Cats who don’t produce any melanin have blue eyes. All cats are born with blue eyes – but not all cats get to keep their eyes blue after they reach adulthood. The Siamese cat, the Persian cat, and the Birman cat have the highest chance of keeping their blue eyes.
Other than cat breed, there’s something else that’ll give out a high chance of a blue-eyed cat. That’s fur color. A lot of white cats have blue eyes. This happens because of a genetic mutation – that results in beautiful looking cats!
How common are blue eyes in cats?
Blue-eyed cats are a tricky thing. All cats are born with blue eyes – but the chance of staying that way is far too rare. Certain cat breeds have a better chance of having blue eyes than others; most of the time, the eyes will turn green, red, or yellow.
That is not to say a cat can’t have blue eyes! It means only a select few have the chance of keeping the beautiful blue eyes all cats are born with. The only way to know what your cat is going to get, is to wait.
What does it mean if a cat has blue eyes?
A cat having blue eyes means two things: either that it’s less than six weeks old or that it has not produced any melanin past that age mark. Blue-eyed cats are incredibly rare, so don’t get your hopes up for blue eyes before a cat’s six weeks old – at least!
There’s nothing behind blue eyes other than a lack of melanin production – so you have nothing to worry about that! Not producing melanin isn’t bad nor there’s anything wrong with it.
Do cats with blue eyes go blind?
Blue eyes and going blind has nothing to do with one another. Blindness is a hereditary trait, if the parents of a kitten went blind sometime in their life, that kitten could go blind too. Having blue eyes doesn’t change this in any way.
If your cat is both white and blue-eyed, there’s a 40% chance that it’ll go deaf. Then again, that means there’s a 60% chance it’ll be healthy.
If you suspect something’s wrong, bring your cat to the vet for a check-up.
Are all cats born with blue eyes?
All cats, no matter the breed, are born with blue eyes. You won’t be able to tell for the first week, because cats do not open their eyes until they are seven or eight days old. After that, you get to enjoy their blue eyes for at least six weeks.
After the six week mark, melanin production is likely to happen. Most of the time, cats will start to produce melanin and their eyes will turn green, red, yellow, or some other color.
When it comes to cats, eye color isn’t the same as humans: green is the most common color and no cat has brown eyes. It’s the complete opposite of us!