Why do most black cats have yellow eyes?
Why do most black cats have yellow eyes?
Photo in public domain
ANSWER: Black cats have a high content level of melanin (pigment). Melanin comes in two varieties: brown-black eumelanin and red-yellow pheomelanin.
Where there is little pigment in the iris, the eyes are blue due to the refraction of light and not pigmentation. However, if the iris contains a predominance of phenomelanin the eye is yellow. A predominance of eumelanin makes the eye darker (copper).
The high melanin content in black cats results in a high phenomelanin content in their eyes making them yellow.
I don’t know why there is more phenomelanin than eumelanin in the eyes of black cats.
I welcome any alternative thoughts on this topic.
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I love the study of feline eye color. There are black cats with green, blue, turquoise, copper, amber and yellow eyes. Eye color is so unique. Yellow eyes too are amazingly individual. Every cat is different. 😎💜💜🐾