Mary Allen
Eye color in cats is determined by pigment cells that produce the pigment melatonin. The exception is blue or red cat eyes – they have no color pigments.
Whether green, blue, yellow, or copper-colored cat eyes – their looks are always fascinating. But what is the eye color of the beautiful velvet paws actually all about?
How the Eye Color Comes About
The color of the eyes is created in all living beings on the iris or iris. The iris consists of two layers, both of which usually contain pigment cells: the stroma and the retinal pigment epithelium. The lens of the cat’s eyes also breaks the light, which can also affect the color of the eyes. The pigment cells, also known as melanocytes, produce the pigment melanin.
Cats don’t get chocolate brown or black eyes as humans do with high levels of melanin on the iris. If cat eyes contain a lot of the dye, they appear dark and copper-colored. However, the most common eye color in cats is green, in all possible shades. It occurs with an average number of pigment cells on the iris and is all the more intense the more melanin these pigment cells produce.
Blue & Red Cat Eyes
Blue eyes in cats are caused by the lack of pigment cells on the iris. The eyes are then essentially colorless, but the light refracted through the lens makes them appear blue. Red eyes are quite rare in cats and occur when the choroid behind the retina does not have any pigment cells. Then the blood vessels in the back of the eye can shine through the iris and the eye color appears red.
All Kittens Have Blue Eyes
A cat’s correct eye color doesn’t become apparent until six to seven weeks after birth, sometimes even a week or two earlier. At birth, the cat’s eyes are still closed and only open after five to ten days. The little kittens then all have blue eyes because the pigment cells have not yet started producing melanin. The development of your cat’s final eye color is complete at around three to four months of age.
Different Colored Eyes in Cats
Cats that have two different eye colors are particularly fascinating. The pigment cells are missing in only one eye, so it appears blue. The actual eye color is then noticeable in the other eye, either green, yellow, golden, orange, or copper-colored. This quirk of nature is called iris heterochromia, where “hetero” means “different” and “chrome” means “color”.
Central heterochromia occurs when a ring of a different color appears in the middle of the iris within the cat’s eye. There is also the so-called sectoral heterochromia, in which a different colored spot can be seen on the iris.