Wondering which colors and age group to choose? This can help!
If you’re trying to make a decision when selecting a color or age group for a dog or cat’s listing on Adopt-a-Pet.com, consider what are the top searched-for values — we’ve collected and compiled them for you from over 60 million searches by potential adopters! Of course you'll be truthful, but what if a pet falls across two or more possible choices? Try choosing the value that gets searched for the most. Why? Overall, more people seeing more potential pets to adopt = more adoptions.
Note: Age group value is selected on each pet by their organization, so for example, a 10 month old could have a value of "kitten/puppy" or "young" while a 1 or 2 year old could have "young" or "adult" as their age group. Coat length was removed from our search filter options in 2020.
The search data below was compiled from September 1, 2015 through March 1, 2016 from over 60 million (60,751,681) pet searches run on Adopt-a-Pet.com.
Top searched-for…
Colors, Age, and Coat Lengths
on Adopt-a-Pet.com
Dogs: 53 million searches
Dog age group
1. LEFT BLANK 22,126,721 41.42%
2. puppy 14,366,946 26.89%
3. young 14,092,680 26.38%
4. adult 2,545,129 4.76%
5. senior 293,687 0.55%
Dog color
1. LEFT BLANK 44,842,518 86.9%
2. White 1,457,908 2.8%
3. Black 1,166,786 2.3%
4. Brown/Chocolate 902,032 1.7%
5. Tan/Yellow/Fawn 725,923 1.4%
6. Tricolor (Tan/Brown & Black & White) 699,321 1.4%
7. Red/Golden/Orange/Chestnut 671,948 1.3%
8. Gray/Blue/Silver/Salt & Pepper 577,169 1.1%
9. Brindle 307,429 0.6%
10. Silver & Tan (Yorkie colors) 204,051 0.4%
11. Merle 73,596 0.1%
Dog Gender
1. LEFT BLANK 31,998,042 59.9%
2. female 13,165,545 24.6%
3. male 8,261,576 15.5%
Note: No hair length for dogs as we don’t offer that search option, like we don’t offer searching by size for cats.
Cats: 9.5 million searches
Cat gender
1. LEFT BLANK 5,899,753 62.4%
2 female 2169453 23.0
3 male 1380900 14.6
Cat hair length
1. LEFT BLANK 6794950 71.90%
2. short 1332862 14.10%
3. long 794217 8.40%
4. medium 528077 5.59%
Cat age group
1. kitten 4757550 50.34%
2. LEFT BLANK 3159918 33.43%
3. young 1269588 13.43%
4. adult 218019 2.30%
5. senior 45031 0.47%
Cat color
1. LEFT BLANK 7,105,532 77.9%
2. White 342,560 3.8%
3. Gray or Blue 212,043 2.3%
4. Calico or Dilute Calico 205,598 2.3%
5. Black 195,178 2.1 %
6. Black & White or Tuxedo 168,721 1.8%
7. Gray, Blue or Silver Tabby 141,408 1.6%
8. Orange or Red 124,831 1.4%
9. Orange or Red Tabby 123,752 1.4%
10. Brown or Chocolate 103,653 1.1%
11. Cream or Ivory 97,935 1.1%
12. Tiger Striped 64,780 0.7%
13. Spotted Tabby/Leopard Spotted 59,204 0.6%
14. Tabby 48,163 0.5%
15. Brown Tabby 46,571 0.5%
16. Tortoiseshell 42,363 0.5%
17. Tan or Fawn 29,145 0.3%
18. Tan or Fawn Tabby 11,563 0.1%