Hi everyone - a question for the Staffy owners I think!

I have a litter of 17-days old puppies, most of which are chocolate coloured.  They are very dark, when they were born I initially thought they were all black until they dried off!  I have heard that Staffy puppies' coat colour can lighten from chocolate to red as they mature, and was wondering if anyone has experience of this.  It certainly wouldn't be odd for her to have red puppies, as she has a lot of reds in her family and the sire was red.  How soon did the coat lighten in those whose coat did lighten (bit of a lumpen sentence there lol) I know I will find out in time but I'm so very impatient... :)

hi

at about 3 weeks you should see the proper colour
you can normaly tell what colour my bitches pup's are by 2.5 weeks but even as they get older the colour can get darker and lighter

Thanks for that!  They seem to be staying determinedly chocolate so far, which is fine by me!  They look like little moles :)

If they are chocolate/liver the breed standard says it is 'highly undesirable'.
Archer

No, they're solid chocolate with white chests.

<<< Colour Red, fawn, white, black or blue, or any one of these colours with white. Any shade of brindle or any shade of brindle with white. Black and tan or liver colour highly undesirable>>>...as per KC breed standard. Since the nearest to chocolate is liver(very little difference in colour) I would think it would be undesirable...maybe a breed expert could clarify ...although I've owned staffs I'm no expert.
Archer

hard to say without seeing them-
are they a dark mahogany brindle ? rather than chocolate?

If so mahogany brindle is acceptable :)

I worried about this as well, but I've asked a few local breeders about the colour of them and they said they should be fine, not really considered to be liver.  I was very concerned, would have hated my first litter to have turned out to be undesirable colours!  :)

Looking very closely at their coats they do have faint brindling.

<<<<faint brindling.>>>>>>>
..only need a couple of stripes to make them brindle!!! All colour staffs are beautiful.....wasn't being funny!!
Archer

Hi Benny-boo,
I don't no if you followed my thread about my Staffie only having one pup.
Well when she was born she was really dark, loads darker than her first litter.
Both dam + sire are red.
To start with I thought I'd got an undesirable black and tan.
Lots of people saw my photo's, and convinced me she'd lighten up, and be totally Red.
I should of known really, but you do panic don't you.
Anyway my pup is now 10 days old, and a lot lighter. She's still got dark on her, but it's slowly going.
But I think it will take more than 3 weeks, like most seem to, before she'll be her proper colour.
If you want to see pic'c of her, leave your e.mail and I'll send them to you.
She might be similar coloured to some of yours. There is a good chance you could get reds.

Michelle.

Archer - don't worry, I wasn't taking offence at all!  I appreciate that you were being helpful and giving advice :)

hi BennyBoo

do you have any pic i can see (being nosy that all) and like what was said before all brindles are ok even if it is a choclote/liver brindle