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Agouti Pattern
The hairshaft on an agouti-coloured rabbit has three or more bands of colour, usually with a dark-grey base. This is the colour pattern seen in wild rabbits. If you blow into the fur of an Agouti rabbit, you will see 'bandings' of different colours along the shaft of the hair, being blue, black, tan, and fawn. The Agouti also has light tan colouring around the nostrils and at the back of the neck. The belly is cream. Agouti-coloured rabbits come in chestnut, chocolate, sable, lilac and smoke pearl.
BRC Description - Overall impression reddish sand colour edged with white.
Back: Slate undercolour, thin orange/yellow band, black tips. Belly: Slate undercolour, white top colour. Ears laced black. Underjaw, eye circles, inside of ears, under-tail white. Nape of neck and groin streaks orange. Eyes brown. Nails dark horn or black.
Beige
Rabbits of this colour have the pigment all over their bodies except on the napes of their necks, which are lighter.
Bi-coloured Broken
Bicoloured broken pattern consists of any standard rabbit colour in combination with white.
Black A deep solid black colour, carried well down hair shaft with a blue or black undercolour. The Eyes are dark hazel or black.
Black Fox An even jet-black colour with an under colour as dark as possible right to the skin. The chest, flanks and feet are well ticked, and evenly ticked, with silver-tipped guard hairs. Any extension of the ticking up the side and/or over the back is to be considered a beauty and not a fault. The eye circles are as neat as possible, a pea spot in front of the base of each ear. Inside the ears, the line of the jaw, and underside of tail and belly, are all white, sometimes with undercolouring.A white triangle behind the ears, as small as possible. The eyes are brown or grey.
Black Otter Black fur with tan eye circles, nose markings, guard hairs, and a light tummy.
Blue
The blue colour can be described as a very deep, slate grey colour, and is one of the most beautiful 'self' colours found in the rabbit. You may be tempted to call a blue rabbit, grey, but there is a definite blue-ness to the colour. The eyes are dark blue.
Blue Eyed White The eyes are brilliant blue. Rabbits with a blue/grey type eye are often passed off as BEWs. They almost always develop some pale lacing on the ear tips and top of the tail and often have colored toenails while a true BEW will have white nails.
Blue Fox Medium even blue colour extending to the skin. The eyes are brown, blue or grey. (See black fox)
Blue Harlequin Patterned like a patchwork quilt with a half blue/half orange face, one blue ear, one orange ear and with corresponding coloured feet (one front leg blue, the other orange, one back leg blue, the other orange) and then stripes of blue and orange across the back. This is a very difficult pattern to breed, and when a rabbit does not have the uniform patterning, it is then classed as a Broken Blue Harlequin.
Blue Magpie Patterned like a patchwork quilt with a half blue/half white face, one blue ear, one white ear and with corresponding coloured feet (one front leg blue, the other white, one back leg blue, the other white) and then stripes of blue and white across the back. This is a very difficult pattern to breed, and when a rabbit does not have the uniform patterning, it is then classed as a Broken Blue Magpie.
Blue Point Pearly body with blue coloured extremes (points) of its body (being the nose, ears, feet and tail) are blue. The eyes of a Bluepoint have a ruby glow.
Blue Self Blue Self is completely blue all over, and even has beautiful smoke grey/blue eyes.
Brindle Pattern
Brindle is an intermingling of two colours, one dark and one light. The brindle pattern appears consistently throughout the body.
Broken Pattern
When a colour is named as a broken this means that it is a white rabbit with a coloured nose, ears and body.
Brown Dark brown carried well down hair shaft. Slate blue undercolour. Eyes brown.
Butterfly Pattern
BRC Description - Colour of butterfly nose marking, to fully cover nose and top lip. Head markings, white to be in proportion to body colour. Ears to match the body colour. Body colour to extend from tail to shoulders, patches of colour on white of shoulders permissible. Body colour to extend down to flanks. Flanks, chest and belly white, teat spots permissible. No white to be present in general body colour.
Chinchilla
Chinchilla is the name given to the grey version of the Agouti. The standard chinchilla colour consists of a blend of black and pearl with a dark slate blue base. If you blow into the fur, you will be able to see the bands of colour -Intermediate portion pearl with black narrow line edging. Top of the hair shaft is grey brightly ticked with black hairs. The neck fur, flanks and chest is lighter in colour than the body. The Eye circles are light grey and the ears are laced with black.
BRC Description - Overall impression sparkling silvery-grey edged with white.
Back: Slate undercolour, pearly white band, black tips. Belly: Slate undercolour, white top colour. Ears laced black. Underjaw, eye circles, inside of ears, under-tail white. Eyes blue, blue-grey or brown. Nails dark horn or black.
Cinnamon
Chocolate
A deep, dark brown, this colour features a light grey undercoat.
Chocolate Fox Deep dark even chocolate top colour with a slate undercolour. The eyes are lilac, brown, blue or grey. (See Black Fox)
Ermine Pearly body, brown or grey blue eyes.
Fawn
Fawn coloured rabbits have a deep golden colour over their backs, flanks and chests free of black/blue guard hairs shading to a white undercolour. The eye circles, insides of ears, underside of jowl, belly and tail are all white.
Frostpoint The extremes (points) of its body (being the nose, ears, feet and tail) are darker cream coloured and the rest of the body and belly are white/cream.
Harlequin Patterned like a patchwork quilt with a half black/half orange face, one black ear, one orange ear and with corresponding coloured feet (one front leg black, the other orange, one back leg black, the other orange) and then stripes of black and orange across the back. This is a very difficult pattern to breed, and when a rabbit does not have the uniform patterning, it is then classed as a Broken Harlequin.
Lilac
This colour consists of a medium grey hue with a pinkish tint which is present over the rabbit's entire body.
Lilac Fox A pinky-dove even top colour with a dove undercolour.The eyes are lilac with a ruby glow. (See Black Fox)
Lynx
The Lynx is the Lilac Agouti. Its body and the top of its tail are tinged with lilac and light orange, and sharper orange colour shows through from underneath. There are white areas underneath the tail, belly and jaw.
BRC Description - Overall impression grey-dusted yellow-fawn colour edged with white. Back: Pearly white undercolour, thin yellow-fawn band (or wide yellow-fawn band) , lilac tips. Belly: Pearly white undercolour, white top colour.
Ears laced lilac. Underjaw, eye circles, inside of ears, under-tail white. Nape of neck and groin streaks yellow-orange. Eyes blue-grey or brown. Nails light horn.
Magpie Patterned like a patchwork quilt with a half black/half white face, one black ear, one white ear and with corresponding coloured feet (one front leg black, the other white, one back leg black, the other white) and then stripes of black and white across the back. This is a very difficult pattern to breed, and when a rabbit does not have the uniform patterning, it is then classed as a Broken Magpie.
Marked Pattern
Marked pattern rabbits are usually white, and have one other colour which appears in a distinct pattern over the entire body.
Opal
The hairshaft of an opal coloured rabbit features a pale bluish colour on top with a fawn band below it, with a slate undercolour. The ears are laced with blue and the eye circles, underside of the tail and belly to be white with a slate undercolour.
BRC Description - Overall impression grey dusted fawn colour edged with white.
Back: Slate undercolour, thin fawn band (or wide fawn band) , blue tips. Belly: Slate undercolour, white top colour. Ears laced blue Underjaw, eye circles, inside of ears, under-tail white. Nape of neck and groin streaks yellow-orange. Eyes blue-grey or brown. Nails dark or light horn.
Orange Rich orange free from ticking, with a white belly. White or cream undercolour and hazel eyes.
Otter Otter is a member of the 'Tan' pattern group. Otters are mainly seen in Black and Blue. Basically the Otter is a 'self' colour (eg. pure black or blue) over most of the body, with a white/cream belly and inside the ears, and tan colouring behind the ears, and trim of the nose and skirt (where body colour meets belly colour). They are a very attractive colouring.
Pointed White Pattern
This type of rabbit is all white with a darker colour on its nose, ears, feet and tail. These markings are much like those of a Siamese cat.
Ruby Eyed White (REW) The Albino of the rabbit world, completely white with red eyes. The eyes are red because of the lack of coloured pigmentation. Ruby Eyed whites are quite short sighted, and can often be seen slowly moving their head from side to side as if in a trance, this is called 'Scanning' and is perfectly normal behaviour. Once the rabbit has the object in focus, it will come out of the scan.
Sable From the same 'colour group' as the Sealpoint, Sooty Fawn and Smoke. Sable is a beautiful rich, deep sepia (deep chocolate) colour with darker extremes.
Sable Marten Dark Very rich dark Sepia on back, ears, face and outside of tail. The saddle colour is well carried, down the sides and then shading to a paler colour on the flanks. The chest, flanks, rump and feet are ticked with longer white hairs. The eye circles, inside of ears, line of jaw, belly and underside of tail are all white. Undercolour matches shadings throughout. Medium and Light shadings in this colour depending on the depth of colour.
Sealpoint The extremes (points) of its body (being the nose, ears, feet and tail) are rich sepia or sable coloured and the rest of the body and belly are white/cream. The eyes of a Sealpoint have a ruby glow. This particular pattern resembles the Siamese Cat.
Self Pattern
When a rabbit colour is classed as a 'Self', this means that the rabbit is totally one colour.
Shaded Pattern
This pattern looks much like it sounds. Shaded rabbits show a gradual shift in colour, beginning with a darker colour on their backs, heads, necks, ears, legs and tails.
Siamese
Siamese coloured rabbits look a lot like Siamese cats. They have dark brown colour on their ears, head, feet, belly and tail with a lighter body colour distinct from the point colours. The eyes are brown.
Siamese Sable A medium, very rich sepia brown on ears, face, back, outside of legs and upper tail with lighter undercolour, flanks and belly. A dark face colour with eyes with a distinct ruby glow. The colour does turn slightly lighter across the body through the moult, they are the chameleon of the rabbit world as they seem to change colour throughout the year and are beautiful to watch. Light and Dark shading in this colouring depending on the depth of the colour.
Siamese Smoke From nape to tail is smoke, shading to pearl grey beige on flanks, chest and belly. Head, ears feet and upper side of tail will match saddle. Undercolour and surface colours are the same as the shadings throughout. The eyes have a distinct ruby glow.
Silver Marten Black fur with silver eye circles, nose markings, guard hairs, and a light tummy.
Smoke From the same colour group as the sealpoint, and has the same patterning as the Sealpoint and Sooty Fawn, however the main overall colouring is a 'diluted' blue (smokey grey)
Solid Pattern
This pattern is similar to the self pattern, except that it may include agouti and other mixed colour fur, as long as the colours do not create a pattern or a distinct marking.
Sooty Fawn The rabbit has an even shade of orange/fawn all over the body, with darker 'sooty' extremes. The ears, belly and undertail are sooty coloured with hazel eyes. This pattern is very similar to the sealpoint pattern, however, where the body is cream with a sealpoint, it is orange with the sooty fawn.
Squirrel
The hairshaft on a rabbit with the squirrel colouration consists of a blend of grey and white bands. The colour extends from the rabbit's back down along its sides, where it is met by white on the belly and on top of the hind feet.
BRC Description - Overall impression sparkling light silvery-grey edged with white.
Back: Slate undercolour, pearly white band, blue tips. Belly: Slate undercolour, white top colour. Ears laced blue. Underjaw, eye circles, inside of ears, under-tail white.
Eyes blue, blue-grey or brown. Nails dark or light horn.
Steel
This colour configuration comes in black, blue, chocolate and lilac, as well as sable and smoke pearl colours. The entire body of the rabbit is covered with one of these colours, the hairs of which are diffused with a small amount of gold or silver tipping, depending on whether the rabbit is a gold steel or a silver steel.
BRC standard - Dark steel grey merging to a slate blue undercolour. The whole interspersed with black guard hairs. Extreme tips of the fur to be tipped with steel blue or grey. The mixture to carry well down the sides, flanks and hind feet. Belly colour will be a lighter shade varying with the top colour underside to tone with belly colour. Ears to match body. Eyes deep hazel.
Tan Pattern
This colour features a solid colour on the head, back, sides, outside of the ears, back legs, front of the forelegs and top of the tail.
Ticked Pattern
Consists of a base colour throughout the majority of the rabbit's fur, with the addition of contrasting solid or tipped guard hairs.
Tortoiseshell
Rabbits with this colour spot a lively orange on their bodies, which mingles into a greyish-blue shadowing over the rump and haunches.
Tri-coloured Broken Two other colours in addition to white.
White As pure white as possible. Eyes are ruby red or blue.
Wide Band Pattern
Rabbits of this colour have the same colour on their bodies, heads, ears, tails and feet. Their eye circles, the underside of their tails, their jaws and their stomachs have a lighter colour.
