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Author: Laurie Stroupe, Precious Pet Rabbits
There are 144 main rabbit coat colors, not including blue-eyed
whites, dutch markings, steel varieties, silvered colors,
wide band colors, and rufus-modified colors such as red. Who
ever knew there were so many?
Most people have seen white rabbits. If you've seen a wild
rabbit, then you've seen chestnut. Perhaps you've seen a black
rabbit. So what about all of those other colors?
Some breeds of rabbit come in few colors. Florida whites,
for example, are - umm - white. I bet you guessed that. Himalayans
come in blue, black, chocolate, and lilac (that's a light
chocolate color). The rabbits are white so the color refers
only to the ears, tail, nose and feet (the points).
Other breeds come in many colors. Netherland dwarfs are known
for their vast variety of colors. There are over 3 dozen colors
recognized in their breed standard (though they come in many
more). So far, Netherland dwarfs have only been developed
in the
solid variety, but soon, you will see broken (spotted) Netherland
dwarfs, too.
Holland lops, mini-rex, and Dutch rabbits also come in a
wide variety of colors. Dutch, of course, have the white Dutch
marking on their basic color.
Here are some of my favorite rabbit coat colors (the color
names are based on Holland lop color names - some breeds call
the same color by a different name):
Blue point - pearly body with blue points
(remember, that's the ears, feet, tail and so forth)
Ermine - pearly body, brown or grey blue
eyesBlack - either black all over or white with black spots
Siamese sable - rich sepia brown with lighter
points
Black otter - black fur with tan eye circles,
nose markings, guard hairs, and a light tummy
Silver marten - just like the black otter
except with silver markings instead of tan
Chinchilla - pearl gray with black ticking
- if you blow into the fur, you see rings
Blue - you may be tempted to call a blue
rabbit, gray, but there is a definite blue-ness to the color
Opal - blue mixed with fawn (a light orange)
with slate undercolor with fawn markings
One of the best sources of colored pet rabbits is Dwarfs
R Us rabbitry in Virginia <http://www.dwarfsrus.com/>.
You can get
both Holland lops and Netherland dwarfs there in a wide variety
of colors. Most of their rabbits are show rabbits, but they
do
have pets available on a pretty steady basis. The owners are
great people. They gave me my start in bunnies several years
ago
and sparked my love of rabbit coat colors and rabbit color
genetics.
About the author:
Laurie Stroupe, owner of Precious Pet Rabbits <http://www.pet-rabbit-care-information.com/>
and The Nature Trail Rabbitry <http://www.thenaturetrail.com/>,
shows Holland Lops competitively on the east coast of the
USA and at national shows. Her websites contain dozens of
pages of rabbit information and advice. |
