![]() On the other hand, yellow, amber, green, and hazel-colored eyes are much more common. Copper is a reddish-brown shade, possibly with an orange tone, too. Image Credit: didsss, PixabayĬopper-the darkest color a cat’s eyes can be-seems to be the rarest single color. As mentioned above, white cats with blue or odd-colored eyes are more at risk of deafness, but odd-eyed cats that aren’t white don’t have an increased risk of deafness. While heterochromia isn’t well understood, the good news is that it doesn’t affect a cat’s vision. Cats with sectoral heterochromia have irises containing two colors, for example, half yellow, and half blue. Some cats have sectoral heterochromia, which is a little different from complete heterochromia. The iris without any melanin will be blue. Heterochromia causes melanin-the substance responsible for color development-to be in only one iris rather than both. If a cat has odd-colored eyes, for example, one blue eye and one amber eye, it means they have a very rare developmental condition (though it can also be caused by an accident) called heterochromia. Heterochromia Causes Different Colored Eyes ![]() Unfortunately, the same gene is linked to a stronger incidence of deafness. Blue-eyed breeds receive the dominant white coat gene which overrides any possibility of the cat developing other eye colors like amber, copper, golden, green, or hazel. While it’s true that certain breeds, like the Siamese, are typically blue-eyed, other eye colors aren’t linked to specific coat colors or types. Fur Color and Eye Color Aren’t Strongly Linked If we were to take refraction out of the equation, our blue-eyed feline friends would have colorless irises. ![]() This means that the light received by the eye is scattered back out, which causes them to appear blue-a phenomenon known as the Tyndall effect. Instead of having high levels of melanocytes, blue-eyed cats (and humans) have high refraction levels. While cats can have black and brown coats and markings, they can’t have truly brown or black eyes. The darkest possible shade cat eyes can have is copper, which is more of an orange-brown than full brown like some dogs have. Image Credit: Anna Krivitskaya, Shutterstock 4. Cats with a high number of less active melanocytes would have a lighter yellow/orange or amber shade. A cat with a high number of very active melanocytes will have eyes that are a deep copper shade. Let’s take orange-colored eyes as an example. Very active melanocytes produce a more intense color, whereas less active melanocytes produce a lighter shade While the number of melanocytes determines what color the eyes will be, it is their activity levels that determine the intensity of the color. Green-eyed cats have some melanocytes, but not as many as orange/copper-eyed cats (the darkest shade). Cats with more melanocytes (the melanin-producing cells) have darker eyes, whereas cats that lack melanocytes have blue eyes.īlue-eyed breeds include the Siamese, Birman, Himalayan, Ragdoll, and Persian, to name a few. ![]() Melanin Determines Eye ColorĪ cat’s eye color depends on the amount of melanin they produce. Image Credit: oussama el biad, Shutterstock 2. Melanin comes from cells called melanocytes, and these are contained within the layers of the iris called the stroma and the epithelium.
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