Lynx?

[Cosima]

Could the kit on the bottom and left be a lynx? The dad is a broken blue and the mom is a rew. it’s quite a bit lighter than the opal and has a lilacish color under the ear. It would be great if the kit was a lynx because I have been trying to get some chocolate based colors in my herd.

 

[judymac]

It doesn't look chocolate-based to me. Could you take a picture of the face markings? It almost looked like there was some fawn harlequinization in the eye rings in the first photo. Is there any harlequin/tricolor in the background? If so, a single recessive e(j) harlequin allele working in the background can really mess up the color.

 

[Cosima]

I have no idea if there’s harlequin in the background. the kits are Rex in case that helps. I will send more pics soon.

 

[Cosima]

here are the other pics.

 

[judymac]

No, Rex doesn't affect color, just the length and type of the hair. Harlequin is a gene that instead of putting multiple colors on one hairshaft, as in agouti; it separates the fawn (yellow/orange/red) shades and the main color (black/blue/chocolate/lilac) into patches on the body. It takes either two harlequin genes (coded e(j)) or a harlequin gene and a fawn (non-extension) e gene for the color to be expressed. BUT, if a rabbit has one recessive harlequin gene along with a more dominant gene (like steel, or regular extension (the normal blacks, torts & agouti, etc.), you can end up with a rabbit with a difficult-to-explain color. We call that color 'harlequinized'. For example, you might have a castor (chestnut agouti) without the proper banding, or with what looks like steel tipping, or with the ears or eye rings marked with splotches of fawn & color.

You mystery rabbit appears to have that kind of fawn & color splotching on the eye ring and ear. A chocolate has none of that fawn (straw colored to orange, depending on other modifiers) shade. A true chocolate would have the same even shade of tan/brown over the entire body, even the belly, as chocolate is a self-colored, non-agouti color. This is a close-up of the photo you sent, showing the variation of colors on the eye ring.

The ears appear to have ticking, as well as some of the fawn shading. I zoomed in on the ears from one of your photos:

None of the other spots on the back appear to have color changes, which I would expect in a true tricolor (broken harlequin). My guess with the ticking, and the color changes limited to the ears/eye rings, that this is a harlequinized color. The back spots look rather bluish, are they blue? If so, this would be a harlequinized broken blue.

 

[Cosima]

The black spots look lilac to me.

 

[judymac]

Figuring out colors can be such an interesting puzzle. Okay, next question: Lynx is a lilac agouti, although it doesn't really look like a self lilac. According to the ARBA Standard of Perfection for Rex, lynx color should be "lightly and evenly tipped with lilac, not hiding the fawn." The intermediate fawn band "to be as bright fawn as possible, clearly defined over white to off-white undercolor." The eyes are to be blue-gray, same as the self-lilac, which is to be an even dove-gray throughout (no fawn or white banding). When you part the fur in the colored spots, what do you see? That should give us another clue as to the color.

I checked the eye in your photos, and it appears to be dark brown, not blue-gray, another clue.

I see that in Rex, they allow tricolors to be shown, although they never use the name 'tricolor'. Instead, the Standard has under the broken group, "color is to include any recognized breed variety in conjunction with white, or white in conjunction with one of the following combinations of two colors: Dense black and Golden Orange, Lavender Blue and Golden Fawn, Dark Chocolate Brown and Golden Orange, Dove Gray and Golden Fawn." These combinations would be called black, blue, chocolate and lilac tricolors. The eye color is to match the proper color for the non-broken variety.

Are there any other color spots on the bunny? Especially on the belly? That could give us more clues.

 

[Cosima]

this kit is not pureRex her mother is half so she probably wouldn’t fit ARBA standard. Half of my diluted kits have brown eyes so I don’t think that’s a good clue and her belly is white because she’s a Charles.

 

[Cosima]

The only spots are the nose one the ears and the strip on the back nothing else unfortunately.

 

[judymac]

The spots should at least tell you if you are dealing with broken agouti or broken self. About the only difference in lynx breed-wise is the base color, some breeds want white/off white at the skin, others lilac as the undercolor. All breeds have lilac tips over a noticeable fawn middle band. So, the next question would be, if you parted the fur in the spot, is the hairshaft all the same color, or do they have the agouti banding? Of course, many rabbits have some lessening in color depth as you go down the hairshaft, darkest at the tips and then getting a bit lighter as you go down the hairshaft, but it would be all of the same shade, not bands of different colors.

 

[Cosima]

I will check.

 

[ladysown]

she looks harlequinized to me.

 

[Cosima]

She probably is harlequinized. I wish her mother wasn’t a rew. It would make it so much easier.

 

[Cosima]

It doesn’t show on the pics but the bottom layer of the fur looks blue.

 

[Cosima]

Here’s one of her opal siblings. how can you tell an otter from a agouti and this age?

 

[judymac]

I wouldn't have guessed there were so many colors in those spots. An enlargement:

It really does look pale blue at the base, a lovely shade. The fawn parts seem like the beige shade of dilutes, I'd say you have a true tricolor, a broken harlequin. Whether it is blue/fawn or lilac/fawn you'd be better able to tell in person, I know computer monitors can alter the true colors of things. True harlequins don't show up as opal/lynx/castor/cinnamon, even if they have the dominant agouti genetics, because the main color and fawn/orange are on separate patches of skin instead of the usual agouti bands on the single hairshaft. So, even if this rabbit is lilac based, you wouldn't call it a broken lynx, it would be a broken lilac/fawn harlequin, also called a lilac/fawn tricolor. Unless of course it's a blue-based tricolor. The existence of the fawn interspersed in with the blue does give it a different tint than a plain blue has.

As to the otter/agouti question: By ten days to two weeks, the agouti banding on the hairshaft is visible. You should be able to see the different colors emerging. A closeup of the kit in question shows that all the colored fiber is the same color, no banding:


I don't have blues, but this is a two-week old chestnut agouti kit, you can see the classic agouti banding of the fiber has already started, the kit was born all black, with the white inside the ears and around the nose, which an otter would also have. But, an otter never gets the banding, the body hair is all one color like a self. So, an otter is half-way between the two, the white (or tan, depending on the presence of rufus modifiers) eye rings and ear lacing and belly of the agouti, paired with the solid colored fur of the self non-agouti.

 

[Cosima]

So the "lynx" is a lilac tri and the rest of the litter are otters? how about the opal coloring on the back of the ear.

 

[judymac]

Here’s one of her opal siblings

An opal is a blue agouti. It would have the white eye rings, white inside the ear, white on the chin and under the belly. With a broken you couldn't see the belly part, but this bunny has blue spots right to the eye, and blue inside the ears. It looks more like a broken blue self to me. What about the hair on its spots? All one color?

This is a side view of that same little two-week old chestnut agouti in the post above. Note the white around the eye and the white inside the ear. Good clues, even when tiny.

When we talk about eye rings in brokens, we are talking about the fact that the base color shows up around the eyes. In Charlies (true genetically double En En spotting genes or just with less than 10% color called a 'false Charlie'), you might only see the color around the eyes, a little dot on the nose, perhaps a bit on the ears and a few spots or a little stripe down the spine. For regular brokens, you still need to see the colored fur around the eyes, and color either over the nose (a butterfly) or as two colored dots on either side of the nose, but you'll also have more color on the body, preferably 40-75% for show. It's just the way this particular broken pattern shows up, just like the Dutch du patterning puts white as a stripe down the nose and across the shoulders and front legs and the tips of the hind feet, leaving the rest of the head and ears and hindquarters colored. Each broken gene has its own way of patterning the white and colored areas. This is not related to the agouti eye rings, which is referring to the agouti patterning putting light/white around the eyes and inside the ears. You can have a broken agouti, you'll have colored eye rings, but inside that you'll see the agouti light eye mark, and the white inside the ears:

Look at your rabbits. Agouti, whether broken or not, will still have light above or all around the eye. This is an adult "wild gray" chestnut agouti:

You can see the white inside the ear, the white around the eye, and the multiple colors on the individual hairshaft. Even if you have a broken and can't see if the belly is white, you can still look for these three traits: white inside ear, white directly around the eye, and multiple colors on the hairshaft. Opals and wild gray chestnuts have less of the fawn shade on the hairshaft, certainly less than lynx or regular chestnut agouti or cinnamon (chocolate agouti). But, you'll still see some color changes in the fiber. This is chestnut agouti fiber:

To be a marten or otter (both have the a(t) tan gene), you would need to see the white inside the ears and the white around the eye, but no color bands on the fiber. Agouti rabbits have a colored triangle behind the ears on the back of the neck. Full color C- agouti have a fawn triangle, while chinchilla-based c(chd) rabbits have the fawn removed from the coat, so they have white triangles. Martens and otters follow this pattern, martens are chinchilla-based tans, and have white triangles. Otters are full-color based tans, and have fawn triangles. Otters often also have tan outlining the other white agouti markings, and tan hairs scattered down near the belly color change, called side ticking. If you add the rufus modifier into this mix, all the white markings may have a reddish tinge to them. I don't have any tans, so I can't send photos to show the difference. If you do a computer image search of otters, you'll see what I mean.