Last fall when Ami's winter coat came in, he had a nice rich red in his guard hairs - so much that people were surprised at the pictures and his color and that he was darker in the winter.

Well, now that it is summer, he is once again more of a pale apricot than a rich red I am assuming it is bleaching from the sun. Is there anything, short of keeping him inside 24/7, that I can do to help retain his color? He naturally gravitates to shade most of the time but it is not enough.

Not that my "butterscotch sundae" isn't as loveable - I just really liked his rich red color.

Amy,
welcome to my world with Sierra, she got a bath yesterday and i can already see her darker red stripes fading and she hardly spends any time in the sun. i think it may also have to do with the cycle of shedding as well so not sure there is anyway to stop it.
Jack stays a dark copper all year long, so i think it is just the version of reds we have

jbealer wrote:

Amy,
welcome to my world with Sierra, she got a bath yesterday and i can already see her darker red stripes fading and she hardly spends any time in the sun.  i think it may also have to do with the cycle of shedding as well so not sure there is anyway to stop it.
Jack stays a dark copper all year long, so i think it is just the version of reds we have

Sigh...will cultivate a desire for apricot.

I wonder if, with Ami at least, when he blows coat, there is just so much undercoat near the surface. Actually, no, It really is a bleaching - I can't see ANY of the dark red that was there last fall.

Thanks for the reply, Jenn.

Oh - thinking of you yesterday. Found Ami snacking on my sugar snap pea plants. No peas yet, just the greens. Looks like my solution may become the problem

Kenzi lightens a little in summer but not much. She was more of an orange color when we got her and food and inside time darkened her to what she is now. I don't leave her out for hardly any periods of time in the afternoon or evening when the sun is hottest and she gets most of her workouts early morning on the shady side of the house and after or very close to dark. She also get fish oil and vitamin E. Not sure if supplements could possibly play any role in helping to fortify his coats ability to hold color or not.

i think Leo has the same issue with his coat too, he is very dark in the winter and now hes all over the place with is color   some area are a nice apricot spots some look more dark brown and some light. I'm not sure what color hes going to end up maybe spotted  with all three. I'll try to get a side picture of him of the multicoloring .

 it took a while to get the weird multi-coloring picks of Leo very hard to photograph endless hes lying down .he has some brown ranging from dark to light and then fading into white toward the legs. with Orangie areas here and there.








not sure what color hes going to end up. his coat seams a bit confiued   . he looks a bit strange but i love him any way.

I am so worried about this!! Pasha is already a lot lighter than he was when I got him, but I assumed that was just him changing with age. I love the color he is now, (when he is clean ), and I just don't want him to fade out super light. =/ I haven't had him long enough to be able to tell if he will change much in the winter versus summer, but I don't want him to change that much!