My Doodle looks like he is changing color!?

[Hillary & Charlie]

I have a black labradoodle that will be 6 months old July 17. I have noticed him losing lots of baby hair but I am also starting to notice he seems to be fading into a dark brown color.  Especially on his front legs and chest. Any idea if this is normal? His parents are both Labradoodles..mom is cream and dad is chocolate. Just wondering what you guys thought or if its happened to you! I added a picture, not sure if you can see it well enough though. Thanks!

[Melissa & Porter]

Porter is several shades of grey, brown and black. I was told he would fade and he has. His parents were cream and chocolate too. I think a few of his sibs were expected to stay black, but not all. You can see on my pics how he has changed, though his coat is more curly than your doodle's.

[Hillary & Charlie]

What a cutie! Thanks so much for the input...I guess time will tell with Charlie! And yes my doodle is more wavy than curly. Wonder if that will change when he loses all his baby hair. Hopefully he either looks the same or gets curlier! :)

[Melissa & Porter]

Your welcome. These doodles are full of surprises, right?

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Hillary -- It is very possible that Charlie's coat can change color somewhat, as well as the texture changing when he looses his puppy coat. Check out my pics below of Lucy. In the 1st pic is her baby picture and the 2nd it shows how much she has gone from black to silver. She is now 2 years old and is still going more silver all the time.

[Molly~Molly's Darling Doodles]

Appears the brown phantom Doodles are just like the brown phantom Poodles.....it is VERY rare to have a brown Poodle or brown phantom Poodle who will stay brown......but, once you are in love with them the color is secondary:) She is beautiful!

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Isn't it funny how we all think we know what we want, but when we end up with something different because of the way that doodles are, we love them even more. When Lucy started to fade we were so disappointed, but now, her uniqueness is what we love so much about her! I didn't realize Sam had faded that much, but now that I see her puppy pics again she sure has. However, you know how I feel about your girls already ...... that are all beautiful!

[Hillary & Charlie]

Oh my gosh. They have changed so much but they are still gorgeous! I guess time will tell. I wouldn't mind what he changed into or if he even did it all! I love his personality and after seeing these unique changes i'm excited to see what the future holds! Thanks everyone for putting me at ease :)

[Adina P]

Quite normal for blacks...and browns! It is probably MORE rare for a black doodle to stay true black than it is for the doodle to lighten and fade. Blame it on the poodle...poodles come in just about every color imaginable and thus may have genetics that cause lightening/fading of color. He's a cutie!

[Molly~Molly's Darling Doodles]

Usually at that age when a black Doodle (or Poodle) starts getting brown in it that means he/she is turning blue......which ends up a dark, charcoal grey color.......can take a few yrs. to completely change color. Blue is a beautiful color:)

[Brenda F]

Wow, those are some big changes below! Pepsi was born black, and has stayed black but the hair around his nose is brown and seems to be getting browner all the time. He just turned one. His mother was apricot in color (her parents were black lab and apricot poodle) and Pepsi's father was an apricot standard poodle. The intent was to end up with apricot colored puppies, but each and every one of Pepsi's siblings came out blacker than black! It was pretty funny. It doesn't appear that Pepsi will change that much other than around his nose. It is so funny how these doods all end up looking so different!