Puppy color questions

[Puggrandma in MN]

How likely is it to have black pugs when the female is fawn and the male is black? I think I have seen that all the pugs are black or very dark at birth. How long before the fawns pugs get their fawn colorings?

[Wonka & Nilla]

I'm sure Diane (ShaynaPugs) can answer this one - hopefully she'll see this thread soon. I know that I've noticed (in photos) that fawn pug puppies are usually very dark and lighten up over time. But the black pugs do look more dark than the fawns. I'm not sure how long it takes for the fawns to develop their distinctive mask and markings though. It will be interesting to hear the answer from someone who knows!

[shaynapug]

I bred for the first time to a black boy. Izzy is the mom. Had 7 pups......2 beautiful blacks! A male and a female. Have a friend that bred to the same male and had 3 fawns and a black. IF the black is a dominant black...you will have all black pups.

Fawns lighten up differently....depending on the breeding...and also on the color it's gonna be. They start from the paws up. They are all born dark...sometimes hard to tell from the blacks!

Bred Bobby to a dominant black girl....and had a litter of 8 black pups.

Hope this helps!

[Puggrandma in MN]

Yes, Diane that helps. My son has reserved a black female 1st choice, or possibly a black male from my friend who has a fawn female but bred her to a black male. She used to have all black pugs so I am thinking the black might be very strong.

I think it is interesting how all the puppies are born dark. I have only seen new born pugs in photos but they do all look quite black!

My friend is not a regular breeder but has had several litters since I have known her. So far she has always had no birthing problems.

Thanks for your information.

Elaine the pug grandma

[Snifter]

In the simplest terms, black is the dominant gene, fawn is the recessive. So the colours can be:

Black: B B
Black: B f (or f B depending on which parent was which colour)
Fawn: f f

Therefore you know a fawn pug has f f genes. A black could be either B B or B f

Mating a fawn f f to a fawn f f will always produce fawns.

Mating a fawn f f to a black could produce f f (fawn) if the black is a B f. Or it could produce B f (black). It will never produce a B B.

Mating a black to a black will produce B B (black) if both blacks are B B. If one black is B B and one is B f you could get B B (black) or B f (black). If both blacks are B f you could get B B (black) or B f (black) or f f (fawn)

[Puggrandma in MN]

Interesting and also a bit complicated! LOL