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?
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.
Thanks Dave for sharing.
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.
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.
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
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)