Chihuahuas

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hihuahua Colors

CREAM: Cream is a very common color in chihuahuas. It can be solid, parti-colored or even sabled. Cream is actually a dilution of fawn. Some cream dogs show this more than others.

WHITE: White Chihuahuas are almost totally devoid of black pigment. This is not the same as what is seen in parti-colors. Solid whites usually have pale noses and eye rings, and somewhat lighter eyes, almost albino in appearance, but not quite. This is very rare in chihuahuas, usually because it would take two white doges to make white pups with this effect.

BLUE: Blue is a shade down from black. It is somewhat rare in chihuahuas, though more and more are being bred. It is also a recessive color. Usually, it skips a generation and passes on to the next, unless one parent was bred from both blue parents.

RED: Red is quite a common color in chihuahuas. It can appear either as bright red (like as see in Irish Setters) or with some sabling, which is with black hairs dispersed throughout the body. Those without the sabling are in the more recessive category than those that have the sabling.

CHOCOLATE: Chocolate is a rarer color in chihuahuas, but only because it seems to not be popular with many breeders. It is a beautiful color none the less. It can appear brown, like the color of a chocolate bar, or somewhat reddish. In terms of genetics, choclate is in the same class as the blues. The b and d groups have similar results, in diluting, or changing the black pigment. It is the b/b gene that causes chocolates.

LAVENDAR: Sometimes a choclate can be diluted, as shown in these pics. This creates a color known as "lavendar" in chihuahuas. Lavendar is hard to come by because it is hard reprodce -- even if you were to mate a pair of lavendar dogs. One mate must have the diluting "d" gene, as seen in blues.

BLACK: Black is the most dominant color in chihuahuas, it comes in the B group in genetics. Almost every chihuahua color has some form of the B gene in them. Solid black chihuahuas are rare, but black can come with some white or tan markings, or even in dappled form. Solid black is very dominant in Chihuahuas. However, in contrast the "at" gene that makes up the black and tan pattern in chihuahuas (like seen in dobermans) is among one of the most common colors in chihuahuas, but is very recessive, too. It cannot be accomplisted by mating a solid color with a black and tan.

FAWN: This color is also known as Tawny, or sable in most other breeds. The most common color of them all in Chihuahuas. It is caused by the ay gene family. It often appears reddish, but there are several different varieties of fawn. There are blue fawns, Chocolate fawns, brindle fawns and a variety of others. Cream and fawn are often mistaken for each other, but it is definately darken than cream.

PARTI-COLOR: Not genarally dominant color pattern. Often appears as white with spots of varying sizes on the body. This is in the s genetic family. The color can any variety in parti's, but the white usually makes up more than 50% of the coloration.

BRINDLE: Brindle is a rather rare color in chihuahuas. It is not new; it's been around for many years. If one parent is solid colored and another brindle, chances are the pups will be mostly solid. Brindling is a coat pattern where there are black or any other darker colored streaks causing pronounced stripes on another color. Reverse brindling can also occur, where black is the base color and streaked with another color.

MERLE: Last, but not least, is the merle Chihuahua. This is a color that Australian shephers are more famous for. Merle more commonly, can be either blue or red, but there is also sable and chocolate merle as well. The pattern in the merle is never a uniform, the splotches can vary in sizes. This beautiful dog comes with cosequences. It is never a good idea to mate a merle to a merle. This produces a double merle and these dogs often have hearing and eye problems.