The Full color, chin, shaded, himalayan and REW gene--The "C" gene.
Part 1--The full color gene
The "C" gene is the most complicated gene, as there are 5 possibilities. The Agouti gene has 3 possibilities, the Black gene only had 2 possibilities. The most dominant gene in the "C" gene position is the full-color or [C] gene. A full color rabbit would be a "self" black, chocolate, lilac or blue, chestnuts, lynx, opals, all otters, oranges, torts and fawns all have inherited the most dominant "C" gene, they would all have the combination [C][?]. A rabbit that has inherited the "self" gene,the "black" gene and the "full color" gene could be black, blue or tort. The gene that turns a "self" "black" rabbit into a "tort" is in the "E" gene. Blacks, blues and torts all have the following genetic code:
[a][a]-[B][?]-[C][?]
If a rabbit inherits even one "tan" gene [a(t)] instead of one of the self genes, you would have an otter (a silver marten also has the tan gene, but inherites the "chin" gene [c(chd)] instead of the "full color" or [C] gene. The code for black and blue otters is:
[a(t)][?]-[B][?]-[C][?]
A "chocolate" or "lilac" otter would be:
[a(t)][?]-[b][b]-[C][?]
If a rabbit inherits the "agouti" [A] gene, instead of the self [a] gene or the tan gene [a(t)]. You would have a chestnut, opal, orange or fawn and the genetic code would be
[A][?]-[B][?]-[C][?]
A lynx would be an "agouti, chocolate, full color" rabbit and it's code would be:
[A][?]-[b][b]-[C][?]
As always a question mark could be any gene equal to or recessive to the dominant gene. If a rabbit has inherited the most recessive gene--for example: the lynx is a "chocolate" rabbit (recessive to "black"), you can be sure that the 2nd gene of the pair is also "chocolate" or else the lynx would not be a lynx but would have turned out to be a chestnut or an opal!
I have heard that the best combination for "full-color" rabbit is [C][C]
