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Fur changing colour

C

cjmaclean

Young Bun
This is going to sound really strange, but we have had a rescued rabbit for a year and a half now and she was quite poorly when we first adopted her. After about 6 months she had a good moult and her fur became lighter in colour and a lot softer. We assumed this was because she was now healthier than she had been in the past.

Now what is happening is that we are noticing dark spots in her light coloured fur that seem to get darker day by day! She is transforming in front of our eyes! I am so surprised that after a year and a half with us she would develop different coloured spots in her fur. We have checked her over and it doesn't appear to be any sort of skin problem.

Has anyone else ever noticed this before??
 
Are you at the Heathlands Animal Sanctury?

Our buns (adopted from Heathlands) fur change colour and we've only had them for 2 months! :D

Poppy is Siamese Sable and she changes from dark to light every few weeks! Albert had a few bauld spots and they have grown back lighter!
 
Some colours of rabbit are affected by subtle temperature changes and will apparently change colour. Also, if a rabbit has been sunbathing a lot the fur will be lighter then when they moult darker patches will appear.
 
Outdoor black bunnies often get a lovely rusty red/brown tint due to the sun bathing and then go back to black when they moult in winter coats.

Agouti bunnies (the sort of brown colour but with black flecks) can get spots/lines when the moult as the tips of the fur are a different colour to further down. So as they come through you get dark patches when just the dark ends have grown through and then it goes back to normal.

Tam
 
Harvey definately changed colour after his first moult, but i think he was supposed to??!

before:
home3.jpg


after:
IMG_1770.jpg

IMG_1771.jpg


pics dont show too well but he is way darker than he was when he was a littlun... more dark brown come through down his sides too.....
 
awww. what you doing with my bump!?

thats just how she looked when she was a baby and how she looks now.

harvey is her dead ringer! he's such a cutie!
 
Thanks to everyone for their comments! I do help out at Heathlands Animal Sanctuary, but the bun who is changing colour is from a different rescue.

She did get lighter over the summer, so being outside in the sunshine may have caused her to go a bit lighter then. Now the dark spots are coming through where she was a solid colour before. Perhaps her fur is thinning a bit as she is in the warm house most of the day now? Someone suggested that mites can cause the fur to look like it is changing colour as it causes the fur to thin in areas. I will give her a thorough check over, but otherwise I may just enjoy her new-found spots!

Here is a photo of the bun in question (in festive holiday mood!)

Dumples_01.jpg
 
Did she lose any fur where the spots are? Sometimes fur grows back different colours after an operation etc where the fur has been cut/shaved.
She looks like a sealpoint or a light iron grey, so wouldnt have expected any markings on the body otherwise.
 
CJ, what lovely bun! She's a sealpoint in colour... they are a really temperature and light sensitive colour so spots of different colour comes as standard :D
 
Hi,

Thanks for the tip about her being a sealpoint. I am not that knowledgeable on coat colourings so it is nice to know. I am thinking from what everyone has said that the darker spots in her fur could be due to the fact that we moved her to a warmer room in the house for the winter. Her fur doesn't appear to be any thinner in the areas where it is darker, and I can't see any evidence of mites, so perhaps it is as simple as that she is temperature sensitive.

Here is a photo of her when we first got her last summer (2004) and she was a darker brownish colour. We named her 'Dumpling' as she just sat there like a lump when we first got her and she looked to be the colour of a dumpling!

Dumpling_01.jpg



Then this is a photo of her this summer (2005) when she was getting a lighter, softer coat all over, but still with dark ears and nose:

Dumplingoutside.jpg


Now it could be that because she is getting lighter all over the darker spots underneath are coming out more.

Thanks for all your help.
Cathy
 
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