# Opal or Lilac Otter Rex Color!



## FarmerBoy24

Can someone post pictures of their 2months or older opal and lilac otter Rex rabbits. I have a 2 month old Standard Rex buck and I am not sure whether he is a lilac otter or opal!

Thanks!


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## Bunnylady

Sorry, don't have any pictures, but I can tell you what to look for.

Two months is a tough age to tell some colors, because sometimes baby coats are a little bit "off" color-wise. At about 8 weeks, most rabbits start to get their junior coats. This usually starts at the nose, and you can often see the "prime line" working its way to the rabbit's tail. The new coat will have a springier texture and often a slightly more intense color than the baby coat.

I'm curious about the fact that you think it could be an Opal or a Lilac Otter, but have apparently ruled out two very similar colors, the Blue Otter and the Lynx.  For the sake of others who may read this thread, I'm going to include them in this discussion.

Opal and Lynx are agouti-patterned colors; Otter comes from the tan pattern. Both have the light belly, light eye-rings, etc; the main difference between the tan pattern and the agouti pattern is the body hairs. On an agouti, the hairs on the body are banded with (usually) 3 distinct bands: the tip color, the intermediate band, and the undercolor. The tan-patterned animal has body hairs like a self - usually one color, going all the way to the skin. There may be two zones of color on the body hairs of a tan (the top color and the undercolor), but they sort of blend together, and don't display the sharp, clear banding of an agouti. If you blow into the coat of an agouti, you can see the three bands clearly - the bands on the hairs line up together and create rings, like on a target.  If you blow into the coat of an Otter, you may see a lighter color at the base of the hairs, but the colors shade and blend into each other.

Opal and Blue Otter are blue (dilute black) colors, so the top color in either case would be a blue-gray shade. A lot of dilute colors will fade, so it is possible for these colors to take on a brownish tinge, when they are actually black-based. Watching the new coat as it comes in can help you decide whether you are looking at a sunfaded blue or a genuine lilac.

Lilac Otter and Lynx are both lilac (dilute chocolate) colors. Lilac is a sort of pinkish dove-gray shade, it is clearly brownish, never bluish. Chocolate is recessive to black, so it's possible for a rabbit to carry chocolate without expressing it. When two chocolate carriers get bred together, you can get chocolate based babies. On the other hand, you will NEVER get black-based babies from a pair of chocolates - so if your breeding pair are chocolate-based colors, you can be sure their babies won't be any black-based color.  

As to the appearance of each color:

Opal - the body hairs will have a blue-gray band on the tip. There will be a yellowish intermediate band below the tip, the undercolor is supposed to be slate gray. Sometimes you can get a white undercolor, but that's a fault.

Lynx - Tip color lilac, with a clear fawn-colored intermediate band. The undercolor is supposed to be white, if it appears to be gray, that's a disqualification.

Blue Otter - Body hairs a rich blue, with the same color running to the skin 

Lilac Otter - Body hairs a pinkish dove-gray, the same color evenly visible on the hairs


Hope that helps!


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