| The Wide Band or RED FAMILY gene works by attempting to block the black pigment out of the coat. So the Chestnut Agouti becomes a Golden Fawn, the Siamese Sable becomes a Sable Point, Chinchilla becomes a Frosted Pearl and the Black becomes a Tortoise. In all varieties the gene seems to work the least completely on the ear, tail top, lower sides and nose. That is why it is so hard to breed good clean Red Family. As you add modifiers to this family you can intensify color and remove more and more of the black overlay effect. That is why most breeders who have success breeding Red Family colors are fairly specialized breeding only color to color. |
Tortoise,
a self in the Red Family. You will see many shades of orange Tortoise in Black is on all four of the Presentation Standards for the Lionhead Breed. |
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| GOLDEN FAWN, an Agouti in the Red Family. You will see many shades of gold much like the Tortoise above. In this variety the different shades are often given different names. RED is a golden with very deep rufus and almost NO overlay of darker (black or chocolate color). Fawn is the most confusing as in some breeds it is a dilute golden and in others it is a dark golden. Holder of 3rd Certificate, Bob Whitman's Lionhead standard calls for a DARK GOLDEN FAWN. The Whitman Standard calls this color simply FAWN. Sometimes dilute goldens are called CREAMS (angora breeds). If you add additional modifiers this color is called ORANGE. Orange is a color listed on the 4th Certificate for the Lionhead Breed. This color group can also have Black, Blue, Chocolate or Lilac overlay. When this color has a lilac overlay it is sometimes incorrectly called LYNX it would be a Lilac Cream. |
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| FROSTED PEARL, a Shaded Agouti in the Red Family. You will see many quite a lot of difference in this color as far as depth of color and color. This has to do with the way this gene is impacted by temperature (see he explanation in the Sable Point Section). It can occur in all four color phases Black, Blue, Chocolate and Lilac. It is VERY hard to tell from some Sable Point Martens. Most correctly colored Frosted Pearls have a frosty ticking that forms an overlay of their coats when they get older. Also the point (nose and feet) color looks more ticked. The ears tend to have much darker lacing on the top edge (not the flange which will have agouti markings). Sable Point Martens also tend to have a much browner cast to the markings and the markings tend to cover a larger portion of the face and more of the feet. |
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Frosted Pearl Dilute |
| SABLE POINT, a shaded in the Red Family. You will see many shades of Sable Points. Like most shaded genes this color is very impacted by temperature So a baby chilled at birth may have deep dark color them molt in the hot California summer weather into a much paler version. The modifiers that impact the amount of point and side shading on Tortoise seem to impact this color as well. Like all other colors it can come with Black (sepia - looks very deep brown), Blue, Chocolate (often mistaken for sepia) and Lilac points and shading. |
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Chocolate Colored Point | PHOTO Lilac Colored Point |
| Tan Pattern - The Tortoise and Sable Point versions of the red family can occur in Tan Pattern. If they are Tortoise they would be an OTTER. FOX is the English name for a Tortoise Otter. A Tan Pattern rabbit in the Shaded family is called a Marten. So a Sable Point Tan Pattern would be called a Sable Point Marten. These colors can occur in Sepia (Black) Blue, Chocolate and Lilac points. Since the shaded rabbits are climate controlled see notes above on Sable Points. It can be VERY DIFFICULT to tell a Fox from some members of the Golden Family as the same modifiers can be at work. Some Fox make better Oranges then genetic Oranges as modified Fox lack the tendency to develop ring color on the lower sides as they age. |
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Dilute |
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We
would like to thank the following breeders who have supported this effort with
use of pictures of their Lionheads - Diane Ricketson, Dawn Guth, JoAnn
Statler, Lorranie Hassel, Denise Sousa, Brenda Lindner,Tina Marie Jackson, Mueller/Rafoth,
Christine Panek, Barbi Brown, The Gibbons, T & T Bodfish, Angel Ferguson,
Sandy Ayers, Arden Wetzel |
anyone
wishing to contribute photos to this endeavor is welcome to send them as jpeg
file (uncroped if possible) to: lionhead@black-hole.com or you may send them by mail to: Gail Gibbons, 20023 E. Bethel Blvd. Cedar MN 55011 Please we MUST have a note along with the images that gives us permission to use them in this section of our site. |
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