If you've been around the breed a while or have been looking into the possibility of owning a merle Chihuahua you have no doubt come across some pretty disturbing and negative statements made about merle Chihuahuas calling into question their health and their heritage, and maligning those who choose to include them in their breeding programs. Rather than give in to hype and hysteria and fear mongering based on bigotry, you must be here because you want to know for yourself what the TRUTH is behind these beautiful, misunderstood and maligned little dogs. Well you have come to the right place because what you will find here is not based on rumor or baseless accusations of sight or hearing problems with NO testing or historical data to back up such statements. What you will find here are the FACTS based upon actual CERF/BAER testing and DNA heritage testing and the ACTUAL experiences of breeders with many years of being involved with Chihuahuas, including merle factored Chihuahuas.
You'll find anti-merle pages out there claiming that merle Chihuahuas are not healthy, have all manner of problems, from blindness to deafness, and it seems everything in between, even nonsensically blaming the merle gene for retained testicles and demodectic mange - all with NO testing or historical data to back up their claims.
FACT: ALL SINGLE MERLE CHIHUAHUAS CERF & BAER TESTED HAVE PASSED - NOT ONE HAS HAD A PROBLEM WITH SIGHT OR HEARING!
FACT: NO TEST RESULTS EXIST PROVING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A SINGLE COPY OF THE MERLE GENE AND HEALTH ISSUES IN THE CHIHUAHUA AND NO GENETIC EXPERT HAS PROVIDED ANY DATA PROVING ANY HARM TO THE BREED CAUSED BY A SINGLE COPY OF THE MERLE GENE!!
Furthermore, the genetic expert "quoted" by the anti-merle sector to further their cause has written a REBUTTAL stating that Gloria Lambert has MISquoted him and MISunderstood and MISapplied his previous research on the merle gene that in no way, shape or form applies to the single merle Chihuahua!
FACT: Merle Chihuahuas can be traced back to a Chihuahua book dating back to WWI - that's hardly "new" or a "fad"!
FACT: NO evidence exists regarding cross-breeding AND in FACT the merle line I work with has been DNA tested and PROVEN PURE for the Chihuahua breed. Yet another merle Chihuahua myth debunked!
The anti-merle sector preys on fear and ignorance and hopes you won't find out the truth (that there is simply no proof of what they claim about merle Chihuahuas and in fact much proof to the contrary!) and, once armed with the truth, defend the very colorful history of this wonderful breed, which has ALWAYS included ANY color - solid, marked or SPLASHED.
It is my hope that by learning the FACTS surrounding these beautiful little dogs you will come to understand they are simply a part of the breed a small but very vocal group within the breed decided they did not want around and so they began a campaign of misinformation and negative propaganda, hoping you would simply take their word for it, because that is all it is, words - not fact, not evidence, not truth.
THE BEAUTIFUL - AND HEALTHY - MERLE CHIHUAHUA: THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES!