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You don’t know what real beauty is until you see a cat’s eyes up close. There is so much intensity in those wild, slit-pupil eyes. Cat eyes have a huge scope of colours. Ranging from blue, green, yellow, turquoise, orange, gold, or even combinations of these. However, there is one colour that is very common amongst cats. A lot of cats have green eyes. This colour is very rare when it comes to humans. Only 2% of the world population have green eyes, but in the feline species, it can be seen every day. Have you ever wondered why this is so?
Sources: The Happy Cat, Full Circle Veterinary Care
Even though the science behind this is very detailed, we will sum it up for you. The shade of any creature’s eye depends on the amount of melanin and melanocyte movements. Melanin is the colour produced by melanocytes and the colour of one’s skin, hair, and eyes all depend on it.
The intensity of the shade of one’s eyes is directly related to melanin. If the amount of melanin is abundant in the eyes, the iris will be more bright. However, if the level of melanocyte movements is less, the eye will be a lighter colour. The measure of melanin in a feline’s eyes depends on hereditary qualities. They get various qualities from both their mom and dad and if both of them have green eyes, the offspring is more likely to have green eyes as well. So it has a lot to do with genes as well.
When cats are born, they don’t open their eyes for at least a week. So it is very difficult to determine what their eye colour is at birth. However, when they open their eyes after a week, they will be a clear blue colour.
The blue pigment is the result of a lack of melanin in the eyes. This is because their eyes aren’t coloured at all, and the blue colour we see is caused by light refracting through their eyes’ round surface. So basically, all kittens have blue eyes at first. Then their eye colour gradually changes as they get older and their iris has more melanin being produced in it. The eyes will stay blue if their genetic parents have blue eyes as well, otherwise, they will shift to some other colour. Most cats reach their true eye colour at the age of six months.
If a cat has green eyes, it is because they have a low amount of melanocytes. Since green is considered a lighter shade than brown, gold and copper, lack of melanocytes results in light colours. However, cats can’t have brown eyes as humans do.
The exact shade of green will be decided by the amount of melanin. If the green eyes are soft and very light like aqua or sea-green, there isn’t a lot of melanin present in the iris. However, if the melanin level is high, the cat will have bright green or emerald eyes.
The colour green is very common in cats, but that does not make it any less beautiful. You will get lost in the intensity if you ever stare into them. A lot of rescue cats get adopted because of their beautiful, green eyes. And you will also see famous social media cats with green eyes. The rescued ragdoll cat named Luna is an example.
Since the melanin produced in the eyes is different from the melanin in the skin, eye colour is completely unrelated to the colour of the cat’s fur. So most coloured cats have green eyes.
As you can see, the cats above have different shades in their fur but their eyes are the same. There is no link between the eyes and fur because the melanin is different for every trait.
All cats are beautiful, regardless of whatever colour their eyes are. They all deserve love and recognition.
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