Mostly Mischief

Poodle Colors

Poodles come in many different colors! Here are the few that we breed.

Silver

Silver is not actually a color but a diluting gene that fades darker colors. In the case of silver poodles, it is a black poodle with two copies of the dilution gene that turns them silver. Silver poodles are born black and the first signs of silvering appear between 4 and 5 weeks, usually on the feet and muzzle. The poodle will slowly turn more and more silver over the next two years, though often the ears and tail will remain darker. Silver poodles change tone from dark gunmetal grey to a light silver and can look different with every groom!

Silver Parti

Silver parti puppies are have silver markings over a white base. As with the solid silver puppies, their silver areas start out black and slowly fade out to silver over a year or two. You can see the silver face on the puppy in the photo to the left. As with any parti puppy, the amount of markings can vary greatly and some parti pups are mostly white with only a few markings.

Parti poodles were the original type of poodle! Back when the breed was first developed most of the poodles were parti colored ("parti" means "particularly colored") though since the solid ones were more rare they were more desirable and breeders ended up selecting for solid colors only, eventually making that the breed standard.

Silver Merle

Merle is a gene that is not a color in itself but a gene that affects only the eumelanin in a dog's coat, turning darker coats containing eumelanin lighter in patches all over the dogs's body. A silver merle is a poodle that is genetically a solid silver but has the merle gene which turns some of the fur to silver, leaving patches of black. Because silver poodles are born black but fade to silver, these patches of black will eventually fade to silver as well, meaning the silver merle poodle as an adult will be almost solid silver with some darker and lighter patches that are much less noticeable than when it was a puppy.

Any merle puppy has a chance to have one or two or partial blue eyes.

Merle is a dominant gene, meaning if one parent is merle, each puppy has a 50% chance of being merle as well. If a dog has two copies of the merle gene it can have visual or auditory problems and it is for this reason that two merle dogs should never be bred together.

Silver Merle Parti

Silver merle parti puppies are the same as silver merle except they have patches of color on a white background. Like the silver merles their black fur will fade to silver. Like any parti puppy, the amount of colored patches can vary and some parti puppies can end up mostly white. As with any merle, there is a chance to have blue eyes.

Cream & Cream Merle

Cream is an off-white color that results from a recessive gene. Pups are born a cream color but often fade to appear almost white, usually with the ears and a stripe down the back remaining slightly darker.

Cream merle poodles do not show any merling, as cream is a color that is only made up of phaeomelanin and merle only affects eumelanin. The only way you can tell a cream puppy is merle is if they have blue eyes or through a DNA test.

Cream Parti

Cream parti poodles have cream colored patches on a white base. The colored patches are much more apparent when the puppy is young and as it grows older most of the cream patches will fade and the poodle will appear mostly white, often with a bit of cream left in the ears.