Silver Beagle puppies are truly a site to behold. These Beagles are black, tan and white. However, thanks to two recessive genes that they carry, their black and tan fur becomes diluted. Which in return gives them their unique silver look.
When it comes to official Beagle colors there is no such thing as a Silver Beagle. That is because kennels like akc, refer to this type of Beagle as blue instead of silver, but to the human eye, they appear more silver then blue, hence their popular nickname “Silver Beagle”.
Silver Beagle Breeder | Silver Beagle Puppies for Sale!
Does Jacobson Kennel, breed and sale Silver Beagle puppies?
At this current time, I am working on it. The picture you see above is my silver male. He is young but should be ready to breed by the end of 2022.
Currently I only have 1 female Beagle that carries the silver gene. If I were to breed her to my silver stud then there is a 50% chance that she would have silver Beagle puppies with every litter.
I am working on getting a silver female or two, so I can focus mainly on silver Beagles. But even if all goes according to plan, that plan will not bare fruit until early 2024.
So the take away? I have the possibility of having a few silver Beagle puppies every time I breed to my female with the silver gene.
If you are interested in a Silver Beagle, then you are more then welcome to send me an email or follow me on my facebook page.
However it is important to remember I cannot guarantee a Silver Beagle. Not until I have another silver female to breed to.
Are Silver Beagles Rare?
Silver Beagle puppies are rare in comparison to the classic Tri Color Beagle, however they are not as rare as say a Lilic Beagle or a Bi-color Brown Beagle.
This question is always somewhat challenging to answer. The reason being is that the meaning of the word “rare” can vary from person to person and from situation to situation.
I defined “rare” solely off of genetics and the difficulty it is to line up those genetics to get the desired color that one is looking for.
So genetically speaking, classic tri-color Beagles are the most common and easiest Beagle to come by. Silver Beagles are somewhere in between.
Here is how I would list different color Beagles, from common to most rarest.
- Classic Tri Beagle
- Lemon Beagle.
- Brown Tri Color Beagle.
- Silver Beagle.
- Lilic Beagle.
- Bi Color Brown Beagle.
To sum it all up. Silver Beagle puppies are more rare then some Beagles, however they are not the rarest Beagle out there.
The Genetic Breakdown of the Silver Beagle!
Now for the fun part. The genetic breakdown of Silver Beagle puppies.
I have already written a few articles on genetics. So I am not going to go as in depth as I did with the other articles.
If you want a more in-depth article on genetics, feel free to check out: Brown Beagle Puppies! A Genetic Breakdown or Blue Tick Beagle – The Unique Hound Dog!
The three genes that we will be looking at when it comes to Silver Beagles, is the B-Locus, D-Locus and E-Locus genes.
B-Locus of a Silver Beagle
The first gene that will be discussed is the B-Locus gene. This gene is responsible for providing a black or brown Beagle.
The dominant B-locus gene is represented by a capital “B”, while the recessive B-locus gene is represented by a lowercase “b”.
There are three possible combinations a Beagle can have with the B-locus gene. They will either be dominate/dominate “B/B”, dominate/recessive “B/b” or recessive/recessive “b/b”.
If a Beagle puppy inherits one dominate B-locus gene, that gene will triumph over the recessive gene.
Usually a Beagle that has a dominate B-locus gene will most likely have black fur. This is the outcome you’re looking for if you want Silver Beagle puppies.
A Beagle that is recessive/recessive will most likely have brown fur. Below are a few pictures that should help clear up this matter.
Hypothetical Match-ups of beagles at the B-locus level.
From Fig B1, shows two black Beagles that are carriers of the recessive gene “Bb”. These two Beagles, have a 1 in 4 chance of producing a recessive/recessive “bb” Beagle puppy.
Fig B2 shows that a recessive/recessive Beagle and a Beagle that is a carrier of a recessive gene has a 50% chance of producing recessive/recessive beagle puppy. AKA brown puppies.
In order to get a recessive/recessive Beagle puppy you have to breed two Beagles that are carriers of a recessive gene.
If a Beagle does not carry the recessive B-Locus gene, then you will not get a brown Beagle puppy.
Here are three more images to demonstrate my point.
A recessive/recessive and a dominate/dominate Beagle cannot throw a recessive/recessive puppy as shown in Fig B3. However all of their offspring will be carries of the recessive b-gene.
A recessive/recessive Beagle with another recessive/recessive Beagle will always have recessive/recessive puppies as shown in Fig B4.
Vice-versa, Fig B5 shows that a dominate/dominate Beagle breed with another dominate/dominate will always throw dominate/dominate puppies.
An important note to remember is that the B-Locus gene can be masked over by a more dominate gene.
If this happens then you will be unable to see the outward appearance of the B-Locus gene on the Beagle puppy. More will be discussed on “masking” later on.
The takeaway? If you want Silver Beagle puppies, then you want the B-locus gene to be dominate/dominate “B/B” or dominate/recessive “B’/b”.
D-Locus of a Silver Beagle
When it comes to Silver Beagles, the D-locus gene is the gene that we are most interested in. That’s because the D-locus gene is what gives a Beagle his silver look.
The D-locus gene, also known as the diluted gene, diluted the dark pigmentation in a dog’s fur.
In our case, it takes a Beagle’s black fur and dilutes it. This dilution is what gives a Beagle and their puppies that silver blue look.
Just like the B-locus genes it takes two recessive D-locus genes to cause this diluting effect. In order to get two recessive D-locus gene, two Beagles that are carriers of the recessive gene must mate.
Below are a few pictures to help illustrate this.
Fig D1 shows that two classic Tricolor Beagles who are both carriers of the recessive d-locus gene, has a 1 in 4 chance of producing Silver Beagle puppies.
Fig D2 shows the outcome when a recessive/recessive Silver Beagle and a classic Tricolor who is a carrier of the d-locus gene mates.
They have a 50% chances of having Silver Beagles. Despite the outcome, all the puppies in Fig D2 will be carriers of the recessive d-locus gene.
Below are the genetic outcome of other possible d-locus match-ups.
These outcomes are the same as the B-locus gene outcome. If you want Silver Beagle puppies, you have to breed two Beagles, that carry the d-locus gene.
If you want a 100% outcome, then breed a Silver Beagle with a Silver Beagle.
E-Locus Gene of a Beagle!
If you ever wonder how to get a Lemon Beagle then look no further then the E-Locus gene. Just like with the other genes that have been discussed, it take two recessive E-locus gene to get a Lemon Beagle.
Now I’m not going to go into depth on the E-locus gene since this is a blog about Silver Beagles and their puppies.
The only reason I want to bring this gene up, is because this gene can mask other recessive genes.
If a Silver Beagle inherits two copies of the recessive E-locus gene, they will have the appearance of a Lemon and not a Silver Beagle.
The figure below helps illustrate this point.
The above image demonstrates what can happen if you breed two Silver Beagles who are carriers of the recessive E-locus gene. There is a 3 out of 4 chance that the puppies would be Silver Beagles.
However there is also a 1 in 4 chance that there could be a Lemon puppy as well. The reason this could happen is because it inherited both copies of the recessive D-locus gene and both copies of the recessive E-locus gene.
Dominate Gene Peaking Order!
When it comes to genes, as a rule of thumb, the more dominate gene is the gene that is further down the alphabet. Since E comes after D, the E-locus gene is the dominate gene.
Since the puppies inherited both the D and E locus recessive gene, the dominate gene, E-locus in this case, will show through.
This effect is called the masking effect. The more dominate recessive gene “ee” will mask or cover up the effects of the less dominate gene or “dd” in the above example.
In this case the Lemon will mask the Silver. No visible outward appearance of the d-locus gene will be seen.
The only place you might notice a difference is on the nose. The nose might appear off black to a grayish color at best.
It is important to note, that even though the Beagle will appear as a lemon, it is also a silver Beagle at the genetic level.
You can get Silver Beagle puppies from a Lemon Silver Beagle. The following images helps to demonstrate this.
If I were to cross a Lemon/Silver Beagle with another Silver who was not a carrier of the recessive E-locus gene, all of the puppies would be Silver Beagles puppies.
Merle Beagle, a fancy silver?
Beagles are a popular dog and it seems like the more rare colored they are, the higher the price. But beware! Not all Beagles are what they seem.
A Merle Beagle has grown in popularity and seems to be difficult to find amongst respectable Beagle breeders.
Why? Because there is no such thing as a true Merle Beagle. At least not according to http://www.aladarbeagles.com/.
A merle pattern coat, is extremely common in an Australian shepherds but this coat pattern does not exist naturally in Beagles.
In order to get this pattern in Beagles, one would have to cross breed a Beagle with a dog that has this coat pattern.
You would then take the offspring of the mixed Beagle who has a merle coat and breed it back to another Beagle.
If one kept following this breeding pattern for 3 to 4 generation, you would end up with a Beagle, for the most part, that has a merle coat.
The problem that I have with this type of Beagle, is that people try to sale it as an extremely rare purebred Beagle. When the fact of the matter is that it is not a purebred. Somewhere in its line there has to be a cross breeding.
But They Come With Registration Papers!!
Another thing to be aware of is when someone offers registeration papers with this type of Beagle. They are either lying about the papers or they lied to the kennel when they registered the puppies.
A merle Beagle is not a recognized coat pattern among Akc or any other respectable kennel. If someone does offer papers, then most likely they lied and registered the puppies as Silver beagles.
It does not matter to me if someone wants to breed a designer breed, what does matter is if they are being honest or trying to scam the buyer by claiming they have a purebred Beagle that does not exist.
My advice is to do your homework before buying. If a breeder is claiming to have a purebreed Merle Beagle with papers… I would be extremely careful.
Most likely they have mixed puppies that they registered as Silver Beagles, to get papers for them.
The Rare Colored Silver Beagle! Wrapping it up.
At the beginning of this article I classified Silver Beagle puppies as rare, but not the rarest. How I defined rare is based off of genetics not how many there are.
A Tricolor Beagle can have many genetic makeups and still come out as tricolor making them very common.
When it comes to Lemon, Brown and Silver Beagles, it takes two recessive genes coming together.
The more recessive traits a Beagle has, genetic wise, the rarer the Beagle. However be careful. If you come across a Beagle that looks to good to be true, it probably is. As always, do your homework.
Silver Beagles are rare and can be hard to find. If you are looking for Silver Beagle puppies, be patient.
Find a respectable Beagle breeder and reach out to them. I am sure that they will be happy to assist. It might take a bit, but if the Silver Beagle is your dream dog then it will be worth the wait.