Black nails

Brian has 1 black nail on both his front paws and 2 on one of his left back foot but none on the right foot. Ein, my red/white boy has white nails. Edit: Oh, and Brian's nails were white when he was younger.

I've been wondering for a while, why only some of Brian's nails were black?
Two possible reasons came to my mind:
1. Brian's a black headed tri and wanted his nails to be tri color too.
2. He got a bruise on the nail (if that's even possible)?

Any ideas?

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Permalink Reply by Monica, Orion, and Laika on June 25, 2010 at 5:55pm

Some dogs just have black nails due to the genes they got for their pigmentation. My brother's tricolor australian shepherd has three black nails and all the rest are white. Just like pigmentation of skin and hair can change as dogs age, so can the nails so they may start out white then turn black. Light colored dogs with lighter skin/hair pigmentation tend to have light pigmentation of the nails as well and darker dogs will tend to have black nails. Also usually if a dog has pink pads the nails are usually white (Orion has pink pads with black spots since he's a tri) So a tricolor is more likely to have a few black nails than a red/white corgi and probably a black headed tri is more likely than a red headed tri.
So annnnyywaysss all I'm saying is that he just wants his nails to be tricolor too :)

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Permalink Reply by Marion and Vern on June 25, 2010 at 6:42pm

funny how they are different colors, Sami's are all white except one black on a back paw.

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Permalink Reply by Susan , Radar and Cooper on June 25, 2010 at 7:36pm

Radar which is a black tri has mixed nail colors. On his nose where it's white the whiskers are white on the other side which is brown the whiskers are black. Cooper is red and white an all his nails are white.

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Permalink Reply by Vee Luther on June 26, 2010 at 4:23pm

And I have a sable and white that has just one black nail, the rest white, a tri with all white nails and a red and white with white nails--who is very, very fussy about keeping his white feet clean. Go figure.

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Permalink Reply by Becky S on June 26, 2010 at 9:33pm

Both of our dogs have all white nails, but Lilly has the black / white whiskers thing going on too. While where her fur is white and black where it's red.

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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on June 26, 2010 at 5:15pm

Wynn my red/white has 1 black nail,Livvy my tri I think has no black nails and Sage their daughter has no black nail...I think that both my other red/whites have no black nails either.

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Permalink Reply by Kari & Jackson on June 26, 2010 at 5:48pm

Jackson is a sable and has been developing some black nails in the last few months. He's only got a couple, maybe two or three. I think it's cute!!

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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on June 26, 2010 at 9:08pm

Melanocytes :) However, fungus can also change nail color.

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Permalink Reply by Rachael & Waffle on June 26, 2010 at 11:43pm

Waffle has one black nail--his "index" toe on the front left foot. (His paw pads, however, are mostly black with some pink.) Black nails, barring some infection/fungus, are genetic. :3 Not to worry!

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Permalink Reply by Ashley and Copper on June 27, 2010 at 11:12am

I'm glad you asked this question because I was going to ask it, too. Copper has recently has one nail on his front right paw that has been slowly changing. At first, I thought he hurt it but it started out as a sliver of black and kept changing. Now it is almost all black and it doesn't seem to be hurting him at all. It's interesting that they can change. Now that I think of it I think his dad may have been tri and his mom red and sable... Does anyone know how to find his parents on AKC? I have their numbers and names but I can't figure it out...