Colour and genetics

Question
Thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly. I have just got it confirmed from the pet store that it is in actual fact a tan which is also referred to as orange. Therefore its orange and white. What would be the possible outcome of black and white butterly doe and orange and white butterfly buck? Thanks again. I look forward to hearing from you. :-)


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Followup To

Question -
Hi Sarah.

I was just wondering what is the possible colour outcome of a kit by breeding a black and white butterfly mini lop (aka holland lop) doe and a tan a white butterly mini lop- buck? Thanks.

Answer -
Well it would depend on what a tan translates over to in USA terms. A tan in the USA looks like a doberman dog; black (blue, chocolate, or lilac) body with bright red markings. I know the British Rabbit Council recognizes the same tan as a colour, but I have heard breeders refer to orange coloured rabbits as tans, as well.

http://thebrc.org/colours-index.html has a list of colour terms based on what the British Rabbit Council calls them (or if it is the tan as I described above). If you could let me know which colour tan corresponds to based on the BRC listing, I can let you know what to expect. :)

Answer
Well butterfly pattern rabbits, when bred together, can produce three different patterns: Charlie (too much white), butterfly, and solid.

Then the actual colours would be as follows:

You are guaranteed to be able to get chestnut. If the orange carries tort, you can get black. If the black carries tort, you can get orange and tort.

A whole rainbow of other colours are also possible if they are both carrying certain recessives, but without knowing anything in the pedigree, there is no way to know what recessive genes they might be hiding.