| Coat Color...from puppy to adult
Often, potential pet owners inquire about puppies, stating that they prefer a solid white puppy. What they may not know is that virtually all Bichon puppies at eight weeks have shading to their ears, but will be solid white as adults. All Bichon puppies are born with solid white coats with pink skin, and look like small, solid-white hamsters for their first three weeks of life. At around 4 weeks, the coat begins to grow, and becomes fluffy. That's when nearly all Bichon puppies will begin to exhibit some cream, buff, peach, or apricot shading on their ears and sometimes in spots on their backs or necks. The puppy coat is fluffy, but thinner and silkier than that of an adult dog. Shading usually persists until the puppy is 9-11 months old, when its adult coat emerges.
Shading in a puppy is completely normal, and is not considered to be a fault in the puppy, nor is it predictive of the amount of shading the puppy will retain as an adult. Just as human beings are born with fine "baby" hair that changes in texture and color with maturity, the Bichon puppy is expected to have some shading that will eventually disappear. Puppies will also continue to develop darker pigment in the skin around their eyes, nose, lips, and pads as they mature. A better predictor of the degree of shading a puppy will retain into adulthood is the color of the puppy's dam and sire. My two most beautiful females had apricot ears (hence--one of them is named "Rosegate Amelie Lucia" or "Lucy" for short!) as puppies--yet they are now completely solid white as adults. Don't be fooled by idealized calendar pictures that show solid white Bichon puppies--those pictures have most likely been retouched to appeal to consumers!
When the adult coat emerges, it usually loses virtually all of the shading present in the puppy coat. It is a dense, double coat consisting of a course undercoat, and a fine topcoat. This is when the Bichon will begin to exhibit the classic fullness to the coat with proper grooming. An adult Bichon should, of course, be predominately white with no more than 10% of his coat being cream, buff, or apricot to conform to the breed standard.
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