Full Colour C

Beginning at the highest level of pigment production, we find the full colour C allele, so called because the full number of black and yellow pigment units are present in the fur shaft.  Full colour C varieties depend upon this full complement of black and yellow pigment to produce their colour.  Although all full colour varieties have this same four units of black pigment and three of yellow pigment in their fur shafts, the pattern-setting a-series is responsible for arranging these pigments into very different looking rabbits.

In the agouti-patterned full colour Agouti, the A gene allele bands the fur shaft, dividing the colour into definite zones on the fur shaft.  To begin with, the yellow pigment covers the entire fur shaft from root to tip.  Then the black pigment is produced at the base of the fur shaft (which gives the undercolour), and at the tip of the fur shaft, providing the surface colour.  The black pigment is produced on top of the underlying yellow pigment.  In the middle section of the Agouti's fur shaft, the black pigment is missing thereby exposing the underlying yellow pigment.  Because the full colour Agouti also possesses the maximum number is achieved.

In the tan patterned full colour Black Otter, the arrangement of pigment (set by the tan pattern at of the a-series) on the upper body is that the fur shaft is first coloured with yellow from root to tip, and then overlaid with black throughout its entire length.  There is a narrow margin of yellow where-ever the black body colour meets the white belly colour, where the hair shafts are not over-coloured with black pigment, thus exposing the underlying yellow pigment.  The tan pattern also dictates that the white underside areas of the body and white areas on the head are to carry black at the base (producing the dark undercolour) and that both kinds of pigment be absent on the middle and tip portion of these hair shafts.  The resulting colourless areas of these fur shafts are subsequently white.

In the full colour varieties of Netherland Dwarfs, both black and yellow pigment are present in full strength in the fur shaft, although not always in the same locations on those fur shafts dependent upon the variety's colour pattern.   

Dark Chinchilla cchd    Light Chinchilla cchl    Himalayan ch    Albino c

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the basic patterns

the basic colours

extension of colour in the fur shaft

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