rabbit fur shedding

Question
My Poppy is a lionhead cross (with what I'm not sure) pretty much a 1,1/2yrs  
she has been spayed, perfectly healthy, upto date with all vaccinations etc
eats well, gets plenty of exercise lives indoors but plays outdoors, she is a
beautiful light brown color but over the last 2 to 3 weeks she shed a whole
patch of hair over the whole of the back (not to bold but very close fur was
left) but all her other fur remains the same, it has now started the grow back
but very dark brown, i'm not concerned about her health as she is fine, it's
more for the fact that i've never seen  this before and wondered why this
happens? i have 5 other bunny's and none of them have gone through this
but my Button (male) he is grey and over the last 6 months has been
gradually showing brown patches more and more, but again no worries with
health just wondering why this might happen to some rabbits but not others?

Answer
Dear Sam,

When a rabbit sheds her old coat, the old fur is often a bit faded.  You may not notice the gradual color change over the course of the months, but it does happen.

When the new fur grows in, it is often a somewhat darker color, since the fur shafts are new, healthy and not yet faded.  This is more noticeable in some rabbits than others, but many of them have a slightly "newer" color when the fresh coat first grows in.

As long as there is no baldness, crusty skin or patches of flakiness, I would not worry.  If you do see any of these signs, though, please see:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/furloss.html

and find a good rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

Hope that helps.

Dana