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Chestnut agouti fur –notice the various hair colors and dark ticking.
“Tan Pattern”. Dominant over self pattern, recessive
to agouti pattern. Tan patterned colors have a solid
top color over the back, with lighter markings of silver,
cream, or red—like on the tan breed. Tan pattern
markings are found everywhere that agouti markings
are found.. Tans have a triangle of marking color at
the nape of the neck. Tans may show some lighter
ticking up the sides, but not over the back. Tans never
have ring color. Includes any variety with otter or
marten in its name. Many tan pattern varieties are
not recognized, like seal marten.
Ring Color: Having 3 to 5 bands of
color on a single hair. Usually has
dark base, white or yellowish
intermediate color and dark tip.
Rings of color are seen when coat is
blown into. Not to be confused
with a faded undercolor in self or
tan pattern varieties.
Ticking: having guard hairs of a
different color than rest of coat.
Undercolor: Color of the fur at the
base of the hair, next to the skin.
“Self Pattern”. Recessive to other two genes, thus
cannot carry A or at. Self pattern colors may have
shading, but they will not have agouti or tan pattern
markings. Undercolor may fade next to the skin but
generally each hair is a single color. Examples include
but are not limited to black, blue, chocolate, lilac,
Siamese sable, smoke pearl, seal, tortoise, and pointed
white. A pure white is not necessarily a self.
Black Silver Marten
(A tan pattern color)
~Putting them all together~
All rabbit colors have a black, blue, chocolate, or lilac base. Also, all colors have one of three patterns:
either agouti pattern, tan pattern, or self pattern. When we put them together, we get the colors
shown in the table. You can see how the gene sets work together to form different varieties.
Black Based
(B_D_)
Chocolate Based
(bb D_)
Blue Based
(B_ dd)
Lilac Based
(bb dd)
Chestnut
Chocolate Agouti
Opal
Lynx
Tan (at_)
Black Otter
Chocolate Otter
Blue Otter
Lilac Otter
Self (aa)
Black
Chocolate
Blue
Lilac
Agouti (A_)
A practical breeder’s guide to coat color genetics
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