Coat color

[Victory]

Chris asked about tongues and tongue color so I'm going to ask about the difference between puppy coat color and adult coat color.

Dreamdancer has been a light red with very light feathering on his bottom, tail, chest, and shoulders, where he's almost white, his muzzle has some blue/charcoal on it. In a lot of ways his coloring is very much like Melanie's Khana, except for the muzzle.

His coat was the same color down to the skin for months, over the last month or so I've noticed that the roots of his fur are turning darker, like dark blue to black. Completely black where he is red, dark blue on the cream parts, only the white parts havn't turned completely dark at the roots, even though I've noticed this week that there is some blue showing up there as well.

My question is can he turn colors, once he blows his puppy coat? Ginger Lily his sister, has turned a really pretty darker red. Can he turn into a blue? Or some other color? Not that I care what color he turns into, just wondering what's possible.

Any ideas?

This would be an easier question to answer if I knew what mom and dad looked like but since he's a rescue...

[Auddymay]

Do you remember Taz, Chow0's boy? I featured him in one of my layouts. He was a very deep mahogeny red. Once, his owner posted photos of Taz in the bath, and he had very black roots. Is the very tip of Dreamdancer's tail black? That is suppose to be a color indicator for chows, just can't remember what it means exactly...lol. I'm certain SOMEONE here can tell us!

[Victory]

Yeah I remember Taz he's gorgeous, lovely color. And yes Dreamdancer has a black tipped tail.

[Mandy]

Hi Victory.

Here is a fancy little thing.
My cay is very red. Her undercoat is white.

Chewie is shaded red - similar to dreamdancer and his undercoat is Blue/gray and almost black in some areas. As his undercoat grew in as a pup, we wondered the same thing you are wondering... is he turning a different color? But it was just his undercoat!

you can kind of see the undercoat on his butt in this picture....



When he sheds it, it is all gray. Very strange next to Cayenne! So maybe your dreamdancer is just going to have the darker undercoat like my chew chew!

[Mikosmom]

Victory,

Ginger Lily's tail is still tipped with black, and you're right about her turning a very dark red. Our first Chow, Tang, was a cinnamon, and also had some darkness in his undercoat, but was almost white on his haunches. It sounds like Dreamdancer may end up similar to Tang in color.
I'll try to dig out some pictures & get my daughter to scan/post them.

[chowfrnd88]

I pmed kiwani once about a similar question. I noticed that his tail and rear area and some of his facial hairs were turning silver, I thought it was from stress. But I learned that depending on his mom and dad, he may just have a lot of creame jeans in him. You all may already know this, but some black chows can have a totally white butt area depending on genes, I wonder if this is the kind of thing you're seeing with Dreamdancer.

[Red Dragon]

All red, shaded red, cinnamon, blue, and black Chows have dark grey or black roots to their fur. The masks that are dark on puppies usually change to the color of the rest of the coat after they get their adult coat. Some reds and shaded reds can look like a cream until the adult coat comes in, but if you inspect them at the roots you will see grey or black. Blacks (full blooded)will never have white in them, but they can have grey or silver shadings on the back of their legs and tail. Both dark cream and white Chows will have no grey or black anywhere in their coat. A red will never turn blue. There are a few pale blue Chows that are almost silver, those will eventually turn dark as they get older, usually a medium grey with a blue tint. Some of the creams that are very white have a silvery tint to them.

[Sharons Chows]

I was going to start a post on Cheyenne's "bad hair dye job!" Guess now, I don't need to.
Anyhow I was wondering why she had such dark "roots?"
Sharon

<center>
<img src="http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f96/s ... CN1135.jpg" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"><br><br>
</center><center>
<img src="http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f96/s ... CN1134.jpg" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"><br><br>
</center>

[Victory]

Interesting...My other two reds, MingToy and Ming didn't have dark roots, in fact both of them had cream colored undercoats. I still have some of it to be spun so I know. Ming was also they only chow I've had who had some pigmentation in his skin, all the others have completly white skin. It's interesting how our kids are.

My other three were black and had black roots, black undercoats the whole bit.

[Red Dragon]

If they have dark colored skin there is something wrong, usually thyroid, they should have white skin all over. The red coat in the picture with the grey undercoat is exactly how they should look.

[chris]

Ummmm... well, considering I have only had Black and Blue Chows.. I have no comment or experience... LOL.. flop.

[chewiesmom]

I'm new here and wanted to ask about coat colors.
I've heard that "chocolate" isn't a color for Chows,
but I had a Chow years ago that was a dark brown with rusty red highlights.
So, was he a black? He didn't look black at all.

Thanks!

[lola chow]

do chows skin not the coat but the actual skin have to be white as lolas skin isnt its dark x

[Coco Chow]

About the coat, there is no chocolate chow. But black chows, if they sunbath too much (or if they eat too much carrots ) can take a brownish color, with red highlights yes. It's bad if you want to show, but I find it very pretty.

About the skin, Coco's skin is somewhere white, somewhere pink, somewhere dark, it depends where you look actually!

[Sirchow]

Brambles too.

[Judy Fox]

Milly and Mabel both have very dark skin.

[Zhuyos mom]

...I had a Chow years ago that was a dark brown with rusty red highlights. So, was he a black?

No. Your chow would have been considered "red/cinnamon". The color of cinnamon bark is very brown. Many people forget that and associate/envision the color of cinnamon with the candy "red hots" or "cinnamon hearts" which are artificially dyed red in color.

[chewiesmom]

About the coat, there is no chocolate chow. But black chows, if they sunbath too much (or if they eat too much carrots ) can take a brownish color, with red highlights yes. It's bad if you want to show, but I find it very pretty...

Thank you! I didn't know that! See? Ask questions and you learn something!