![]() ![]() Often one hears the remark, ‘Oh! but if you see So-and-so's eyes in the right light they are a lovely green.’" But viewed by the ordinary eye of a critical judge, they appear an uncertain yellow. So many silver cats have eyes that may be described as neither one thing nor the other. I have seen very fine amber eyes which could not fail to attract admiration but if these are admitted, then all sorts of eyes, not amber but wishy-washy yellow, will be the inevitable result. ![]() Still, I think it is always well to have some high standard of perfection in each breed, so that fanciers may breed up to it, and to my mind the bright emerald green eye is the ideal for a silver cat. In self-coloured cats the broad line is clearly laid down - blue eyes for whites, orange for blacks, and orange for blues but when we come to the more nondescript cats - such as silver and smoke and tortoiseshell - there seems to be a wider margin given, and the line drawn is not so hard-and-fast. "The question as to the correct colour of eyes for a chinchilla or silver cat is still a vexed question. The chosen colours had to contrast or harmonise with the fur colour and pattern, but apart from Colourpoint cats and white-marked cat, the fur and eye colours were not genetically linked.Īlthough pedigree cats with the silver (inhibitor) gene have green eyes (excepting colourpoints), this is not genetically linked to the inhibitor gene, it was a deliberate choice on the part of early breeders as noted by Frances Simpson in 1903 (The Book of the Cat): With solid colours, tabbies, tortoiseshells etc, the eye colour has been chosen by breeders and set in breed standards. It just happens that, in pedigree cats developed in the West, most of the range of eye colours were bred out of the Burmese parent early on. The preferred eye colour to harmonise with mink (Tonkinese) pattern is a turquoise colour intermediate between Siamese and pedigree Burmese colours, but naturally occurring mink pattern cats can have almost any colour. ![]() The European Burmese standard asks for "Any shade of yellow from chartreuse to amber, with golden yellow preferred," while TICA specifies gold for the American Burmese. Sepia colour restriction can also have yellow, orange, green and greenish-blue eyes these are more commonly seen in native Thai cats than in modern showbench Burmese. The sepia (Burmese) colour restriction is not inextricably linked to golden/yellow-golden eye colour this was the colour preferred and perfected in Western-bred Burmese cats as it provided the best contrast with the dark brown coat colour. Blue-Eyed Breeds 1 - Altai, Topaz etc, Blue-Eyed Breeds 2 - Spontaneous Blue-eye Mutations in other breeds. The genes or polygenes for unwanted or unpopular eye colours were eliminated early on in pedigree breeds to ensure uniformity.īlue eyes are associated with solid white coat, high levels of white markings where there is white around or adjacent to the eyes Blue Eye Inheritance in Bicolour Cats, colourpoint (Siamese) pattern and recently noted dominant blue eye mutations. Some of the supposed genetic links between coat colour and eye colour are not genetic links but are due to selective breeding over many decades. To date, cat eye colour genetics have not been studied apart from blue eyes (due to being unusual in cats). While breeders might prefer certain pedigree black cats to have vivid orange eyes, in the general cat population black cats can also have green or yellow eyes. In most breeds, various eye colours were possible so breeders set chose the eye colour that harmonised with the coat colour and wrote that into the breed standard. Some eye colours are linked to coat colour, for example colourpoint (Siamese pattern) cats have blue eyes. The coloured part of the eye is called the iris, a word that means "rainbow". The colours are not discrete, but form a continuum, for example between blue and green there are "sea-green" and aqua while between green and yellow there are lemon and lime shades. Within each of those colours there is wide variation in hue and intensity. Wild cats in temperate regions generally have hazel eyes, but domestic cats' eye colours vary from blue, through green to yellow, orange and brown. ![]()
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