I have a 7 1/2 week yellow male puppy who has not yet developed eye rim pigment? He also is showing a grayish/blueish eye color. All of the other puppies in the litter have black eye rim pigment with brown eyes.
Has anyone ever seen this or had this come up in their puppies before? I have never seen this before. This is my girls third litter and all of her puppies have had dark black eye rim pigment and brown colors eyes. I had even breed her to a y/c stud before and the puppies all had good dark eye rim pigment and brown eyes. Does anyone have any info about what this could be? Has anyone had this come up before? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

What color are his paw pads and lips? If they are brown, he may be bbee.

It could be worse, if the gray color were on the nose and eye rims: he could be a dilute yellow, with all the genetic baggage that entails. Have you, OP, tested the dam for this dilution gene and/or chocolate? It sounds as though this is a different stud than the previous litter. Someone will be happy to have a Dudley pup, if that is what he is.

He has black lips and paws. The dam is Y/y. I do not own the stud dog and it is a different one from previous litters. I don't believe the stud carries any chocolate gene. Could the puppy's eye pigment still come in since he is only 7 1/2 weeks? I am not worried about selling him, he is a very nice puppy otherwise. I am looking for information on why this would come up, I have never seen it before.

If his lips and paw pads are black, then he is not a dilute nor an eebb. The combination may have just produced a pup that more than likely will have lighter eyes and eye rim pigment that is slow to come in. It has absolutely nothing to do with whether one parent carries chocolate.

What is a dilute yellow or chocolate??
Are you trying to say he might carry the SILVER gene? Because, thats doubtful.

Someone mentioned it, but you are right, it's highly unlikely since the dilute gene is not found in the general Lab population. You would know if they are from "those" lines that carry it as those are the only breeders who are perpetuating it. They are implementing show lines into their line though so you never know.

What is a dilute yellow? If it is an eeBb or eeBB, then the nose color/pigment would be a blueish grey color instead of black. The dilute effect only changes the black or brown coat or black pigment color. And yes, the dilute gene is responsible for the silver color on chocolates.

I consider a dilute yellow a eebb...a Dudley...a yellow with chocolate pigment. It's what the crap breeders call "Champagne". And the dog would have the dilute gene turning the brown pigment on the lips, eye rims, pads, nose, etc. the silvery brown, not the nice brown.

I guess there could also be the eeBb or eeBB ones, but with the "charcoal" nose I think it would just look more like poor pigment than anything else.

OP, I think you just have a pup with poor pigment if parts of the pup ARE black just not the nose/eye rims. The light eyes clearly indicate the dog will have the lighter eye as an adult. It happens, sometimes genetics just burps. I would sell this one as a pet on a limited registration for sure.

"I consider a dilute yellow a eebb...a Dudley...a yellow with chocolate pigment. It's what the crap breeders call "Champagne". And the dog would have the dilute gene turning the brown pigment on the lips, eye rims, pads, nose, etc. the silvery brown, not the nice brown."

A Dudley and a Champagne are very different. A dilute yellow and a yellow with chocolate pigment are very different. A Dudley which is the same as a yellow with chocolate pigment has NOTHING to do with the dilute gene.

A yellow with chocolate pigment is also a Dudley - these are simply chocolate dogs with yellow fur just like a yellow with correct black pigment is a black dog with yellow fur. A yellow with chocolate pigment (Dudley) occurs in the general Labrador population. It happens when both parents either are or carrying BOTH chocolate and yellow. Again this is nothing to do with dilutes or the dilute gene.

A Champagne is the same as a dilute yellow. This is a dog that carries two recessive copies of the dilute gene - dd. It can dilute a yellow that has black pigment (eeBbdd or eeBBdd) or a yellow that has chocolate pigment (eebbdd).

"I guess there could also be the eeBb or eeBB ones, but with the "charcoal" nose I think it would just look more like poor pigment than anything else."

The dilute gene fades out the color of the dog. A charcoal dog is a blue dog - a dilute black. A silver is a diluted chocolate. A champagne is a diluted yellow.

Doubt it's a champagne which is a yellow that expresses the dilute gene. They can have black or chocolate noses and vary in their darkness of coat just like every other yellow. But you have some stranger gene in play- only eye rims not pigmented and eyes lighter, but lips and feet pads black. Even if it were a champagne, it's eye rims should be same color as the nose.

It could be the winter that is making your puppy have poor pigmentation. Wait until the spring.

One or two pups in the same litter can just have worse pigment than the rest. Had a litter of 8 - great pigment in all except one puppy. She had a slightly lighter nose and no pigment around her eyes. Took a while but it came in around 12 weeks. I see pictures of her as an adult and has good pigment during the summer but really gets a snow nose during winter.

OK how about this one. I had one yellow male pup out of 8 in a black/yellow litter and he had a very light coat, the jet blackest pigment you ever saw(as did the other yellows), but his eyes were crystal clear blue!!! Even at 8 weeks as he left I wondered what his eyes would do. They turned dark brown later on.

Yeah that's what I thought!! It was really bizarre!

I am the O.P. of this thread. I wanted to give an update on the status of the pigment and eye color of this puppy. The puppy is 9 1/2 weeks now and the dark eye rim pigment has come in and the eye color has also darkened to brown. It must have been that this puppy's pigment took longer to come in than the other ones in the litter.

Thanks to those who replied.