A 4-year-old Black Labrador retriever named Zola has recently become a mom by giving birth to ten really unique puppies.
Namely, her little litter is made up of a mixture of three different colors, which is a very rare occurrence.
Unique Mix
Zola’s hoomans, Tina and Martin Davis, are quite experienced breeders. They have been breeding Labs since 2006.
Over those many years in the field, the pair has successfully bred a mixture of black, chocolate, and yellow Labs.
However, they recently came up with the idea of producing a litter that would contain all three colors.
Since they started breeding, Tina and Martin have used Wylanbriar Kennels as their stud farm.
The owner of the farm, Diana Stevens, has worked alongside them in order to breed a line of stud dogs with whom the female Labs can produce an adorable mixed litter.
Diana owned a 3-year-old black Labrador, Rocks, who has also been uniquely bred in order to carry all three color genes.
“Only a tiny handful of Labradors have the genetic predisposition to produce all three colors, and even less are mated to a partner dog to make this happen,” said Diana.
It took the team over a decade to combine the correct genes on both sides in order to produce a litter of all three colors.
And, even with all that effort, the chances were slim.
Labradors can often carry a lot of genetic problems, so it’s not just about the colors; you have to make sure you’re producing a healthy puppy too.
A Little Miracle
Zola and Diana’s black Lab, Rocks, was paired up in the hopes that the team would achieve the thing they had been working on for so long.
And, they did!
Zola has given birth to ten of the most adorable and colorful puppies. Two of them were yellow, three chocolate, and five black.
We’d planned to produce a boy and a girl capable of giving all three colors since the day we started breeding, and now we’ve finally done it.
Being the cutest little family, all of the pups have already found their forever homes and will move in as soon as they are old enough.
Final Word
Unfortunately, Zola had a tricky pregnancy, resulting in her delivering her colorful babies via C-section.
Because of this, Tina and Martin decided to give Zola a break and not breed her anymore.
However, 50% of her puppies will have the DNA needed to breed all three colors in the future if needed.
By successfully breeding a litter of different colors, we now have the right line to continue to do this, which we’re extremely pleased about.
