Help with color.
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The lighter one looks like a sable point; that color is not considered white in the rabbit world. Sable point means it has an allele, the sable or shaded allele <c(chl)>, that turns off yellow pigment, leaving dark and sepia tones in the coat; it also has two copies of a recessive allele called non-extension <ee> that restricts the darkest pigment to the shorter fur, usually on the nose, ears, sides and feet.Could anyone tell me what colors my lionheads are considered? Could you explain why? The brown one has one blue eye. The white one has brown eyes. Thank you!
It's hard to be certain without being able to see more of the bunny, but the other one looks like it might be what's called a tort, short for tortoise. Imagine a black rabbit as a rabbit with orange fur which has been covered over by black coloring. A tort is a black rabbit where the darker pigment is restricted to the shorter fur, again usually on the nose, ears, sides and feet, leaving the orange color underneath to show on the body. (That's courtesy of the same recessive alleles <ee> that make your first rabbit a sable point.) In addition, looking at the stripe on its nose, white paws and mismatched eyes, it is very likely vienna-marked (VM), meaning it has one copy of the allele that produces blue-eyed white (BEW) when a rabbit gets two copies of it.
Both of those colors (sable point and tort) are non-extension colors, meaning if you breed the two, you'll very likely get more sable points and torts. And about half of the VM bunny's offspring will probably have those white marks, or at least carry the vienna allele. If your sable point happens to carry that allele as well, you might see BEW kits.
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Thank you so much for that detailed reply! I appreciate it so much! I attached more photos also!
Those are great photos of really cute bunnies.
Yes, I believe that's a tort, possibly blue tort given the smokey color of the lacing on its ears and muzzle, although photos on a computer screen can be misleading. If the ear lacing is black it's a tort, if it's blue-gray it's a blue tort.Blue is basically black with two copies of the dilute allele <dd>. Tort is a full-color variety, so your VM bunny would most likely be <aa B_C_dd ee Vv>. The underlines _ indicate that we can't tell at this point what the second alleles are at the B or C loci, but you could probably find out if they are a buck and a doe and you bred them together. Since tort is a recessive self variety <aa> and dilute and non-extension are both also recessive, you know what those are, and you also know that it has one copy of the vienna allele, so you know that's <Vv>.
Sable point is also produced by a few recessives. That one is likely <aa B_ c(chl)_ D_ ee VV>. Since there's a lot of vienna floating around the dwarf breeds especially, and the vienna allele sometimes hides without producing any white or eye color changes (it's called VC for vienna carrier), there's a chance it may instead be <aa B_ c(chl)_ D_ ee V_>.
I will post a photo of the whole litter if that helps decide between black or blue. I'm finding some of the color examples online look the same to me & I can't tell the difference.Those are great photos of really cute bunnies.
Blue is basically black with two copies of the dilute allele <dd>. Tort is a full-color variety, so your VM bunny would most likely be <aa B_C_dd ee Vv>. The underlines _ indicate that we can't tell at this point what the second alleles are at the B or C loci, but you could probably find out if they are a buck and a doe and you bred them together. Since tort is a recessive self variety <aa> and dilute and non-extension are both also recessive, you know what those are, and you also know that it has one copy of the vienna allele, so you know that's <Vv>.
Sable point is also produced by a few recessives. That one is likely <aa B_ c(chl)_ D_ ee VV>. Since there's a lot of vienna floating around the dwarf breeds especially, and the vienna allele sometimes hides without producing any white or eye color changes (it's called VC for vienna carrier), there's a chance it may instead be <aa B_ c(chl)_ D_ ee V_>.
Great! So I don't see anything there that makes me think blue. I'd call the babies:I will post a photo of the whole litter if that helps decide between black or blue. I'm finding some of the color examples online look the same to me & I can't tell the difference.
2 VM torts <aa B_ C_ D_ ee vv>
2 sable points, on which it might be hard to spot a VM but check the nose for a white spot in the dark shaded area, so <aa B_c(chl)_ D_ ee V_> or <aa B_c(chl)_ D_ ee Vv>
The two stripey-looking ones look like a VM harlequin and a magpie, again possibly VM - you can't necessarily tell by looking. However, it's a bit surprising to get harlequin-marked selfs; as I understand it, a self rabbit needs two copies of the harlequin allele <e(j)e(j)> - one from each parent - to look like a harlequin. But the dam is not apparently harlequinized, so I'm wondering if the sire was an agouti (maybe chestnut or orange/red?). An agouti allele allows a single dominant harlequin allele to show up, in this case it would be <e(j)e>, since you know the sire must have at least one non-extension <e>.
So if the black-and-white one is a magie, it could be a "regular" magpie (meaning it has a dominant chinchilla allele <c(chd)_>, if the sire carries chinchilla. Since there are full-color kits (the harlequin and the torts), the sire would be <Cc(chd)>. The mother is sable <c(chl)_> which is recessive to full color and chinchilla, so she can't be carrying chinchilla.
If the sire does not carry chinchilla, but rather sable, himi or REW, the black-and-white kit could be a sable magpie <c(chl)_> or it could be a seal magpie <c(chl)c(chl)> if a sable allele was inherited from each of the sire and the dam. Seal is very dark, almost black, so it could be why the magpie's markings are so dark even if it's not a chinchilla-based color.
Is there a way you can post a photo of the sire of this litter?
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