Cream coloured coats appear on the Working Kelpie; however the colour has occurred in one or two Australian Kelpies as well. Genetically the colour is a recessive red and belong to the colour series E locus. The E gene decides what area of the coat may produce eumelanin. The color is genetically the same as in the yellow labrador retriever or in the golden retriever.

This gene in its dominant form is either E/E or E/e and the dog is normally pigmented. The recessive form of the gene is e/e and it prevents the eumelanin production in the skin cell and so normally pigmented strands of hair also lack eumelanin. The dog then has a yellow or red coat, while the nose, claws, pads, edge of the eye lids and lips has the colour of the eumelanin.

Recessive red has its own series but is more dominant than any other colour. This means that black, agouti, tan, saddle, wolf grey, merle and other colours will be eliminated, and the dog’s coat will be yellow or red if it is recessive red.

Examples of cream coloured Kelpies with different eumelanin pigments: