Coat Colour Patterns

My goal in this post is to introduce you to some basic coat colour patterns.

The two main coat patters you will come across in rabbits are solid and broken.

This rabbit (Magic) is a solid black holland lop boy.   As you can see he is all one solid colour.  This coat pattern is called solid.   This other rabbit is a solid chocolate polish named Mittens.   I don't breed a lot of solid rabbits except in polish.  I like the broken and harlequin colours along with a smattering of agouti the best in my rabbits.

Georgia (broken black polish) and Acorn (broken chestnut holland lop) are two examples of broken.  Broken means white with another recognized colour.   It is different than vienna marked or harlequin.   It's a distinct colour patterning.. can be heavier or light (such as a booted broken, or a very light broken called a charlie).

Here we have two examples of the harlequin colour.  Harry (black magpie) and holland lop baby pet (black japanese) show off the main colour variation of this colour pattern.   Magpie is white with black, blue, lilac or chocolate) Japanese is red with black, blue, lilac or chocolate).   Harlequin is a confusing colour because it is also a breed of rabbit.  Harry is a harlequin breed rabbit which comes in the harlequin patterning.   They are to have a split face, opposite colouring on their feet and banding along the opposing sides.   it's a fascinating type to breed for.   This is one of my favourite colour patterns.

Agouti... I think Mousewhisker is a chocolate agouti.   Silver was a blue chinchilla.  I would LOVE to have a bunch of chinchilla coloured rabbits in my barn.  But breeding chinchilla gives alot of chestnut... and chestnut I'm not real keen on..it's like having a bunch of cottontails running about (and I have enough of those in my yard as well).  :)   Agouti is a specific colour patterns that has rings in the fur.  white, black, and other colour.  The other colour defines what TYPE of agouti it is.

Shaded rabbits.   PinPin is a black tort, IvyPool  is a Siamese Sable.    Shaded rabbits have darker color on the feet, ears, tail, and head. These areas fade to a lighter shade on the rest of the body.     Shadeds include: Sable Points, Siamese Sables, Seal, Smoke Pearls and Tortoise (Tort for short).

Rabbits with the tan gene come in two varieties... silver marten or otter.   This pattern is recognized with ear lacing, a triangle behind the head, lacing around the eyes, and in the crease of the nose.   It is either a silver colour or a tan colour.

The vienna gene.   The blue eyed white factor.   These are some kits off a doe rescued who appeared to either be an oddly marked broken or with the odd marking of a vienna marked rabbit.  They show very much that she was a vienna marked rabbit.   Vienna marks can be a snip down the face, a white paw on a solid rabbit, a broken rabbits whose spots are "off" from the normal broken pattern, blue eyes, dutch markings with no dutch in the background.  It can cause havoc for a long time in a line of rabbits.   One can breed with it or try to remove it from one's herd.   It can be frustrating to work with.   The kit i nthe middle is a normal blue-eyed white rabbit.  All three are vienna marked, making them vienna gene carriers.

So that in a nutshell are the basic colour patterns that you will run into.   There are others since breeding one rabbit to another can lead to some interesting genetics being shown   Like tricolour rabbits with tan ear lacing.   Orange rabbits with smutty noses from having a shaded in the background.  You can have steels (which look a lot like an agouti but with a gold or sliver tip to the hair shaft).

Hopefully you found this helpful.  
Tell me if you would please, what colour rabbit do you have?