Squirrel!

[LatchawBriarPatch]

Out of an Opal x opal breeding. It has been suggested to me it is a blue chin instead of an Opal with poor rufus and missing the orange band. Thoughts?

 

[Alaska Satin]

Even squirrel/blue chin would have ring color. I'm thinking your bunny's a cream (dilute non-extension agouti). Non-extension extends the middle ring by eliminating/reducing the dark tipping, like you see in a red, leaving no or very little tipping in the case of "smut."
Opal is a dilute agouti, so if both parents carried the non-extension gene, the kit could easily be cream.
Opal <A_ B_ C_ dd E_>
Cream <A_ ?_ C_ dd ee>
In fact it seems to have a hint of pinky-dove, so if both parents carried chocolate, it could even be a lilac-based cream
<A_ bb C_ dd ee>

 

[LatchawBriarPatch]

Thank you for the assessment. Cream is not a Rex color. So I'm assuming one would learn such things from studying genetics of another breed of rabbit?
Thank you for reason it can't be the squirl/chin!
Mom had a lilac parent, and sire had a chocolate three generations back.....so the lilac cream sounds correct.
Now....I need to go study up on dilute aguiti, and non-extention. <3

 

[Alaska Satin]

The "rules" of rabbit coat color genetics are shared by all breeds of rabbits. For instance, cream (also known as fawn in some breeds) is not a recognized variety in the breeds I raise, either (Satins and mini rex). But it's good to know about it, because it comes from certain combinations of colors that *are* recognized. Mini rex, and rex for that matter, recognize castor and chinchilla (aguoti), blue (dilute), and red (non-extension), so breeding animals with those genes results in colors like tort, cream, and squirrel showing up in your nest boxes, whether they are recognized or not!
A great, non-technical primer on coat color genetics is "ABC - About Bunny Colors" by Ellyn Eddy. It's inexpensive and available on several websites. I've been working on genetics for decades, and rabbit colors for almost that long, and I still find myself referring to that simple little book!
There are also several breeder websites that have very good descriptions and excellent photos of some of the trickier colors. Wild River Rabbitry's is fantastic (mini rex); Mink Hollow is good (rex breeder's site); Green Barn Farm has a great photo chart.

 

[LatchawBriarPatch]

Thank you so much! <3

 

[Alaska Satin]

Thank you so much! <3

My pleasure!

 

[LatchawBriarPatch]

So now that the kits are older...9wks tomorrow, I'm seeing dark ear lacing and a color spot near the nose. Uneven coat color. I took a few shots of different locations on the rabbit on two of the same color rabbits. I think I'm seeing a white intermediate band? I don't really know what I'm looking at. Also, one of the kits had black or dark ticking occasionally in the coat. Siblings are an opal colored rabbit waiting on orange band to fill in with black ticking in the coat, and a self blue sibling. This makes me think I should lean more twards squirl? Or the blue/lilac steal tipped mentioned earlier in the thread.

 

[Alaska Satin]

That's tricky! So glad you put up new photos... I wish I could see the bunnies in person, lighting can make such a difference.
Agoutis do have some strange phases as they develop their color (and cream, opal, chinchilla amd squirrel are all agoutis), but the dark undercolor in your bunnies is really making me re-think cream. Smutty creams can have a blue gray undercoat, and they can definitely have ear lacing, as can any non-extension color, though the lacing in the first photo looks more blue than lilac. But the various shades of chinchilla have dark undercoats, and your rabbits now look more blue than fawns generally do, except for the last photo.
But it still doesn't look like they have ring color to me, with the possible exception of photo #4, which I suppose could show poor ring definition. The photos don't show anything I'd call ticking, so I'm still not convinced it's squirrel. But, here is a lilac chinchilla from Wildriver Rabbitry Mini Rex Color Guide, which *kind of* looks your photo #4:

Here is a squirrel rex from Mink Hollow's page farm:rabbits:rabbit_colours [Mink Hollow Farm]

and one from Wildriver Rabbitry Mini Rex Color Guide:

Here is a photo of a lynx with excellent ring definition:

and here is fawn/cream (not lilac, though):

The three photos above are from Wildriver excellent coat color page Mini Rex Color Guide.

Here is a photo of a lilac cream Holland Lop from Green Barn Farm's great coat color matrix page. The color will present slightly differently due to structural differences in rex fur but you can see the general "look."

Photo by Michelle Winter, from www.gbfarm.org

But then here's photo of a lilac cream rex from Mink Hollow's page
farm:rabbits:rabbit_colours [Mink Hollow Farm],
and it looks a lot more 'creamy' than your bluish bunnies:


Lighting, of course, can really play havoc with color discussions, especially with subtle dilute colors.

I know the least about steel but understand that there's a wide variation in the presentation of the steeling effect. Here's a blue silver-tipped steel from Steel Gene It's got the same general hue but it's got the "tipping" that I'm not seeing in the photos of your rabbits. That could be related to the rex coat type, though.


Can you post some photos of their bellies, including the undercolor?
Fun mystery!

 

[LatchawBriarPatch]

They definitely aren't fawn colored. I have read through most of those sites every few days trying to find something new to give me clues, find out what I'm missing. Thank you for the lop and steel links. Those were new for me.
The steel variables seem to match what I am seeing. Here are some belly photos.
If I add the opal sibling with black ticking and the blue self sibling to the equation, maybe mama is a Opal GTS.
The random single place on one of the 5 with the white band seen above could be because steel isn't completely overpowering, maybe.
Making the babies Blue or Lilac Silver tipped Steels.

 

[Alaska Satin]

They definitely aren't fawn colored. I have read through most of those sites every few days trying to find something new to give me clues, find out what I'm missing. Thank you for the lop and steel links. Those were new for me.
The steel variables seem to match what I am seeing. Here are some belly photos.
If I add the opal sibling with black ticking and the blue self sibling to the equation, maybe mama is a Opal GTS.
The random single place on one of the 5 with the white band seen above could be because steel isn't completely overpowering, maybe.
Making the babies Blue or Lilac Silver tipped Steels.

Yes! I'm with you on that reasoning and conclusion; I think the belly pics cinch it.
Great series of photos, by the way!