Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Why Do Some Pets Have Different Colored Eyes?

Cat with heterochromia iridum.
Photo via Laura
I'm sure you're seen pictures of cats or dogs with gorgeous colored eyes. You know, the ones with one blue eye and one green eye and whatnot. Have you ever actually asked why some pets have different colored eyes? It's a condition called heterochromia iridum. In most cases, it's just genetic and isn't harmful to the pet.

Heterochromia occurs when melanin is not distributed equally among both of the irises. Melanin is what gives color pigment to an animal's skin, fur, and their eyes. Many animals have blue eyes when they are babies. As they grow older, melanin will begin to distribute in their irises. This is the time when an animal will show signs of having heterochromia.


Cats With Different Colored Eyes

Most cats with different colored eyes are white although heterochromia could occur in any cat. There are certain cat breeds that are more prone to having different colored eyes than others. Some examples are the Turkish Van and Angora cat breeds. 

Since white cats lack melanin because their fur is white, they are more likely to have different colored eyes than other types of cats. In most cases, one eye will be blue and the other will be green. The blue eye is the one that is lacking the melanin. 

Dogs With Heterochromia

There are also dogs that have different colored eyes. Breeds like the Australian Shepard, Dalmation, Catahoula Leopard Dog, and Husky are very commonly seen with different colored eyes. I have personally seen many other breeds with heterochromia including Shelties, Boston Terriers, Welsh Corgis, Great Danes, Dachsunds, Pit Bulls, and others. 

Dog with heterochromia.
Photo via xlibber

Some dogs with different colored eyes may have partial heterochromia. This means that one eye is two different colors. Commonly, half of the eye will be brown while the other half is blue. 

Should I Be Concerned if My Pet Has Different Colored Eyes?

Generally speaking, no - there is no reason to be concerned or alarmed as the condition is genetic most of the time. Some people find this look desirable and will choose their pet based on this unique feature. Others may find it weird and think something is wrong with an animal that has different colored eyes. Pets with heterochromia should be able to see just as well as pets with "normal" eyes. 

Photo via Dan DeLuca

Have you ever seen an animal with different colored eyes? What did you think?

55 comments:

  1. Wow that was a great information - Thanks. Our Huskies had both different eyes - and I had no clue why (shame on me).

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    1. Not shame on you Easy! Now you know :)

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    2. I have a question about my dog. Shes a pit bull boxer mix. When we got her she had blue eyes as a puppy. A few weeks later her left eye went brown and her right began going blind with redness in the whites of her eye.....it doesnt cause her pain but i just want to know what it is..anyone please and maybe help me figure it out. My mom said she had a puppy like that when she was younger

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    3. It's normal for puppies to have blue eyes when they are very young, and then change color as they grow up. As far as her red eye goes, I'm not sure. It could be anything from an eye infection to an ulcer or something much more serious. Either way, they can cause her to lose her eye without treatment. It's usually recommended that you seek veterinary care asap for any sort of eye problems. Many are easy to treat.

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    4. Thanks for the great information my Pomeranian has one brown eye and the other half blue half brown

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  2. We think animals with different coloured eyes are cute. Have a terrific Tuesday.
    Best wishes Molly

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  3. Golden Thanks for this information. It's very good to know. It's not obvious but my one eye have some kind of discoloration, due to my sight. Lots of Golden Woofs, Sugar

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    1. Thanks Sugar. Some pets get a sort of cloudy appearance in their eyes as they age. It's not cataracts but can affect their depth perception.

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  4. How fascinating! I did not know this.

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  5. I prefer to think that cats with different colored eyes are lucky! You might like this book that I reviewed on Cat Chat....here is the link to the review: http://opcatchat.blogspot.com/2012/10/book-review-enchanting-lily-by-anjali.html

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    1. They probably are! will have to check it out - thank you Caren :)

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  6. If you had posted this last week, *I* would have looked like a smarty-pants. :-)
    We were at an adoption event and one puppy had two different colored eyes, someone asked me if it meant anything or if they should be worried about it. I said no, but had I used a fancy word like heterochromia I would have blown them away!

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    1. Aw man! Well if it ever comes up in the future now you know! I was reading that there are a lot of people who are afraid to adopt pets like that because they think there is something wrong with them. I guess that had never really dawned on me before...

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  7. That really is good information. I had an Aussie that had different colored eyes. I guess a lot of dogs and cats do.

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    1. My grandpa has a merle sheltie with eyes like this. I think it's a pretty striking look :)

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  8. The blue merle collie often has two different colored eyes. I think cats with the two eye colors are beautiful!

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    1. Yea, seems like merle colors are more prone too. My grandfather has a blue merle sheltie that has this.

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  9. Cool! I did not know any of that but always wondered about it!

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  10. thats a great information ! thanks for this post !

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  11. That's interesting! I've seen a couple with different colors for the different eyes but never with one eye being two colors.

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  12. Awesome info Ann. I've often admired animals with different colored eyes and in deed wondered why! Very cool!

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    1. There are people like this too. I just learned that Mila Kunis has two different colored eyes when I was looking at pictures.

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  13. I don't think I have ever seen a cat with different eyes, but quite a few dogs! Interesting info!

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    1. The cats seem rarer than the dogs. I may have seen some cats working at the vet hospital before, but not too many.

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  14. When mom worked at the shelter she noticed very strange thing; kitties with different colored eyes were very popular, but dogs with different colored eyes were not. Isn't that weird?

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. I guess I could see people doing that. It is a little weird though.

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  15. And of course, if the melanin is absent in a cat's ear, then ion balance cannot be achieved, thus...deafness! We love this science stuff :-) great post!

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    1. (We had more fun writing about it, in our post last year - of course our mommy had to go all geeky and title it "white cats,Star Trek & Deafness" MOL!)

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    2. Lol - I've met a big white kitty with blue eyes who was deaf. He was really cool and I guess since he was deaf, he meowed REALLY loud! It was cute :)

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    3. MOL! (hey we have a computer again - WOOT!) and Maxie meows with this teeeeeensy weird voice cuz he couldn't hear himself either!

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  16. Interesting. I have seen dogs but no cats with different colored eyes.

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  17. my friend lady has a brown/blue eye. Kinda freaks me out BOL

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  18. Oh wow! Thanks for sharing, we had no idea!
    Purrs

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  19. Thanks for writing about this! One of our dachshunds is a dapple, and she happens to have one brown eye and one blue eye. I'd seen plenty of dogs with different colored eyes before we had her, so it was nothing new. But her brown eye has a spot of blue, and her blue eye is partially brown - THAT I hadn't seen before. I'm so glad I know the name of it now! Like Debra said, I can sound like a big ol' smartypants when people ask now. To me, it's common enough that I thought everyone was familiar with it, even if they didn't know the name (like me). But we still run into people who say things like, "Wow! I've never seen that before!" and they often ask if she's blind in her blue eye (which she isn't).
    Although... lol... I just thought of something... sometimes when you use a clinical term with folks, they automatically associate it with being something bad. I can just hear it now:
    Them: "What's up with her eyes?"
    Me: "Oh, she has heterochromia... it's.. " (they interrupt the explanation)
    Them: "Awww, that's so sad!"
    Me: "No, it's not sad... it's fine... she can actually see just fi... " (another interruption)
    Them: "Awww... "
    Me: "Sigh..."

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    1. It's also more common in the dapple and merle colorations of dogs, like yours. I can totally see that conversation happening! lol Maybe start off with "It's normal" haha...

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  20. Whoa! I thought they were called David Bowie cats. MOL! When the peeps got me, I had lovely amber eyes. Now they're stunning green.

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  21. Enjoyed this post very interesting. You should check out Cats&Co site also they are informative as well xxx

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    1. Thanks for stopping by and the tip kitties :)

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  22. Interesting post. Thanks for sharing!

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  23. We only have seen it on the picture.. except of David Bowie... and it looks awesome :)

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  24. I have a puppy with one blue eye and one brown eye with a blue ring around it. We don't know exactly the breed of her, but we could care less about her breed or anything. She is happy and healthy. I found her on a front porch of a house, she was ate up with ticks. I took her home, gave her a bath, fed her, and house trained her. She had two brother and sisters, but I could only take one. I chose to take her based solely on the color of her eyes. It was like love at first sight. She is a very smart puppy. By the way I named her Blue:)

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  25. My brother got a dog recently... a golden lab / poodle mix. One eye is blue or brown (I can't remember which) and the other is half blue, half brown. Took one look at it and my slightly creepy medical mind took over and started wondering why it was that way :P (it's slightly creepy, btw, because I have no medical interest or background whats so ever... beyond ways to administer pain very effectively and quite quickly).

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  26. My rabbits, i have two rabbitswhich have different eye colour although they are not white colour rabbits,one is blue and another is brown,and one of them have half of the colours in one eye.i find it verh unique, because i never seen it before. Now my rabbits are multiplying,there are few bunnies have half blue and brown eyes.

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  27. I believe I have a pit/lab mix his name is Parker he's a beautiful gold and white dog with beautiful blue eyes 7 months old and he is huge lol. He's so smart but keeps popping in the house on the tile not carpet thank god lol but how do I fix this?

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    1. He sounds cute! Sounds like something that can be fixed easily with a little training.

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  28. My husband just got a puppy. I believe that she is a chihuahua dachshund mix. She has one brown eye and the other the top half is brown and the bottom half is blue! I wanted to know if it was her partially blind or just the color of ther eye! Great to know that it is more common than I thought!

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  29. I have a shitzu with a green eye and a blue eye and he is very healthy I have never seen this breed with this colored eyes I think he is sooooo unique!!!

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  30. Our yellow Lab (pure bred) one blue one brown..How can she be "Pure"?

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    1. Well, pure bred dogs can have heterochromia as well as mixed breed dogs. It can happen to any dog. While certainly not common in Labradors, it can happen.

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