Silver Fox Rabbit Colors.

Meat rabbits. They've been our most successful endeavor.  Since we're diversity loving geeks, we chose the Silver Fox rabbit breed. The American Livestock Breed Conservancy says it best: "Ensuring the future of agriculture through the genetic conservation and promotion of endangered breeds of livestock and poultry."

Silver Fox rabbits are a beautiful breed, bred for both meat and fur. We have blue and black Silver Foxes and we're working on the other colors, especially chocolate.

My kingdom for a litter of chocolate Silver Foxes. But since I don't have a kingdom...

For those new to the Silver Fox breed, there are two accepted colors, blue and black. Why do I say accepted? Because when Walter P. Garland said "ta-da!" the finished product was either blue or black, like the rabbits below.

Black Silver Fox 

.

Blue Silver Fox kit

 Okay, maybe he never said "ta-da," but you take my meaning. Today, the only acceptable color for showing is black. The blue was dropped by The American Rabbit Breeder's Association (ARBA) for lack of entries. The blue is still considered acceptable among Silver Fox rabbit breeders because it is one of the original colors. Those who keep true to the original color standard often call their stock "heritage" Silver Fox, not to be confused with the Silver Fox as a heritage breed. More power to them. You never know when original bloodlines will become important to the survival of a breed.

There's more to the palate than blue and black.

Although some breeders mark Silver Fox colors other than blue or black as taboo or at least very bad form, a few are experimenting with the new chocolate variety. In fact, Meara Collins currently holds certificates of development, or CODs, on both the blue and chocolate Silver Fox colors. That means it may soon be possible to find both blue and chocolate Silver Fox rabbits showing right alongside the blacks. Diversity AND equality!

Chocolate Silver Fox lap angel still developing her silvering

Another color not under COD is lilac. Lilacs are a double recessive of chocolate with a dilute gene. Yeah, I know, genetics can make your brain twist. Or lock.

A lilac Silver Fox has a pinkish glow to the eyes and the fur is a soft silver with a browney tinge. Maybe that's not the best description, but it's my own. Unfortunately, they're so uncommon that if you look up lilac Silver Fox you won't come up with much.

The last and most despised color is white. Most breeders don't mention it as a possibility. Go ahead and look up the colors. Count how many mention white. Very few, right? White does show up and that shouldn't be surprising since the famed Mr. Garland never disclosed which breeds he used to create this amazing rabbit breed with the stand up fur. A few Silver Fox breeders do keep white rabbits. White rabbits dress out more easily than darker colored rabbits and commercial meat producers generally accept only white rabbits.

I said despised, didn't I? White Silver Fox are the redheaded step children among Silver Fox breeders. I can't tell which is more hated, white Silver Foxes or those born with the dreaded white star. I'll say the white star, since for almost every breeder I've met, white star's are an automatic cull. I think some believe it is a sign of the vienna gene, which causes blue-eyed whites. It is definitely a mismark under the breed standard and it does tend to carry through the generations. For this reason, I name starred Silver Fox kits "lunch."

This isn't to say you won't find a few Silver Fox breeders proud to flaunt their white bunnies. It's just that if you choose to do so, be prepared for some breeders to frown at you. Don't make yourself all blue in the face waiting for a COD either. The most common reason I see for the antipathy toward white Silver Fox is the difficulty in rating the silvering. How can you note the evenness of silvering if you can only see it in certain lighting from particular angles?

Whatever colors a breeder promotes or just has show up in their lines from time to time, let me go on record as saying disclosure often means the difference between a rabbit breeder with ethics and one without.

All of this to say, we finally have a litter from our one chocolate doe. We bred her to our black, chocolate carrier (there I go with genetics again) and the reward is six kits.

I see four blacks, a blue and maybe, just maybe, a lilac. Maybe one of those blacks is a really deep chocolate. A girl's got to have her fantasies.