What color do you think this is

[Phoenix]

I think I've got a smoke pearl mini rex here...

What do you guys think? She's still young and her coat is still lightening up. She's only around.. 3 months now I think? or close to it.


Her mother is a sable point mini rex ( with no smoke pearl in her pedigree) and her father is a REW mini rex ( once again, no smoke pearl in his pedigree) but I'm willing to bet it's the mother who carries it.

Her mother's father is a sable point who was bred to a rew doe of mine and 2 babies, the same color as this one, popped out.

The mother...was bred to my rew buck...and a smoke pearl popped out so that's why i'm thinking it's the sable points who are carrying it even though it's not in their pedigree. must be further back.

about 2 weeks old

a little bit older

about a week ago


Yea I thought she'd be a sable at first but she's getting too light now and she's not a chocolate color..she's blue! So she's not a sable point.

The only thing I can think of is smoke pearl.

 

[mistyjr]

I would say Frosted Pearl?

 

[Nancy McClelland]

from what I can see, she looks a lot like our Mini-Rex Coal--a blue.

 

[CCWelch]

I would say blue also

 

[Phoenix]

You are right, it is a blue base. If she were a sable point she'd be a brown base.

What i'm thinking is that.. if she were a solid blue, would she be lightening up so much on her body and still have her face and feet still the same darkness as when she was born??

Wouldn't a blue be a nice even blue all around? OR do blues, when born... lighten up like that? Go about 5 shades lighter as they age?

Keep in mind she's still very young so her coat is still changing.


If she turns out to be a frosted pearl she's got a LOT of lightening up to do everywhere. Her "points" and body are too dark for a frosted at this point right now. Notice I said.. right now... I'm not ruling out frosted pearl!!



I found this picture on the internet for smoke pearl mini rex babies... It's...very similar to how mine looked at birth.

http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/foru...76-stunning-smoke-pearl-mini-rex-dsc_0574.jpg

and then I found this one of older kits.. once again, smoke pearl...

http://www.sarahsminirexrabbits.co.uk/userimages/E.gif

I'll have to get a better picture under better lighting for my girl because I took that picture inside a dimly lit barn in the middle of the night.

It's not helping me if I have a crappy picture.

 

[Shaded Night Rabbitry]

Can't be a blue.

Honestly, looks like a dark sable to me. Maybe a dark smoke. It's probably just me, but it really doesn't look dilute to me. And the fact that it's out of a REW and so dark is odd, but I guess sometimes it just happens. ^___^;

 

[Phoenix]

The Rew has chocolate otter, Himi, and sable in his bloodlines if that helps.

Definately _not_ a sable though. Originally I thought she might be one because her father has it in his background and his mother probably has it further back ( being a sable point).

I know the pictures are bad and it's hard to tell but she doesn't have any brown in her. It's a blue base.

 

[Phoenix]

OK I got more pictures but they are, once again, HORRIBLE.

I just don't have enough light in the barn for a nice picture and I can't find the big bright lamp that we normally use when setting up rabbits and taking their pictures.


I compared ?? baby to a BLUE rabbit that I've got and I noticed some differences.

1. Blue rabbit and ?? baby together are in the first pic.
2. Blue belly pic is second.
3. ?? baby belly pic is third.
4. Blue and ?? baby together again picture is Fourth pic.

I noticed that the blue's belly is the same color as her top coat. This is not the case for ?? baby. Her belly is much lighter than her top coat, head and legs.

Notice how the blue is a nice even blue all around while ?? baby is not?


Now i'm not trying to be snarky.. I'm asking because I don't know and I want to learn.

DO blue babies have uneven blue tones (like ?? baby up there) up until they mature or do they stay a nice even blue throughout their growing months to adulthood?

 

[Shaded Night Rabbitry]

Blues will be solid blue from 14 days (since I have really cruddy selfs, my blues from newborn to 7 days tend to have lighter tummies) to adulthood.

I'm 99% sure that baby is just a rather dark sable. I hate rex fur because it distorts color (other wise I'd tell you for sure), but I'm pretty certain.

By the way, at this point I'm considering sable and smoke to be the same thing. Because of the low light and my terrible eye sight, I can't really tell if that rabbit is black or blue based.

 

[Phoenix]

The lighting is horrible in the barn and I can't get anything better until I find where that darn lamp went. Low lighting in the house etc.

What I need to do, is take her picture outside in the sunshine. That would work.

From what I read, smoke pearls are born dark dark dark and lighten up gradually all the way to adulthood until they look like this..

an adult smoke pearl rex


I read that Smoke pearl is a blue base while sable is a brown base, now that could be wrong. I don't know. I REALLY need to get better lighting to prove that she has no brown. Tomorrow I will check to see what color her eyes are. That might help.. might not.


Now i'm wondering if she could be a blue point... though blue point and smoke pearl look the same to me.

haha this is fun! I'm going to send updated pictures every month of my little girl to show everyone the progress in her coat. We'll see if she continues to get lighter, or stays the same.

 

[Phoenix]

ah nevermind I read what you meant about the sable vs smoke part and I misunderstood at first. Forget what I said about the smoke pearl base and sable base color.

I see what you mean. Looking at your picture and looking at mine, she still looks brown but when You see her with your own eyes, in person... it's different.
Darn my poor self! haha I want one of those NICE cameras.



OH OH I've got it! I can put her up next to her mother, a sable point, outside in the sun. If that doesn't show a color difference... well then everyone has my humblest apologies.

I really need to get some nice outdoor pictures of some of the Jr's anyways. So much
nicer.

 

[Shaded Night Rabbitry]

Go for it. I'll be back when you have new pictures.

 

[Phoenix]

The mystery is solved!!

I went to the extreme here and I drove out of town to a judge's house.
He's judged my rabbits in the past and I've actually bought rabbits from him.
He's also evaluated my JR's for me when I've asked.

He's been judging for 20+ years and if HE didn't know what color she was... no one would.

He told me that she is a very smutty smoke pearl. Her blue is too dark and needs to lighten up.

So now I'm wondering... when she's an adult.. should I breed her to a _nice_ blue buck to brighten up the blue??

What'cha think? In the future, try a blue buck for better smoke pearl babies?