by A.M. SCHNEIDER
(AUSTRALIA)
IS WOMBAT AN OJOS AZULES?
THIS CAT WOMBAT WAS FOUND BY US AS A KITTEN IN THE MIDDLE OF A COUNTRY ROAD NEAR WINDELLAMA N.S.W. IN AUSTRALIA OVER A YEAR AGO.
HAS SHE GOT THE SAME GENETIC MAKEUP AS THE OJOS AZULES?
IS SHE MERELY AN AUSTRALIAN FERAL MOGGIE OR HAS SOMEONE BEEN IMPORTING THESE RARE AMERICAN CATS INTO AUSTRALIA AND DUMPING THEM IN THE BUSH NEAR WINDELLAMA?
HOW RARE IS A CAT THAT LOOKS LIKE THIS? AT LEAST SHE IS PRETTIER THAN THE RATHER ORDINARY KITTEN WHICH IS THE ONLY OTHER BLUE EYED SOLID PICTURED ON THIS SITE.
WE HAVE NOT DESEXED HER YET AS SHE IS KEPT INSIDE AND WE WERE NOT SURE WHETHER ANYONE ELSE WOULD BE KEEN TO BREED FROM HER. SHOULD SHE BE KEPT ENTIRE AND BRED FROM OR SHOULD WE GO AHEAD AND GET HER DESEXED?
I think that this mutation could easily be established in several breeds to have non white, pointed or piebald cats with blue eyes, just like you could potentially make any breed manx tailed (for want of a better example)And it would be easy to avoid homozygotes as you would only ever mate a blue eyed OA cat with a cat without blue eyes. Being a dominant mutation the gene is expressed visually and not hidden, so must be seen. I hope that someone somewhere dos manage to get a proper breed standard for then and get them established, after all every breed started somewhere. PS thanks for the link, I’ve read that one and it’s very informative.
Above is the newest addition to the family, his name is Argo. He has the classic red pupil glow when you take his picture with a camera’s flash. I thought that his eyes may change until I noticed this in pictures. Not the same as an OA but IMO it’s prettier than blue eyed pointed cats and blue eyed pure white cats, but that’s just me :)Attached is Argo’s eyeshine with the flash.
Argo has Van (after the Turkish Van) markings – the inverted “V” – and is a calico as far as I can tell. He should be a she! Calico’s are nearly always female.
Argo is a cutie 🙂 The red eye glow, must mean he has colour point genes somewhere in his ancestry.
Perhaps it’s worth sending Sarah Hartwell some photos of Argo as she might consider adding him to one of her articles.
Is it possible to test cats to see which gene has caused their blue eyes? Surely potential foundation cats would need to be screened to ensure their blue eyes are due to OA and not, dominant white or white spotting genes.
Apparently more genes which produce blue eyed cats (independent of coat colour) are being discovered in Asia. Perhaps we may yet make similar discoveries in other regions.
Thanks Dave for sharing.
I think this dominant blue eyed gene that is independent of coat colour is very exciting and could open up a whole new array of purebred cats with non white coats and blue eyes. You could have black, ginger grey etc in all breeds that have those colours already but with bright blue eyes! The contrast would be spectacular compared to the blue eyes usually seen in pointed and white cats. And sometimes in piebalds….
Dave, could you visit the TICA website and read their description of the cat and their breed standard (if it exists) and tell me if bicolor cats (white + a color) are excluded because if they are not there is nothing rare about this cat? Bicolors have blue eyes amongst the random bred population.
Yes I agree that a true Ojos should show little or preferably no white to exclude the possibility of the lack of pigment being linked to a piebald pattern. But something I find interesting and odd is that even amongst piebald cats it is still quite rare to have one or two blue eyes. I’ve read that if white covers the eyes then very likely those eyes will be depigmented thus blue, but in all the piebald cats I’ve seen online very very few have this even if they are very high white piebalds why is this? And in the flesh I have never seen one…. Well until now. I recently adopted a spotted tabby piebald kitten and he has 2 bright blue eyes. His mother is the same colour as he is and she is a bi-eyed cat, one blue and one green. Dad is apparently a grey Persian mix. I wonder if there are additional genes at play that make even a piebald cats eyes blue (well the ones we see with blue eyes)
TICA’s description of the Ojos Azules breed states that it may have some white patches on the face, feet or tail. That description could just as easily apply to any cat with non-Siamese, blue eyes. Their description of features appears to be based upon the photos they provide as examples of the breed. However we know that their photo of a longhaired OA, is actually a beautiful random bred cat named Apollo who was owned by Sarah Hartwell.
From what I understand, the initial interest in developing the OA as a breed, was because of the spectacular cornflower-blue eyes that gene produces independent of coat colour. However it seems that this gene is lethal when a kitten inherits two copies. With so few foundation cats to begin with, the breed was never really destined to get beyond the experimental stage.
Dave: Sarah Hartwell is a cat lover and feline genetics expert. Her Messybeast web site has interesting information on blue-eyed cats and you might enjoy the photos of the random bred tabbies and bi-colours.
http://messybeast.com/whitecat.htm
Did anything happen with trying to recreate this cat’s features?
No, not that I know of. The Ojos Azules is a failure of a cat breed. It really isn’t worth being concerned about.
Why do you say that? From what I’ve read in it’s heterozygous state it does not cause any issues so as long as 2 Ojos Azures were not bred together you would not see any ill effects caused by doubling up on the gene (homozygous)It is really a trait not a breed but you could do all sorts of cool things with it…. for example you could have several breeds of black or solid style cats with the OA eyes.
The reason why think this cat breed is not worth being a breed is because when you read the TICA profile about the breed they are describing bicolour cats with blue eyes and bicolour cats have blue eyes amongst the random bred population. In addition the cats are totally normal random bred cats in terms of appearance. I don’t see the purpose for the breed. Perhaps I had misunderstood but that is the way I think of it at the moment.
Hello, I am a hobby breeder of Selkirk Rex cats, specialized in odd- blue- and cracked eyed cats. For over a few years now, I have been searching for a breeder of the wonderful Ojos Azules cat. I would like to put some serious efford into breeding this amazing and rare breed.
Hope to hear some good news!
Kind regards, Peggy from Holland (The Netherlands)
Hi Peggy, Nice to hear from Holland. I struggle with this cat breed as you might tell from the article. No one (or very few) is breeding this cat as far as I know but TICA recognise it under preliminary new breeds as you are probably aware but they don’t list a breeder on their website. I think you’ll struggle to find a breeder. TICA must have had a representation from the breeder who wanted TICA to recognise the Ojos Azules so I’d had thought you should email TICA and ask who that breeder is. Good luck.
Hello,
I purchased a rather stunning caramel tortie pt siamese girl some time ago. Her name is Chella and she has the deepest blue eyes I’ve ever seen in a cat. She has white on her muzzle and toe but she is not especially pointed. I know she carries the red gene, because many of her offspring have been apricot pt males with blue eyes.
There are many photos on : http://www.leospride.com
I’m wondering if I’ve stumbled across the mutant ojos azules gene in Chella. What do you think?
Tracey
Hi Tracey. If your cat has white on her muzzle she has the white spotting gene that causes blue eyes. I don’t even believe in the Ojos Azules. Never understood it. Seems to be non-breed to me. Thanks for visiting.
I have a cat found in Norway who is a brown tortie with beautiful blue eyes. She has earlier produced a litter with 2 creme blue eyed, and 1 tortie normal. At the moment she is expecting a litter any day now 🙂 I hope too get in contact with a breeder of the ojos, to get more information about this breed.
Sounds great. Lucky you. I’d like you to email me with some more information and a picture or two if you have time. You can see my contact details here.