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- This topic has 12sd replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 10 months ago by
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maybe i’m a weirdo, but genetics was my favorite in biology class and the subject of rabbit phenotypes is really interesting to me! so, i decided to take a stab at identifying my bunnies’ phenotypes!
maple is my chestnut agouti lionhead mix, so she was pretty easy to figure out.
A_B_C_D_E_W_
since she’s got dominant alleles in every category (agouti, black/chocolate, color completeness, color density, color extension and agouti bands) it’s impossible to tell if she’s homozygous or heterozygous in each locus.
flapjack is (as i’ve now somewhat determined) a lionhead/dwarf/perhaps dutch/??? mix and since he’s got more recessive traits, its easier to figure out!
aaBbc(h)_ddeeDudu
obviously he’s not agouti. i know he’s a Bb because i have seen his brother, who is a lilac point. he’s a pointed rabbit, so he’s c(h), but i don’t know the second allele (also this locus is confusing from what i’ve read.) he’s a blue point he is, of course, diluted. since he is pointed i think his color extension would be ee.
and that brings us to the dutch gene. i was researching and i noticed that rabbits that are vienna marked oftentimes have the little white triangle on their nose that flapjack does. however i checked out his eyes and they look to be fully brown with a slightly reddish cast (which i believe comes from his color points, as colorpointing is a mutation of the albino gene, from what a short google search told me about siamese cats). so i think he’s got some dutch rabbit in his lineage, leaving him with one Du allele and one du allele, leaving him with some abnormal markings (his little nose triangle, and one of his front feet isn’t as dark as the others.)
if anyone else on the site is a weirdo who likes genetics like me, let me know what you think of my findings and if i’m accurate or not!
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Yeah, I get pretty lost when I read about rabbit genetics.
This is the page I usually go to if I *try* get a grasp on it. Out of my buns (living) Potamus is probably the one that would have the most unusual phenotype, I suspect.
Her coat appears to be a dilute magpie harlequin (very muddied) but she also has shaded points. Her mum was a sable point.
Potamus has a very slight brownish tinge to the grey on her muzzle also. So Im guessing she had the sable gene & japanese brindling gene?
I have vague memory of the ruby-cast to brown eyes being something to do with the sable gene.
There was a magician who had a rabbit named Debbie. She has the strangest genotype, A- Br– cc Dr– Ebra–
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It’s an oversimplification to think that traits are either dominant or recessive.
Yes! The sable or shading gene in rabbits is an example of this. Incomplete dominance.
The Ruby eye white colour gene is another that’s interesting, I think. How it can cover all other colour genes from being expressed. p.s. That magicians rabbit has some “questionable” (read:non-existent) genes but regardless, its a REW! ( Well, I think I have that right lol
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I remember reading way in the past that rabbit genetics is actually quite a mess, since they can magically sprout about 5 different fur colors. 
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