Currently the ARBA recognizes 3 different breeds of “Argente” rabbits: the Champagne d’Argent, the Creme d’Argent, and the Argente Brun. All 3 of these rabbits carry the silvering gene (si3) that turns their outer coat silver as they grow, but they each have a different under-color: the Champagnes being a black/slate blue, the Cremes being orange, and the Bruns being chocolate/brown. The Argente St. Hubert has several colors but the most common are essentially an agouti (sometimes called “wild type”) under-color with the signature Argente silvering.
This breed is still currently under review by ARBA to become an officially recognized breed. At the moment, they can only be entered into shows as exhibition animals and cannot win a Best in Breed or Best in Show prize. The ARBA Standards Committee works to add new breeds and varieties to the ARBA Standard of Perfection. You can view the current working standard for the Argente St. Hubert here.
Currently, my rabbitry has both Champagne d’Argent and Creme d’Argent rabbits. Mixing the two of these together should give an F1 generation of the Argente St. Hubert color Chestnut Agouti.
It’s possible that we may have some of these mixes showing up in the rabbitry soon! I look forward to seeing it person, as the pictures I have seen are gorgeous! I don’t own any photos of the Argente St. Hubert to show you myself, but you can see some on the Facebook group that’s working on getting the breed approved by ARBA here.
