Ideally, the self group will display and even color throughout the entire animal. Other alleles can affect the way this is expressed - most commonly with either the top coat extending well down the hair shaft, as in Steel, or the midband extending outward to the tips (as in non-extension). As a result of this, the longer hairs of the animal often end up appearing to be a different color from the shorter hairs.

Note the differences between these two littermates in the nestbox: one is blue and the other lilac. Both are dilute, but the lilac (left/middle) has brown instead of black. The other babies in this group are all blue & blue otter.

Black	Chocolate
Blue	Lilac

Also called “Light Chinchilla”, or Sable.

This gene prevents ALL of the yellow pigment from forming along with some of the black. This means that there isn't even a 'pearl' color, and the black isn't fully black, but rather sepia (dark brown). The difference between sepia and chocolate is something like dark vs milk chocolate.

The shaded allele is not fully dominant over the next two (ch : himalayan, and c : red-eyed white), so the results may look different depending on the second allele. The difference can be quite subtle.

The “true” or genetic seal is a self that is homozygous for the shaded allele.

Seal (self shaded)	Smoke Pearl (self blue shaded)

Sable varieties require the second allele to be h (himalayan) or c (rew). All the sable points become lighter when the second shading gene is c instead of c^h, but the difference can be subtle.

Sable

The Himalayan gene restricts color to the extremities. Most standards that allow this color call for all 'useable' portions of the pelt to be white. This allele is affected by temperature - pigment forms only where the skin is exposed to coll temperatures. Skin that is kept warm will grow hair lacking pigment (i.e. white).

In Rex, only the black version is showable.

The second color allele can only be c^h, or c. Points will have better color if it is homozygous for Himalayan (c^hc^h)

The self colored Himalayan is the only one recognized in most breeds.

Black Californian	Chocolate Californian	Blue Californian

Wild River Rabbitry has a lovely illustrated Shaded Mini Rex Guide.

Judith Graf, Color Basics 1991 (self-published booklet)

Glenna M.Huffmon, The Basics of Color Genetics in Rabbits (I have the 1995 third edition)