The Chow Chow is well renowned for it’s unique blue/black tongue. The Chow Chow is one of the most ancient breeds and many breeds today originate from it. However we still don’t know the true reason of how and why the Chow Chow has this blue/black tongue feature. The Chinese Shar-Pei also shares this feature as well as some other animals such as the Polar Bear, Giraffe and some breeds of cattle.
Chow Chows are born with pink tongues and this darkens to blue/black by the age of 8-10 weeks old, some tongues don’t completely darken and may still have spots of pink on them.
It is often misunderstood that if a cross bred dog has spots of black on it that it must mean it is a chow mix. This is untrue there are up to 30 pure breeds which are known to have spotted tongues. Spots on tongues are like freckles and birthmarks on people – simply areas of extra pigment. These can also be found on the skin too hiding under their coats.
