Cats with two different color eyes are sometimes called odd eyed cats. They look mesmerizing but what causes this and how do they happen? It's called Feline Heterochromia! Thumbs up if odd eyed cats are super cool!

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Feline heterochromia iridum is the official latin name for the phenomenon in which a cat has more than one eye color. Hetero = multiple, chromia=color, and iridum=of the eye. This is what occurs in an oddeyed cat!

Complete heterochromia is when each eye is a different, single color. An example is when a cat has one blue eye and one yellow eye. Partial or sectoral heterochromia is when one eye has more than one color in it. For example, a green eye may have splotches of brown scattered throughout, or a cat may have . Sometimes the eye has one color in the center and another on the outside edge of the eye (also called central heterochromia). Sometimes the eye color is splotched throughout the iris with no pattern

Feline heterochromia can be inherited, meaning certain genes were pass from parent to oddeyed kitten to code for differently colored eyes. It can also result from a congenital condition such as chimerism, in which two zygotes fused together to form one kitten instead of two. Due to the extra genetic material, each eye may have a different color. Alternatively, a genetic process known as mosaicism can result in a single zygote having cells with multiple genetic makeups, which could also result in an animal having two differently colored eyes.

All kittens are born with blue eyes. Their eyes change to their final color over the first few months of life. If a kitten is to grow up to have one blue eye and one eye of another color, the blues will be slightly different. The kitten’s nonblue eye will change slowly to the other color and the blue eye will remain blue. If an older cat has an eye that changes to a different color, this is not due to heterochromia. This is potentially indicative of a medical condition and merits a veterinary consultation.

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