You will agree with me that odd eyed cats are stunningly beautiful and unique!!
An odd-eyed cat is a cat with one blue eye and the other eye either green, yellow or brown.
These felines have a condition known as heterochromia, which occurs in some other animals as well , including humans. This condition most commonly affects white cats, but may be found in a cat of any color, that possesses the white spotting gene.
Heterochromia is common in British Shorthairs, Cornish and Devon Rex, Japanese Bobtails, Munchkins, Persians, Scottish Folds, Siamese, Sphynxes, Turkish Angoras and Turkish Vans breeds but can also occur in white cats of any breed.
This condition can either be hereditary or acquired
Hereditary heterochromia in cats has three variations:
- Complete heterochromia whereby one eye is an entirely different color than the other eye.
- Sectoral heterochromia whereby part of the cat’s iris is blue and the rest of that eye is a different color.
- Central heterochromia whereby different colors within the iris give a spiked or haloed appearance
In Acquired heterochromia, a loss of pigmentation in the iris happens because of either, inflammatory conditions, physical injuries or even certain medications
Interestingly white cats with one or more blue eyes have a higher incidence of congenital deafness, with the white gene occasionally causing degeneration of the cochlea, beginning a few days after birth.
If a white odd eyed kitten has any speck of another color, then the frequency of deafness is greatly diminished, even if the speck of coloration fades with maturity of the cat.
Great.This is quite informative.
Very interesting and informative. Can heterochromia lead to loss of vision?