A - Agouti (most dominant) at - Tanned (semi-dominant) a - Self-Patterned (most recessive)
"A" - Agouti (most dominant) "A" is the dominant allele for this locus. All rabbits that have this gene, will display it outwardly. You cannot "carry" Agouti. The term "Agouti" refers to the coloration of the rabbit's hair shaft. Along the hair of an "Agouti" rabbit, there are a series of colors. When one blows into the fur of an Agouti patterned rabbit, "rings" of color are visible. Here are three examples of Agouti coloration:
Two of the most well-known Agouti colors are Chestnut and Chinchilla, however there are 34 recognized Agouti Mini Lop colors. These colors include: Black Chestnut, Chocolate Chestnut, Opal, Lynx, Black Chinchilla, Chocolate Chinchilla, Blue Chinchilla, Lilac Chinchilla, Sable Chinchilla, Smoke Pearl Chinchilla, Red, Orange, Fawn, Cream, Black/Orange Tricolor, Chocolate/Orange Tricolor, Blue/Fawn Tricolor, Lilac/Fawn Tricolor, Black Frosted Pearl, Chocolate Frosted Pearl, Blue Frosted Pearl, Lilac Frosted Pearl, Brown Silver, Fawn Silver, Black Gold Tipped Steel, Chocolate Gold Tipped Steel, Blue Gold Tipped Steel, Lilac Gold Tipped Steel, Black Silver Tipped Steel, Chocolate Silver Tipped Steel, Blue Silver Tipped Steel, Lilac Silver Tipped Steel, Sable Silver Tipped Steel, and Smoke Pearl Silver Tipped Steel.
"at" - Tanned (semi-dominant) "at" stands for tanned patterned fur. This is known as either otter or marten pattern. Though neither color has any recognized Mini Lop varieties, a few recent projects (Travis Valadez, Tracy Harmon, etc.) have pushed to create a standard by which the varieties can be submitted for acceptance into the ARBA Standard.
"at" is the semi-dominant allele in the A locus. What this means is, "at" is dominant over "a", but recessive to "A". An otter or marten rabbit cannot carry an Agouti allele, as it is recessive to "A", but it can however carry a Self-Patterned allele "a"m as it is dominant to "a". The physical color of the tanned rabbit is similar to the Agouti, although the color rings present in the fur appear to be smudged, similar lacing and coloration occurs throughout the body of said rabbit. The following two pictures are of a Junior black otter Mini Lop and a Senior lilac marten Mini Lop, respectfully:
"a" - Self-Patterned (most recessive) "a" stands for self patterned fur. This means that the entire shaft of the hair is one solid color throughout. This is the most recessive of the A locus alleles and is responsible for the entire remainder of the recognized Mini Lop colors, including: black, blue, chocolate, lilac, tortoiseshell, sable, smoke pearl, etc. The entire rabbit is one solid color, as in this example from Rimrock Rabbitry:
Now that you know how the "A" locus alleles work and what makes an Agouti/tanned/self patterned rabbit, examine this breeding chart. It shows all the possible pairings of rabbits and gives the numbers of offspring expected to possess the given genes.