Color in females - Page 1

At risk of sounding ignorant, why is it that the rich red pigment is so much harder to come by in a female than a male? Just curious. I know there are those out there that do have deep pigment, but seem to be much harder to find. Any info or observations are very appreciated.

HELLO GSDFANATIC1964, ITS ALL ABOUT GENETICS. YOU MUST HAVE THE RIGHT COMBINATION IN ORDOR TO PRODUCE GOOD COLOR. FOR SOME BREEDERS COLOR IS NOT IMPORTANT. SOME BREED FOR LOOKS, SOME BREED BASED ON TITLES. I PREFER BOTH. CHECK OUT OUR FEMALE: AISHA VON ARIZONA WITH PICTURE PERFECT PIGMINTATION FROM FAMOUS ARLETT'S WEST GERMAN SHOWLINES BLOODLINE. GOOD LUCK!

Just a thought, But don't most breeders keep the females with deeper pigment, could lend reason to why they are harder to come by ? Just an opinion though.

WCGSDS, Yes, that's the beautiful color I love. She's beautiful. I know it's not just about color as we want the correct package of everything with temperament of course being tops, correct and beautiful conformation but, we all know that the eye is drawn by certain factors and for me, after looking for a well built dog with a great temperament and good drives I do look for the deep, rich pigment. Just my preference, that's all. I also agree that perhaps the breeders do hold onto those with the richer pigment as they too want to produce that however, you would think then that more of the offspring would show the rich colors and it just doesn't seem there are that many available but, perhaps it's because they are snapped up that much quicker. Also, I was told that in the puppies with rich red colors, the red just gets darker as they mature. Is this correct? I know that in the black and tans, the color sometimes seems to fade as they mature. All views appreciated as usual.

Echo is probably correct about breeders keeping the red pups, in the litters I have bred I have not had any more red males than females - equal chances I think. Perhaps you see more light coloured females than males in shows because breeders are generally not so worried about colour in a female as this can be fairly easily improved, but if a male is light coloured he is less likely to be a popular choice for breeding. Having said this I have noticed it is much easier to get red puppies when the female is red, no matter what colour the male is, not sure if there is any scientific basis for this, just my (limited) experience. In two litters I have had that all the puppies were deep red, the colour did seem to get more intense between two and four months, as they changed their puppy coat. I have seen this in lighter coloured pups too, the colour does seem to imrove somewhat. I do not think the tan colour fades unless the dog has a poor quality diet or is kept in the sun alot, and when they are losing an old coat they go lighter, then look much better again when the new coat comes in. Maybe in light tan dogs they give the impression of fading as they gradulally lose the puppy black colour and expose more light tan?