hatchling color change over time?

[fletch]

Hi Chahoua fans!

Browsing chahoua listings i've noticed that a lot of hatchlings' colorations don't match their parents! I was curious to know how your chahouas' colors have changed from hatchling to adult or if anyone has any other color changing insight. I'm interested in pictures if you have them too--Thanks!

 

[Speleomander]

My holdbacks aren't quite far enough along to be showing adult coloration yet, so my pictures are no help, but I've noticed the same thing. It seems a fair number of hatchlings are produced that don't end up strongly resembling either parent or even looking like an obvious mix of the two, although I'd say those are in the minority overall.

 

[LornaRedSky]

Maybe this will help. First, chahoua color can change over the span of about 4 years. Your mileage may vary. This girl is a pastel version of her dam, although another sibling-bottom-got the reds from both and a pattern more like the sire. If I knew what all the parents/grandparents looked like I would probably have a clearer estimate of color and pattern.

 

[Michael]

I wish there was a good answer for this, but it's really hard to answer. I've seen two pastel colored parents produce saturated offspring, boring parents produce super high color offspring, and beautiful parents produce brown, patternless offspring. I also think it's hard to look at a baby that shows some orange, pink or red as a baby and be sure it will hold that color into adulthood because in my experience, what starts as pink, orange or red can end up as any other shade of pink, orange, red or purple. It's all over the place.

Here are some progression shots to show you:

 

[Michael]

For overall buying advice... I'd say that if you can find two parents you really like, and a baby that shows some cool color and/or pattern, that's probably a safe bet. If it's a more established pair, you can also ask for pictures of older offspring and siblings - that helps too!