Pet Rabbit Colors   by Laurie Stroupe, Precious Pet Rabbits

There are 144 main rabbit coat colors, not including blue-eyed whites, dutch markings, steel varieties, silvered colors, wide band colors, and rufus-modified colors such as red. Who ever knew there were so many?

Most people have seen white rabbits. If you've seen a wild rabbit, then you've seen chestnut. Perhaps you've seen a black rabbit. So what about all of those other colors?

Some breeds of rabbit come in few colors. Florida whites, for example, are - umm - white. I bet you guessed that. Himalayans come in blue, black, chocolate, and lilac (that's a light chocolate color). The rabbits are white so the color refers only to the ears, tail, nose and feet (the points).

Other breeds come in many colors. Netherland dwarfs are known for their vast variety of colors. There are over 3 dozen colors recognized in their breed standard (though they come in many more). So far, Netherland dwarfs have only been developed in the solid variety, but soon, you will see broken (spotted) Netherland dwarfs, too.

Holland lops, mini-rex, and Dutch rabbits also come in a wide variety of colors. Dutch, of course, have the white Dutch marking on their basic color.

Here are some of my favorite rabbit coat colors (the color names are based on Holland lop color names - some breeds call the same color by a different name):

Blue point - pearly body with blue points (remember, that's the ears, feet, tail and so forth)

Ermine - pearly body, brown or grey blue eyes

Black - either black all over or white with black spots

Siamese sable - rich sepia brown with lighter points

Black otter - black fur with tan eye circles, nose markings, guard hairs, and a light tummy

Silver marten - just like the black otter except with silver markings instead of tan

Chinchilla - pearl gray with black ticking - if you blow into the fur, you see rings

Blue - you may be tempted to call a blue rabbit, gray, but there is a definite blue-ness to the color

Opal - blue mixed with fawn (a light orange) with slate undercolor with fawn markings

One of the best sources of colored pet rabbits is Dwarfs R Us rabbitry in Virginia <http://www.dwarfsrus.com/>. You can get both Holland lops and Netherland dwarfs there in a wide variety of colors. Most of their rabbits are show rabbits, but they do have pets available on a pretty steady basis. The owners are great people. They gave me my start in bunnies several years ago and sparked my love of rabbit coat colors and rabbit color genetics.

About the Author

Laurie Stroupe, owner of Precious Pet Rabbits <http://www.pet-rabbit-care-information.com/> and The Nature Trail Rabbitry <http://www.thenaturetrail.com/>, shows Holland Lops competitively on the east coast of the USA and at national shows. Her websites contain dozens of pages of rabbit information and advice.