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› FORUM › HOUSE RABBIT Q & A › Determining colour
Hello all! I am new here and this is my first post ![]()
I have a question regarding the colour of my little girl whom I got just last month – Is she a fawn/orange/lynx/something else? Her mom is a black otter and dad is an orange vienna. She has grayish shades around nose area and some scattered on the body while tummy is white. The attached photo is one that is closest to her actual colour under white light. I’m not going to show her but just hoping to know out of interest! Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

Sweet bunneh!
She appears to have the lighter colour around her eyes too. Is along the jaw & under chin also light?
If so, she looks to be an otter pattern like her mum. Blue tort otter? If that is a thing… ![]()
Hi! Is “cute” a color? Because I think she’s that one
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Aww thanks Luna ![]()
JerseyGirl – Yes! She’s light on the underside of her jaw and tail. Here is another photo of her. She didn’t have those gray shades when she was smaller. It’s amazing to see the change of coat colour as time goes by!
I don’t know colors, but she is just so so adorable!! Her little nose ![]()
Blue tort otter is a thing.
Or again depending on the breed she could be a blue fawn .
Blue fawn isn’t in holland lops here so I’m not sure – it’s called blue tort in holland lops though
To make it a big easier – orange is a agouti based colour. So has agouti markings ie white tummy and white around eyes and white around nose and white inside of ears.
Fawn is a dilute version of orange – same agouti markings but lighter coat colour.
Cream ( in some breeds ) is a dilute version of fawn and appears as more a beigey fawn with blueish gray bits in it in some breeds – including holland lops – and has agouti markings still .
The other option would be an otter – in holland lops their is beige otter in some parts , others their is only black otter or blue otter
Since she / he has the agouti markings
If you know the breeed you would be able to google a colour guide for the breed and see which of the above options come in your breed and you would know then , if your bun is a cross breed then you could pick any of the names below to describe her colour as they would all match
Beige otter
Blue tort otter
Blue fawn
Cream
all you guys have such beautiful color bunnies omg <33333333
Thanks Mama for all the details! Your bun is sooooooo cute!
My girl is a netherland dwarf (both parents too) and we are in Australia.
I tried goolging before but they don’t seem to have blue tort under the otter category for ND?
She does, however, have more blue fur than a normal fawn.
Pics at 5weeks ( he’s still with his Mum there not with me)
Pic at 8weeks
Then pic at 4months
http://www.amysrabbitranch.com/Color%26Genetics/ColorBreedingChart.pdf Also if you scroll down on this one to “otter (black otter)” it say there don’t breed to orange as it has a gene that will cause tort otters
That’s only said for breeding / showing as it’s not a recognised colour by the way
So the parents of yours genetics are def right for your baby to be a blue tort otter
Oh wow! You learn something new about bunnies everyday!
Yes that’s what happened to my girl – the gray just grew in.
Blue tort otter it is then!
By the way, what colours are Oakley’s parents?
I have always wanted a bunny like him too!
But I think they called them something else (i.e. not holland lop) in AU/NZ?
I have only seen dwarf lop and mini lop in here.
Are they referring to mini lop and holland lop respectively in US?
Yep in Australia my boys are mini lops
Miniature lop in au= holland lop in USA
Dwarf lop in au= mini lop in USA
It’s silly imo that they didn’t just keep the same names
I tend to use holland lop when referencing them otherwise people think I’m talking about a USA version mini lop
I have Oakley who’s 5months ( he’s the one similar colour to yours ) cream or beige otter ( USA he would be cream – Australia he is beige otter – but it’s the same colour either way )
And Boston is a blue point he’s 3 months old
Sorry missed the q about Oakley’s parents – well that’s confusing too haha, it took me 3 months of talking with many different people (breeders and judges etc ) to try work out Oakley’s colour .. here his dad is called beige ( beige can have white undercoat or blueish undercoat here and the top colour is described as biscuit coloured ) he’s blue under… however overseas he would be blue tort as holland lops don’t come in beige
And Mum is a chinchilla
Both are pedigree
Dad was a show bunny
No otter in background which is how I know even though here he is called a beige otter he genetically would be a cream as you need otter gene to be a otter
One sibling was fawn , one blue and two like dad ( blue tort or beige )
So the genes are there to be what US call “cream” as the creams have the same genetic code as fawn does – except one gene is changed to dilute it to cream.
Genetically he would match the cream of USA hollands when taking into account his parents and siblings gene coded needed to be the colours they are
I think the issue with the colours being named different is in the USA you’ll find a lot of websites and studies on the actual genetic make up of each colour but over here they seem to just try to label them as a showable colour .. cream isn’t a showable colour in lops here – beige is.
The US also call black tort what we would call sooty fawn …
Also just better put here I’m not a breeder nor do I encourage it – nor is this in anyway at all what I’m trying to discuss – I’m only talking about the genetic code in reference to determining colour of our bunnies
It’s important to remember that the Agouti gene is responsible for the agouti, otter/marten, and self patterns. They are simply different variations of the same gene, with agouti patterns (chestnut, chinchilla, lynx, etc.) being dominant. Rabbit genetics are insanely complicated and it becomes even more confusing when different countries do not call something the same thing. LOL
I do think the adorable little Nethie is blue tort otter. But, as O&BM pointed out, the same color can be called different things in different countries.
Thanks everyone for the details!
Yes, it does get very confusing when they call it differently in different countries lol
But it’s always fascinating to learn more about our babies ![]()
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