Standard of Perfection
Rabbit Genetics
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Beginner's Academy
Holland Lops
Dwarf Hotots
Availability
A beginner's guide
Learn to read them and a pedigree becomes a forecast of what's waiting in the nest box. No science background needed — promise.
That string is a black tortoise — the most common color in the breed. By the end of this page, you'll read it like a word.
Eight words. Everything else on this page is built from them.
AA or aa.Aa. The bunny shows the dominant one and silently carries the other.The rule that saves the most confusion. If a bunny shows the most recessive version of a gene, she can't be hiding something louder at that same address. A ruby-eyed white is cc — she can't secretly carry chinchilla, sable, or pointed, because those alleles live at the exact spot her two c's already fill. She can carry plenty at the other four addresses, though!
Five slots, always in the same order: A · B · C · D · E.
A genotype is five pairs of letters — one pair per address, always alphabetical. Here's a chestnut, the wild-type color every other Holland variety is a twist on:
The underscore means the dominant allele is there, but we don't know the second one yet. You find out two ways: read the pedigree, or let the babies tell you. If that chestnut throws a blue tortoise kit, you've just confirmed she was Aa B_ C_ Dd Ee all along — nothing changed, you just got to see more of her.
Why the letters make sense. Rabbits make only two pigments: a dark one (eumelanin — black or chocolate) and a yellow-red one (pheomelanin — orange, fawn, cream). Not one of these five genes invents a new color. Each one decides where those two pigments go, how much is made, and how tightly it's packed. That's the whole system.
Listed loudest-first at each address. > means "beats."
Agouti signalling protein (ASIP)
A > at > a
AataTyrosinase-related protein 1 (TYRP1)
B > b
BbEvery rabbit alive is either black-based or chocolate-based — nothing else exists at this address.
Tyrosinase (TYR)
C > cchd > cchl > ch > c
Ccchdee) and you get frosty.cchlchcMy favorite fact on this page. A ruby-eyed white isn't a colorless bunny — she's a fully colored bunny with the paint switched off. She passes every hidden gene along. Breed two REWs and you can absolutely get a nest box full of color.
Melanophilin (MLPH)
D > d
DdDilute never adds a color — it only softens the one already there, like watering down paint.
Melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R)
Es > E > ej > e
EsE to look its best. Two copies makes a "super steel" that reads almost self-black.EejeThe tortoise surprise. A tortoise looks shaded, and the standard files her there. But genetically she's a self bunny (aa) with non-extension (ee) — no sable gene at all. If you remember one thing from this section, make it this one.
The five above make the color. These decide the pattern painted on top of it.
KIT gene — incompletely dominant
enenEnenEnEnBroken × broken → ~25% charlies, 50% brokens, 25% solids. Broken × solid → 50/50, no charlies. Most breeders pair broken to solid for exactly this reason.
A heads-up about charlies. Research shows EnEn rabbits can develop a dilated cecum and colon (megacolon) and are fragile animals. A charlie isn't just a show problem — please treat her as a rabbit who may need extra care and be upfront with buyers.
VVVvvvBEW is a recognized variety and they're stunning. Vienna-marked is not, and those markings can surface generations later. Bring this gene in deliberately, with a plan, and disclose it to buyers.
FGF5 — recessive (ll = long coat; cannot be shown as a Holland Lop)
An early wooled-breed cross improved Holland coat texture but left the wool allele behind. The wool gene and the broken gene sit on the same chromosome approximately 20 centimorgans apart, so they tend to travel together. Line-breed hard for type and expect fuzzies to keep visiting — they make lovely pets.
The most consequential gene in the breed — and the one nobody warns new breeders about.
Holland Lops owe their short face, cobby body, and small ears to a 12.1 kb deletion that switches off the HMGA2 gene. How many copies a kit inherits makes all the difference — every Holland is one of three things:
Dw/dw) — one of each copy. Short ears, correct proportions. Your show rabbit. A true dwarf can never be "pure" — it always has one of each.Dw/Dw) — two normal copies. Longer body and ears, usually over the weight limit as an adult. Don't overlook them — often wonderful brood animals with wider hips, more milk, and zero risk of producing peanuts.dw/dw) — two dwarf copies. Tiny, with a pinched hindquarter and large domed head. Peanuts don't grow and don't survive. It's sad every time, and it isn't anything you did wrong — it's simply how this gene works.A note on notation. Some breeder sites flip the capitals (Dw vs dw). The letters are just labels — the biology never changes. One dwarf copy gives you a dwarf; two copies are more than a kit can survive. Find which combination a source calls a peanut and translate from there.
| Dw | dw | |
|---|---|---|
| Dw | ||
| dw |
Notice the middle pairing: true × false gives the exact same 50% true dwarfs as two true dwarfs — with no peanuts at all. Both choices are legitimate. What no pairing can ever do is produce a litter of nothing but true dwarfs.
Peanut vs. runt. A runt is small but normally proportioned and can catch up just fine. A peanut has a noticeably large domed head on a tiny pinched body, and her littermates outgrow her within days. When in doubt, weigh the litter daily — a runt climbs; a peanut doesn't.
There's no single "lop gene." No locus has ever been identified, and ear carriage doesn't follow dominant-or-recessive rules.
Ear carriage is structural. The crown — the ridge of cartilage across the skull between the ears — determines whether ears fall or stay up. A wide, deep crown drops them; a narrow one holds them. Crown structure is polygenic (many small-effect genes, no single dominant), with environment layered on top. Warmth and a calm rabbit help ears relax; cold and stress encourage them to rise.
Ear carriage can't be predicted on paper. It's built over generations by consistently selecting for correct crowns. The standard scores the crown at 8 points and the ears at 10 — but the crown is doing most of the work behind both numbers.
Eight color groups · two show classifications: Solid Pattern and Broken Pattern.
Seniors: 6 months and over, max 4 lbs. Juniors: under 6 months, min 2 lbs. Color and markings are worth 4 points out of 100 — but an unrecognized color is a disqualification, so know your groups before show day.
| Variety | Genotype | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| Agouti banded hair, light eye circles & belly | ||
| Chestnut | A_ B_ C_ D_ E_ | Brown surface, black ticking, orange band over slate undercolor |
| Chocolate agouti | A_ bb C_ D_ E_ | Same pattern with chocolate ticking over dove-gray undercolor |
| Opal | A_ B_ C_ dd E_ | Blue mingled with fawn |
| Lynx | A_ bb C_ dd E_ | Lilac mingled with fawn — truly chocolate-based; most "lynx" Hollands are smutty creams |
| Chinchilla | A_ B_ cchd_ D_ E_ | Pearl white ticked black; yellow pigment removed |
| Chocolate chinchilla | A_ bb cchd_ D_ E_ | Pearl white ticked chocolate |
| Squirrel | A_ B_ cchd_ dd E_ | Blue mingled with white — dilute chinchilla |
| Self one color, head to tail | ||
| Black | aa B_ C_ D_ E_ | Jet black over dark slate undercolor |
| Blue | aa B_ C_ dd E_ | Dark blue over medium blue undercolor |
| Chocolate | aa bb C_ D_ E_ | Rich chocolate over dove gray |
| Lilac | aa bb C_ dd E_ | Dove gray with a pink cast |
| Blue-eyed white | vv | Pure white, blue eyes; Vienna masks everything else |
| Ruby-eyed white | cc | Pure white, ruby eyes; albino masks everything else |
| Shaded color deepens at the extremities | ||
| Tortoise (black) | aa B_ C_ D_ ee | Orange body shading darker on ears, muzzle & haunches |
| Blue tortoise | aa B_ C_ dd ee | Fawn body with blue shading |
| Chocolate tortoise | aa bb C_ D_ ee | Golden body with chocolate shading |
| Lilac tortoise | aa bb C_ dd ee | Fawn body with lilac shading |
| Sable point | aa B_ cchl_ D_ ee | Cream body, sepia nose/ears/feet/tail |
| Siamese sable | aa B_ cchl_ D_ E_ | Sepia saddle fading to lighter sides and belly |
| Smoke pearl | aa B_ cchl_ dd E_ | Smoke gray fading to pearl — dilute sable |
| Seal | aa B_ cchlcchl D_ E_ | Near-black sepia; two sable copies = minimal shading |
| Tan pattern self body, tan trim underneath | ||
| Otter (black, blue, chocolate, lilac) | at_ B_ C_ D_ E_ | Self body with orange/fawn trim and creamy white belly |
| Wide band agouti + non-extension | ||
| Orange | A_ B_ C_ D_ ee | Bright orange over white belly and off-white undercolor |
| Cream | A_ B_ C_ dd ee | Dilute orange |
| Red | A_ B_ C_ D_ ee ww | Deep reddish sorrel; true wide-band gene + high rufus modifiers |
| Frosty | A_ B_ cchd_ D_ ee | Light pearl — chinchilla on a non-extension agouti |
| Ticked steel | ||
| Steel (gold-tipped) | A_ B_ C_ D_ EsE | Dark body with gold tipping. Silver tipping = add cchd_. Recognized in black, blue, chocolate & lilac in gold or silver |
| Pointed white himalayan pattern | ||
| Pointed white (black, blue, chocolate, lilac) | aa B_ ch_ D_ E_ | White body, colored nose/ears/feet/tail, ruby eyes |
| Broken any recognized color on white | ||
| Broken | any variety + Enen | Spotted or patched; balanced nose mark, eye color, and ear color |
| Tricolor | A_ B_ C_ D_ ej_ Enen | White with two evenly spread colors: black & orange, blue & fawn, chocolate & orange, or lilac & fawn |
Not recognized in Holland Lops: silver marten, sable marten, fox (torted otter), harlequin, magpie, sallander, self-chin, sable agouti, tan, and Vienna-marked. All are healthy, many are beautiful — they just can't show. Tell buyers plainly. CODs are active for fox and silver marten, so this list can change; always verify with the current ARBA Standard and HLRSC.
"Fawn" is not a Holland Lop variety name. The dilute of orange is cream. Fawn appears only inside the tricolor descriptions.
Each produces healthy bunnies — just in colors that can't be shown. A little planning here saves a lot of surprises at eight weeks.
| Pairing | What can turn up |
|---|---|
| Self × chinchilla | Self-chin — muddy, off-color black or blue |
| Sable × agouti | Sable agouti |
| Sable × otter | Sable marten |
| Chinchilla × otter | Silver marten |
| Otter × non-extension (tort, orange, cream) | Fox (torted otter) |
| Blue tort × sable point | Blue point |
| Chocolate or lilac × any shaded | Chocolate-based shadeds — not recognized |
| Steel × self | Self-steel reads as a poor black; steel then hides in your herd |
| Pointed white × broken | Loss of boot color — a disqualification |
| Broken × broken | ~25% charlies |
| True dwarf × true dwarf | ~25% peanuts |
The genetics questions we hear most, answered straight — and yes, most of these bust a common myth.
No pairing can produce all true dwarfs. A true dwarf always carries one dwarf copy and one normal copy, so 50% true dwarf is the absolute ceiling — the rest split between false dwarfs and, with two true dwarf parents, non-viable peanuts.
She can't. Albino and sable sit at the same locus (C), and a ruby-eyed white's two albino copies already fill both slots — there's no room left to carry sable there, even though she can still carry plenty at the other four color addresses.
It's filed in the shaded group on the show table, but genetically a tortoise is a self rabbit (aa) with non-extension (ee) — no sable gene involved at all. It's one of the most common mix-ups in Holland color genetics.
No — broken × broken produces roughly 25% charlies, 50% brokens, and 25% solids. Pairing broken to solid instead gives a safer 50/50 split with zero risk of charlies.
No. Peanuts carry two copies of the dwarf gene, which isn't survivable no matter how much care they receive. A runt is a different animal entirely — smaller but normally proportioned, and able to catch up with time.
No identified locus controls ear carriage. It's a structural trait driven by the crown — the ridge of cartilage between the ears — which is polygenic (many small-effect genes) and shaped further by environment. It's selected for over generations, not calculated from a pairing.
Yes. Paired with a true dwarf, a false dwarf produces the same 50% true dwarf odds as pairing two true dwarfs together — but with zero peanuts. False dwarfs are also often excellent brood animals, with wider hips and more milk.
Not much. Color and markings are worth only 4 points out of 100 on the ARBA scorecard; type accounts for 84. Correct type has to come first — color is the finishing touch layered on afterward.
Breed standard details checked against the HLRSC and published standard text. Genetics checked against peer-reviewed research and university extension material.
Verify before you rely on it. The ARBA Standard of Perfection is republished every five years; varieties are added between editions. Check the current Standard and HLRSC before making any breeding or show decision based on this page.
Our educational pages are built from research, breed standards,
and reputable rabbitry resources — and we're always learning.