Silver Fox Rabbits; Black vs Chocolate & the Dilute Gene

In our previous post, Silver Fox Color Genetics 101, we covered the 5 alleles of a rabbit color genotype; A, B, C, D, E.

We learned that the A, C, and E allele are moderately unimportant in most Silver Fox rabbits, should the outlier of a REW (C allele) or Steel (E allele) pop up occasionally.

So lets look at the important alleles that we need to get the colors we want when selecting breeding pairs; the B and C alleles.

Here is a pictographic showing the color genotypes of the 4 phenotypical 'colors' of Silver Fox rabbit. Note I put 'colors' in quotes, as genetically speaking all Silver Fox rabbits are Black or Chocolate, some just have a double dilute gene masking the full color of the rabbit.