[celesteskycop]

Hi fellow Poodle Parents! I am new here and hoping someone more experienced can advise. Our dog's mom is a champion silver and dad is white. We were told she would clear but she just turned 2 and she is still black. We adore her and she's gorgeous but we are hoping to solve the mystery of her coloring. Do silvers have black pups or do they only have blue? I am trying to make sense of the genetic charts and totally lost. I think silver means 2 copies of fading gene so she would have inherited 1 copy from mom..... are blues heterozygous? Does silver + a possibly non fading white dad= black or blue pup? Also, anyone experienced with a black poodle fading into blue or silver later than 2 yrs? I'm attaching pic of Rio's face. She just turned 2 and I think she's showing signs of blue. Will she get more greying? at what age to blues get to their full shade?

 

[twyla]

Blue really doesn't start clearing or fading until 2 years

 

[Streetcar]

Welcome 😊. I can't answer your genetics questions, but that's a lovely face, for sure.

The latest I recall reading a Spoo turned blue happened seems like she was maybe three-ish? @Viking Queen could help my memory if she pops in. I think it's unlikely Rio is silver, but blue might be a possibility.

 

[PeggyTheParti]

Welcome! What’s your lovely girl’s name?

I’m hopeless at the genetic stuff, but Peggy’s face has gotten significantly more grey in her third year. Her dam is cream; her sire is a brown parti.

 

[twyla]

@Dechi Girl Becky is blue, noticeable after 2 ish years

 

[Dechi]

@Dechi Girl Becky is blue, noticeable after 2 ish years

Yes, Beckie was black until past 2 years old. This is her now.

I have a thread about her changing color :

Changing color or bad black ?

Today in the sun I noticed Beckie wasn’t as black as before. She looks like she is starting to be silver, which is odd since she now is 26 months old. Her mom was a cream I believe and her dad, a silver beige or café au lait, so both are dilute colors, right ? Here are some pictures from...

www.poodleforum.com

 

[cowpony]

She looks blue to me. Clearing happens over a several year period with blue dogs. The final shade can also vary. Some stay fairly dark; you could romantically call it the color of a midnight sky. Others are barely lighter than a silver.

Back in early 2020 somebody published a really interesting paper on intensity in dog coat colors. Basically, they found a gene involved with pigment production. If a section of this gene gets duplicated on the chromosome then the coat color is more intense. Silver poodles (and grey wolves) have low numbers of repeats. Black poodles have high numbers of repeats. Red poodles and Irish setters also had high numbers of repeats. They were a bit surprised to find that white poodles did not have the low number of repeats they expected; they theorized that white has an additional gene involved. Pigment Intensity in Dogs is Associated with a Copy Number Variant Upstream of KITLG.

 

[lzccfkk]

Highstandard Poodles 1992-2005 - silver poodle breeder. Silvers are born black and silver out muzzle is immediately apparent that you first see when you do your first shaving around puppy face.. They are beautiful with a silver face and black body. Eventually the black hair grows out they look like a bad hair day roots and in comes your silver! Make it simple. Only buy color bred dogs. Color breed. Breed Silver to black, silver to white or silver to blue. Look at your pedigree to see what coat color they carry. blues are the dark black with blue tint when summer sun shines. In the house they look black but if you get a really good blue they look grey blue in the house. Silvers come in shades of silver and platinum silver! if you don't color breed you don't get good color! Breed reds to apricots or red to black or apricot to black. If you don't color breed your poodles fade and/or you just don't get good color and end up in these conversations. I was forced to quit breeding in 2005. After buying 5 acres Sawnee Mtn. GA the county came out said they changed the rules and the dogs had to go. I got to keep my 16 poodles until they died. Broke my heart. I have had poodles gee my entire life. The max would be 16 and the minimum now is 3 but now down to one. I have own Magicstar, Excell, Freeland to name a few. I kept this property but i certainly dislike government rules on purebreed dogs and breeding. Below is my Vinny Vin Vin died Xmas 2022 and Suzette whom i fondly call SUIE and she corrects me her name is Suzy! Vinny was out of Excells Angelic Melody to Abba