Chocolate Chin/Squirrel/Lilac Chin

[Edge of the Wilderness]

Finally got her picture taken in some decent light. Only took me a month.

On a separate note, I have a couple of "black" kits (from different litters) that I'm not quite sure what is up with their coloring. I can provide more details on their parents, etc, but wanted to just put the pictures up and get first impressions. Also including a picture of a 3rd kit that I know is black self-chinchilla done with the same camera in the same light for reference. Kits are aged 3wks. Kit #1 & #2 were born on the same day. Kit #3 is a day older. Feel free to click on the images to see a larger version.

Kit #1


Kit #2


Kit #3

 

[AmberLops]

#1 and 2 almost look like seals to me
They're beautiful!

 

[Bunnylady]

#1 is a dark Steel - did you know that you were working with Steel genes?

#2 could be a Seal, but Seal is two copies of the shaded gene (cchl). If either parent cannot have cchl (being either a Himi or a REW),that could be another self Chin (baby colors can be weird that way).

 

[Edge of the Wilderness]

Kit#1 Comes from a Chestnut Buck and a Himi Doe. I know they both carry (c) as #1 has a REW littermate. I suspected the buck had steel as he is much darker than his Chestnut littermates, but I wasn't sure. I have a couple (not great) pictures of him at around 12wks old last year. I only have kit#1's littermates for gene reference as this is the first successful litter for both. In addition to kit#1, the litter produced 2 Blue, 2 REW, and a Himi.

His fur is a bit dingy right now so I'd have to groom him before I could attempt to get an accurate newer photo.

Kit#2 Comes from a Chinchilla Buck and Himi Doe. I would suspect they both carry (c) based on their littermates, but can't confirm that yet. The doe produced a Blue Self-Chin and the Lilac Chin we were discussing in a previous litter with a different buck. Kit#2's littermates include:
Chinchilla
Although, I will say this kit seems darker than my last Chinchilla kit.

A kit that I'm pretty sure is Squirrel.
And a Himalayan.

I had marked Kit#2's base color as black, but as it got older I kept thinking that its color looked more like a dark brown vs my other black base kits. I thought maybe I had miss-marked it. I had ~40kits born in a 4 day period and could have made a mistake, but I know my previous Chocolate Self-Chinchilla (also pictured above) was much lighter than that. The brown tone and lighter tips have really been making me question it.

 

[Bunnylady]

This is another Steel. Since I'm not seeing anything that looks yellowish, I'm guessing what is known as a silver tipped Steel (steeled Chin).

I had marked Kit#2's base color as black,

It is. Remember what I said about Chocolate?

Chocolate is brown, brown like a milk chocolate candy bar.

Though we call it black, the eumelanin pigment isn't actually black as ink, it's really a very, very dark brown color. When it gets the right genes thinning it down, it stops looking black, and begins to look brown (think about Siamese Sable - that's your normal, "black" eumelanin, looking varying shades of brown).

This is a Chocolate Mini Rex. If you are looking at a rabbit, and you see "brown" areas on its coat that are darker than this, the rabbit you are looking at is some black-based color.

 

[Edge of the Wilderness]

Okay, so we'll go with Kit#2 is Black Self-Chinchilla. Do you think the lighter tips is just weird baby fur stuff or something else going on with genetics?

BTW, sorry for all the second guessing and thank you for all of the feedback. I know I'm not raising purebreds or anything, but I find it really interesting and love information. Being in the middle of nowhere and not knowing anyone rabbit versed, you all have been a great resource to help fill in gaps. I do have a book on rabbit keeping, but I don't think it really has any information as far as colors. And I search what I can online, but with all the conflicting labeled photos out there, I'm always a bit skeptical if I'm associating the right traits to the appropriate colors.