Agouti and Self Versions of the Same Color

Here is a litter of bunnies with several colors: chocolate, chocolate agouti, blue, opal, chestnut and fawn.

Chocolate is self: aabbC-D-E-

Chocolate agouti is agouti: A-bbC-D-E-

when they are just born, it's hard to tell them apart but there are two areas that can help to distinguish which one is agouti and which one is self.  One area is the tummy; the chocolate should have a tummy that is about the same color as the back while the chocolate agouti should have a pink tummy.   The second area is the inner ear; the chocolate has the ear with the same color inside and outside of the ear while the chocolate agouti has pink inner ears.

These two bunnies are 5 days old with some fur.  The top is a chocolate that shows a darker body color and darker skin in the ears.  The one on the right has a lighter color with pinkish ears.

Turn over the chocolate and chocolate agouti, one can see the distinctive difference in their tummy colors.  The chocolate has a dark tummy and the chocolate agouti has a pink tummy that will turn into white or light tan color when the wool comes in.

The self version of blue is aaB-C-ddE-, shown on the left.

The agouti version of blue is opal, A-B-C-ddE-, shown on the right.

The blue has dark ears while the opal has light ears.   The skin color are about the same at birth but at 5 days old, the blue shows darker color than the opal.

The blue on the left has a dark tummy and the opal on the right has a pink tummy.   The dark tummy will keep dark wool that is approximately the same color as the back, the pink tummy will develop white/light tan wool as it develops.