# What color is this rabbit ?



## Tyler Hilton (Aug 28, 2014)

Hello everyone,What color do you think my rabbit is? He is either a lilac Himalayan or a blue Himalayan, the reason I'm questioning the coloring is because the Himalayan gene is temp sensitive and even though he was born in March, Southern California is pretty warm already so I don't know if the heat is causing the coloring to not be as saturated as it will be when the temperature cools down. 


 I believe the other Himalayan born from the same litter is Black Himalayan, because even though the coloring on her ears and nose look rather blue-ish, her tail is dark as if it was black  

 Thank you if you can help me out


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## Baymule (Aug 28, 2014)

I don't know, but you sure have a cutie there!


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## mysunwolf (Aug 28, 2014)

Even with the Himalayan genetics, I'd say that the first photo is lilac and second photo is blue. If you're really concerned about the black tail, post a pic! It may just be a really nice rich blue. Or maybe her tail gets cold


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## Bunnylady (Sep 5, 2014)

Lilac is a dilution of chocolate, and is a pinkish dove-gray rather than a light silver-gray. Are there any chocolates behind this rabbit?


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## mysunwolf (Sep 5, 2014)

Bunnylady said:


> Lilac is a dilution of chocolate, and is a pinkish dove-gray rather than a light silver-gray. Are there any chocolates behind this rabbit?



Potentially stupid question: if lilac is not the same as light silver-gray, what would you call that color instead? The silvery gray crops up a lot in my mutt rabbits. Could it be referred to as non-standard lilac, or something like that, as a way to reference color without indicating lineage as well? Or, impossible to reference color without knowing lineage?


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## Bunnylady (Sep 7, 2014)

Like I said, Lilac is the dilution of Chocolate. The gene that causes Chocolate actually changes the shape of the eumelanin granules within the hairs, so they reflect light differently. If you take a Siamese Sable (which is Black, not Chocolate based) and sit it next to a Chocolate, none of the shades of brown on the Sable will match the brown of the Chocolate; they just look "different." Chocolate is sort of a "warm" brown vs. the "cool" brown that results from thinning out the Black eumelanin granules. Because Lilac is the dilution of Chocolate, it also has that warm, pinkish tone. Chocolate is a recessive gene, so it can "hide," sometimes for generations, but you'll know it when you see it.

The classic dilution of Black is Blue, of course. Depending on what other genes are present, you can get other shades of gray besides that intense gray. The dilute of Siamese Sable is a Smoke Pearl; they have darker blue points and a pale silvery color on the body. If you have a silver-gray in your mutts, one way that could happen would be a self-patterned dilute Chinchilla. The Chin gene takes all the yellow pigment out of the coat, and a little bit of the black, as well. Self Chins are solid black, but less densely black than the true Blacks (put a Black Silver Marten next to a Black Otter and you can see what I mean. Silver Martens have Chin genes, Otters don't). Non-extension genes take a lot of the black out of the coat; if you have Chin taking the yellow out, you can get a very light gray, or even a completely white rabbit with brown or gray eyes.

I'm sure somebody somewhere has come up with a name for each and every "whoops" that can happen, color-wise, and there are a lot of combinations that I can describe genetically, but if they have a "proper" name I don't know it (is a dilute chocolate Chin a Lilac Chin, a Chocolate Squirrel, or what?). But some color names mean a specific combination of genes (Lilac being a dilute Chocolate) and to use them any other way will just confuse people.


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