Hello everyone! Our family has a new puppy named Stella and we love her so much! She is almost 12 weeks. It's been an adjustment. Our beagle of 16 years died 4 1/2 years ago and we swore we wouldn't get another dog because it was too painful to lose them. So now here we are head over heels. Lol. BUT...lots of questions. I'll start with the most pressing. My yellow. Labs belly is turning black. And her back legs. Is this because her mom and Dad were black and chocolate? I didn't even know they produced yellow labs. Lol. Someone told me yesterday that it could be a bacterial infection and to rub coconut oil on her belly. I did twice..but she licks it off. I just want to know if it's normal. She does scratch..but don't all puppies scratch a bit? It's not a lot. Acts normsl too. OMG..high energy! She does feel real hot sometimes when she's sleeping on me. My husband said puppies are hotter. We can't remember puppy days with our last one so this is all new. Thank you for listening...hope it's normal. I can't figure out how to post the pictures.
Welcome to the forum! I'd take her down to the vet to be checked over, and make sure there isn't an underlying skin condition or something else that needs treating. Hopefully it's no cause for concern, but i'd want to be on the safe side. I believe some skin infections can cause darkening, and I would definitely not try to treat it at home Let us know how she gets on!
Are you absolutely sure she is a 'full' pedigree lab? Even when different colours of labs are bred together, this doesn't create multi-coloured dogs... A black bred to a yellow will produce some black and some yellow puppies, for example - but not black and yellow in one dog!
My puppy was one of 3 yellow and 5 black the mother and father was black. I have seen pics on Google of yellows with black fur.
I am not clear about the description of the problem. Is it the skin or the hair that is darkening? Is it dead hair form the dog's undercoat? It's very strange.
@WillowA these will not be pedigree labradors. Sometimes the actual skin of the dog is black - sometimes you'll get a black belly, for example - but the fur growing should always be yellow if the dog is yellow. Mixed litters are very common. Our last breeding was black x black and we had 4 yellow puppies and 3 black. But each pup is the colour they are, not multi-coloured!
There are some pictures floating around of yellow labs with birthmarks that pigment the skin and fur. Maybe this is what you've come across?
I understand the idea of mis-matches in the genetic code. But wouldn't this reveal itself at birth. Missyred said the colour change is occurring now.
@Berna right, I'd forgotten that. @michael sometimes colours can come through a bit later, they are not always there from birth. But they are so rare, I think it's very very unlikely(!) and more likely a pup isn't pedigree. I've never seen one in person. They are also not just half the dog going black (stomach and legs) - they are 'mosaic' like the name suggests, like a jigsaw puzzle... Anyway as the OP only posted once, we might not hear from them again - as with so many!
Like Lucy, I assumed she meant the dog's skin, not fur. This can be caused by a bacterial infection. Maybe she'll come back and enlighten us
Ok..these answers scare me. I'm a bit of a worrier and now I'm on the internet looking up black skin diseases, allergies etc. I even bought Nationwide pet insurance. Sorry I didn't get back sooner. I'm not receiving notifications and brand new to this site and having a puppy. I'll check daily . No her fur is not black. Her skin. She doesn't have much fur on her belly and little fur on the back of her legs. Her belly, under arm pits and from bottom down are like a grey/black color. Like dirty..but she's clean. Even funnier when she jumped in the shower with me today she's really dark when she's wet. But no..her fur is short but yellow and white. I need to figure out how to attach a photo. I've been in tears all day with guilt. Two reasons me I wanted a purevredabd hope I wasn't lied to. No she doesn't have papers but they said she was. They said their two labs "hooked" up and they never done that before. They aren't breeders and this was a one and done thing. I saw pictures of her mom and dad (black and chocolate). But now I'm worried. Because of this skin thing. And now her ears are sticking up and don't stay flat like they were when we brought her home. I read somewhere that there's a coirelacorr between teething and ears but my friends with labs have never seen this. I called the people today who we bought her from and the man said again that no she's all lab like his dogs and he was getting irritated with me. And she's scratching under her neck when she wakes up or gets tired making a red mark. I'm a wreck. I love her so much but feel guilty about the possibility of these people living to me.
Hi @Missyred Thanks for coming back. As far as I'm aware the notifications only appear under the Alert button in the top right-hand corner, if we members use an @ in front of your user name. Even in that case you will not be sent an email. You have to come to the site. Let's not worry about. Instead of worrying about information on the internet and our guesses, which they must be because we have not seen your dog in person, I think the best course of action would be to take your puppy to your Vet and ask him to check her skin. If the puppy is the one in your avatar, then as far as I can see with such a small photo she looks very much like a Lab, and very beautiful. Check out the threads here re posting photos. Try not to worry. The vet will be able to examine her first hand. Give her a cuddle.
My Willow looks like yours I was wondering if she was a true lab as she looks different to English labs. She is working type and very skinny. People in the street comment on how unusual her colouring is she was nearly all white when we bought her home but the colour on her back is a sandy colour and the sides are very light golden. Her tail has a dirty blond tip. She is full lab as I have 4 generations pedigree. There is an article on the web that says even though the dogs are pure bred they can look quite different from the English labs breed standard. Get your dog checked by the vet and if you want get a DNA test done but my advice is as long as the puppy is fit and healthy then enjoy her and stop worrying.
Thanks for coming back to us. I think I've posted on another thread about this recently (where someone said their dog's fur was a different colour when wet) - but the skin is often a different colour to the fur. That is why yellow dogs can have black or pink noses. It is perfectly possibly to have yellow fur, but when you part it and look at the skin, for it to be darker. Do you have a photo of your dog? That would really help. You will need to host it elsewhere and post a link to it here.
I'm trying to post pgopho. I hit the little square box nect to the smiley face and it won't grab them from my camera. Let me try to research how yo post. Yes it's her skin under her fur that's greyish.
