can guinea pigs change color?

[honeypanda]

I have a 6 month old female, part Silkie, part Crested, and she's mostly black. She had some butterscotch colored fur on her, and lately I've noticed it is creeping up her body, turning her more and more butterscotch as the weeks go by. Is this normal? How much more will it turn? Her two sisters haven't changed colors at all.

By the way, the color of "butterscotch" was determined by holding up crayons to her fur. It's amazingly accurate.

[I love my pigs!]

Umm it could be possible...

[aqh88]

I've never heard of black or brown pigment changing to the other color. Genetically those are opposite colors and the genes should be determined when they are born. Now changing shades even rather drastically is entirely possible and I had a guinea pig go from jet black when born to dove grey when adult. They could also go dark chocolate brown to lighter brown but it would be rather out of the ordinary for true black and brown pigments to change to the opposite color. I would think that would be genetically impossible and that the guinea pig is likely chocolate/dark brown instead of true black but my knowledge is based mostly on horse genetics and guinea pig color genetics are slightly more complicated.

[dextersmycutegp]

Could she possibly be really really dark brown? When my boy Dexter was born, he was almost black brown, but now 9 months later he is almost a longhaired himi, with almost cream colored fur, dark brown feet, face and ears.
Other than that I'm not sure but it probably is possible.

[smoot]

When my little girl was born, she was jet black. As she got older, her fur lightened to light black (not quite gray but it's hard to explain). She had tiny smudges of dark brown on her cheek and rump that are more obvious now, but I think it's because her cheek and rump are bigger!

[ilovestars]

Originally Posted by honeypanda

By the way, the color of "butterscotch" was determined by holding up crayons to her fur. It's amazingly accurate.

Cute i never thought to do that. One of my pigs is all black and is getting little white hairs. She also three years old.

[honeypanda]

Thanks for the replies. It's hard to explain how she's changing color, the best way I can describe is she's all black with smudges of butterscotch, and the smudges are getting bigger. It's just weird, and I wondered if anyone else had ever seen such a thing.

[wheeker]

Its like horses. If you have like a Paint or a Piebald or something like that Their spots move around, its their fur shedding and growing back in. Maybe thats the case with your piggie.

[kathmom26]

My Ebony is black. I have noticed that the underlying fur is lighter. Almost like he is growing gray. I have not had him that long, but your post makes me curious. He sheds quite a bit as well.

Kathy

[aqh88]

Paint patches in horses don't move around. They are born with them where they are going to stay. A baby can be born with a lighter or darker brown, black, or grey baby coat that sheds out but they will be born with their white patches and they will die with the same white patches. Now appaloosas can gain some spots and greys or roans can gain more white hairs but that's entirely different genes that don't apply here. Those hairs are scattered throughout the coat instead of being solid patches and the skin beneath them is actually dark instead of white like it is with paint markings.

[daftscotslass]

With regards to grey on dark piggies, this is natural as they get older - just the same as with humans!

[kathmom26]

Originally Posted by daftscotslass

With regards to grey on dark piggies, this is natural as they get older - just the same as with humans!

Do you know what is considered "old"? I was told he was about a year.

Kathy

[aqh88]

Grey genes dilute the coat at different rates. Some animals will go from black to nearly white before they are a year old and others will take their whole lifetime. Some stay a steel grey shade for their whole life but most will lighten at least a little. My pig went from jet black to dove grey in 1 week. Changes in brown shades usually are not that pronounced and if they fade it's rarely noticeable unless you compare pictures from several years apart.

[kaiyora]

When we got Louis at 3 months old he was completely pure white. Now he's got bumblebee stripes of brown/gray - they came on just a few weeks ago and I thought he was actually just extra dirty!

[cavy-cool-crazy]

We have had a hard time figuring out what is going on with my Jazzie girl. Loads of white hairs have been coming through the chocolate on her face. One piggie friend said it could be a little bit of roan or she may have a lilac undercoat which is coming through. If it was roaning I would have thought it would be all over her, not just on her face. Her undercoat is lilac, but the surface a chocolate and white jumble. Strange. I will get a pic.

Lottie's ginger has increased greatly through her coat over the year we have had her. We are thinking she may be a tortie and not a Black & Tan.

Hey, ask Judy (jdomans) about changing colours. We have had a great time figuring out if her Meg is even the same pig she meant to adopt!

[cavy-cool-crazy]

OK here are pics.

Left - Jasmine when I first brought her home from the rescue, aged 3 months; Right - Jasmine's face close up at 1 year.



Each side of her face. One side is particularly strongly coloured while the other isn't quite so. These pics were taken around her first birthday.



Anyone have any ideas?

[aqh88]

Makes me wonder if guinea pigs have an equivalent gene to rubicano in horses. It causes patches of the body to roan but not the whole body like a true roaning gene does. Roaning also generally affects the main body before the head. Grey genes are more likely to start at the head but usually don't affect brown pigments and grey more evenly instead of having a scattering of grey hairs among colored hairs. Probably no way to know which gene it is for certain since we don't know the coloring of her parents, grandparents, or siblings.

[fourbwabbys]

I little while ago, silvering was discussed on GL. There were some connections between silvering and hormonal problems. Jane has some silvering around her bald spots from her ovarian cysts.