Why do cats' eye colors change as they grow up?

Nov 26,2023
5Min

The change in cat eye color is caused by changes in the iris pigment in the pupil. The color of a cat's eyes is determined by the color of the pigment on the iris. Changes in iris pigment will cause us to see changes in the color of the cat's eyes; iris pigmentation and blue light reflection determine the color of the cat's eyes.

When a cat grows up, the color of its eyes is determined by melanin

First, iris pigmentation and blue light reflection determine feline eye color.

The pigmentation of the iris is caused by melanin, and the color ranges from lemon yellow to light brown to dark orange or brown. In addition, the "transparent" eye structure (the lens - I think it is this) also reflects external light like a piece of glass. If you look at it from the front, the glass has no color, but if we slowly move the angle, you will see that it appears green or blue. Likewise, the transparent structures of feline eyes are transparent blue, ranging in shades from colorless to very dark or violet-like blue. This combination of blue light reflected colors and the colors produced by iris pigmentation make up all cat eye colors.

Cats are inherited through genes

Iris pigmentation and transparent structural pigment are controlled by multiple polygenes located at different locations on the chromosome. Kittens in a litter inherit a mixture of these polygenes from their parents and produce different eye colors. Different polygene mixtures result in arrangements of shades of color.

The eyes of purebred cats are the same color, and mandarin duck eyes are generally considered to be caused by hybrids. Most of these cats (Chinese Linqing cats or Turkish Ankara cats) have genetic defects. They have beautiful blue eyes but deaf ears. Therefore, people crossbreed white cats with yellow eyes with this kind of cat to produce a white long-haired cat with yellow eyes and a blue eye, which does not have the defect of deafness.

Cat eye color changes appear at 6-7 weeks

When a kitten is born, it is generally 11-15 cm in length and weighs 70 to 135 grams. Newborn kittens have not yet opened their eyes and their ears are folded, so they cannot see or hear. The first progress in a kitten's development is that it begins to open its eyes at 5-10 days; it takes 8-12 days for the eyes to fully open. The color of the eyes is usually gray-blue. This early color begins to change around six to seven weeks of age, and the blue film will fade and gradually become finalized. However, the eye color may not be fixed until three or four months of age. Throughout a cat's life, disease and injury can cause changes in eye color.

Feeding fish to cats does not change their appearanceColor

It is nonsense to say that feeding fish to cats will change the color of their eyes! This is because when cats are weaned, people feed fish to kittens (before commercial cat food was produced, everyone It may be that the fish are fed to the kitten), but at this time, the color of the kitten's eyes changes, so this misunderstanding arises). ​

Basically, the iris is sky blue or light blue when you are a child, and it will still be blue when you are older; the iris is blue-gray when you are a child, and it will not be blue when you are older, but it may be yellow, green, or yellow-green. It has eye pigment as expected from its original breed.

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