chin AKA "shagouti" is possible but this colour is VERY rare in medium, large and giant breds and I occasionalky get dark shaded rabbits with a lot of smut when crossing my AmChins to other breeds.

 

[skysthelimit]

Yes. I get chins that have that overcast, brownish fur. And as my chins age, it comes back. Mostly in the chins that will grow up not to have a really heavy black surface color.

As Dood says, it has been suggested that there is an "in between" gene for this. And some (Rex) breeders believe that this signifies a Chin that carries the shaded gene. I do not mix my himis/seals/sables with my chins, but I am tempted to find out.


The top is a blurry it that has the overcast
the bottom is a true chocolate chin

 

[Miss M]

Woooow... okay, that explains the color-changing kits I get. They'll be part chin, part washed-out chestnut, sometimes swirled over the hips. The colors will sometimes change in intensity over time. Some of them will totally lose the washed-out chestnut, displaying only chinchilla.

Very interesting looking, but I was wondering how in the world it was possible. I had thought that the chin gene nixed all red, period.

I remember someone remarking that Thumper, our original herd sire, has "a lot of Rufus factors" (he's a chestnut). He must have passed them on to his son, who was our herd sire until recently. His chinchilla sister produced most of these bicolor kits, if I recall correctly.

She is now bred to our new buck, Pharaoh, a standard Californian. I'm really interested to see what happens next. Kits in two weeks!

 

[Rainbow_Rabbits]

Undercoat is dark, almost black. Just the very tips have color on them. The copper sheen has gone, it looks like a bright chinchilla now. Chestnuts in the litter look a bit less brown, the steels are the same. Yes, more than one sire to this litter.