I do not have a pedigree for him unfortunately. I do have pictures of the parents, but the buck was very difficult for me to try to determine his actual color.
dad of meeko
Wow, those are tough! So am I understanding correctly that you're saying this rabbit
is the same individual as this rabbit?
For the life of me, I can't imagine what color would develop from a solid black saddle to an orange saddle. The male kit seems to be a black silver marten (not an otter, since he seems to have only white markings, no tan). But if that was the case, there's no way he could have developed an orange coat, since the chinchilla allele that makes a marten blocks expression of most or all yellow pigment.
You're correct, black otters, or black silver martens, do not change colors; they don't even develop ticking like agoutis do. Sables do change quite a bit, but not like that, and they don't develop orange coloration (yellow pigment is suppressed by the sable allele, even more thoroughly than by chinchilla allele).
Did the kit look like that when you got him, or had he already changed to look more like the adult? This is really mystifying.
The older buck looks like some version of harlequin. The clear delineation of dark and light coloration on the head and ears says harlequin to me.
The lighter fur behind the crown is somewhat atypical, but I've learned that there's almost
always something "atypical" about harlequins!
Harlequin would make sense, since if I followed correctly, he produced magpies (which are either chinchilla harlequins or sable harlequins).
Meeko and Cloud are the two magpies, yes?
The mother looks like a sable point aka non-extension sable <
aaB_c(chl)_D_ee>, possibly a dilute version of that <
aaB_c(chl)_ddee>. (If that blue kit in the photo with her is hers, it would argue that she's either dilute <
dd> or at least carries it <
Dd>, as does the sire.) Unless what appears to be variations due to light and shadow are really there, I don't see the harlequin coming from her.
My understanding is that for harlequin to be expressed in the heterozgous state (like <
e(j)e>), the rabbit must have an agouti <
A_>. So, the sire would be <
Aa>.
None of the adults or bunnies look chocolate-based, so they're all black <
B_>.
Meeko's grandfather looks like a sable point, or even a seal point (which would mean he got two copies of the sable allele <
c(chl)c(chl)>). That stripe on his nose looks like it may be a vienna mark (VM). I'm guessing he's the sire of Meeko's dam, which is where the sable would have come from.
You don't say whether all of the bunnies in your original post are from the same pair or not. If they are, you could figure out more about the genetics of the parents.
But that color changing buck is a real mystery!
