Tipped, Steel or ?

[RustyPocket]

Hello everybunny.

My parents' does currently have 3 litters that are 11-12 days old so it's time to check on the babies. I usually do it every few days, but as they opened their eyes now, I handled them made sure they are all fine. So, our Cali doe Rubi didn't let us down as other two and had 7 kits, which is pretty much her regular number. 5 Whites (Points), a Broken Black and two Blacks. Or? I though both dark babies were black, but today I took both out and saw that one is pretty Black, while other one is a "dark dark Chestnut/washed out Black" It's got Agouti spot behind the ears, but it's not an Otter for sure. As already said, dam is a purebreed Californian and sire our (now passed) buck Klempo (known genotype from breeding with several does: Aa (maybe at) B_ C_(c or ch) D_ Ee). Here are few pics of the kit, so if you have any ideas on the colour, please tell me. Thanks.



Here's the picture of entire litter (Black on the right, Unknown on the left):


I can post comparison with Chesnut if you'd like, as my camera shows the colour quite Chesnutish.

 

[Zass]

It's a gold tipped steel. you can tell because it lacks the white inside the ears. It won't have a white belly either. It is a genetic agouti though, steel requires A_ to be visable.

It only takes one copy of the steel gene to change an agouti into a steel. The genotype would be Es_ on the extension allele.
The kits would be A_ B_ C_ D_ Es_

Many purebred calis carry the Es gene, along with New Zealands, Silverfox, and Americans.

 

[Sagebrush]

Zass said it better then I could

 

[RustyPocket]

It's a gold tipped steel. Many purebred calis carry the Es gene, along with New Zealands, Silverfox, and Americans.

Thanks Zass. Now I remember about reading about Black NZ actually being some sort of steel combined with non-extension ( Es e) that makes the rabbit appear solid black when it's in fact a non-extension steel Agouti. Am I remembering correctly?

 

[Zass]

It's a gold tipped steel. Many purebred calis carry the Es gene, along with New Zealands, Silverfox, and Americans.

Thanks Zass. Now I remember about reading about Black NZ actually being some sort of steel combined with non-extension ( Es e) that makes the rabbit appear solid black when it's in fact a non-extension steel Agouti. Am I remembering correctly?

I thought black NZ are supposed to be genetic blacks, but I'm pretty sure there are plenty of masked steels in the gene pool since they are commonly crossed to whites that tend to carry all the genes to make masked steels possible.

There are a few different ways steel can look like black, EsEs can do it, Ese can do it, Esej may be able to (I think I've heard Dood mention it could), and I'm positive there are modifiers that can allow EsE to look like self blacks too.