Is it normal for a bunn to change colour during a moult?

[Runestonez]

We aren't sure what age our bunn Dandelion is...so we aren't sure how many moults he may have gone thru. He is a Harlequin Lop...when we brought him home he was brown and orange. Now that he is moulting he had loads of white and black showing up in his coat! He came to us with a thick coat from living outdoors, and is just moulting and getting in a softer coat now. Is this much colour change during a moult normal?? His head went from orange to mostly grey/black(the orange is moulting out!) His ears have a thin band of orange on front facing edge and the rest of the ear has turned white speckled with black! I now their colour changes a bit...but I have never seen this!!:shock: Any ideas??

Is there anyway to estimate a bunns age?? The shelter was assuming him to be under a year because his nails were fully grown in but still sharp???:?

Thanx!

Dani

 

[pamnock]

Some rabbits do go through radical color changes when they moult.

No accurate way to tell a rabbit's age.

Pam

 

[Runestonez]

Pamnock-thanks for the info!

 

[Runestonez]

I took a pic of one of his goofy ears!! I didn't know that their colour could change so much! I was hoping that maybe it would point to an approximate age for the little guy! Will his colours change again as he continues to moult or as he gets older???

 

[Bun~Bun]

Ya, know, this is a thread I can can relate to.
Bun-Bun, as a youngster, had darker points than he does right now. They seemed to have gotten lighter as he still grows. When he was young, about a year old, one thing I've noticed that he unusual white ring-like markings at the bottom of his gray ears. Now he doesn't have them any more. I guess that's why some of my new friends ask about the old pictures of Bun-Bun I drew - "Why are there white rings on his ears?"
The gray points on his front feet are actually almost white!!

 

[naturestee]

It's possible that he was sun-bleached before, too. And maybe better nutrition is making a difference?

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

A sun-bleached rabbit would be lighter before a moult and darker after a moult but he is lighter after the moult. For instance, Mocha's color is sun-bleached most of the time since he is outside.

The right side is Mocha's actual color, the left side is his sun-bleached color:

And I'm not sure how much of a difference diet makes on the coat color, but I guess anything's possible.

 

[Bun~Bun]

Do you think Bun could turn completely white?:shock:

 

[Runestonez]

Naturestee-I never thought about sun bleaching...it is possible. I noticed his fur is really coarse too, I assumed it was from being outside. As he moults the new stuff is nice and soft. I guess we'll wait to see what colour he is when he finally finishes moulting! He looks really cute right now!! Confused...but cute!!

MBB-Diet is probably playing a big part too. I was wondering how he survived outside. One day I had a garbage bag on the floor in the kitchen...before I could get it outside Dandelion attacked it. All our bunns will try to play with plastic if they can find it...for the crunchy noise I assume. But Dandi actually started trying to eat thru it. You don't think he actually ate garbage do you??:shock: Not that it isn't possible...but it wouldn't be something I would assume a bunn would do! (I might have to apologise to our neighbourhood skunks!)

I just found it weird that his colour would change so much!I could understand going orange to brown or something like that...but turning whiteand black!! :shock: Pretty cool actually!

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

As I said, I highly doubt that diet would result in a coat change from orange to white. Although it may be contributing to his moult. I think it may just be from his moult and I would guess he will turn back to orange.

As for sunbleaching, like I said before, it doesn't make sense that a white rabbit would sunbleach to orange. Spice is a magpie harlequin and he sure doesn't sunbleach to orange.