#eye colors

[charlesoberonn]

[sparrowsgarden]

As I have been promising for years, the eye color chart is all cleaned up and ready to be shared! I'm totally ok with this being saved and passed around, that's why all my info is on it.

Basic image description is in alt, and a full transcript of all text in the image is under the cut.

This model has been in a process of expansion and tweaking for a very long time. Huge huge thanks to all the folks who contributed and hunted down photos, helped me name all the colors, and gave the final proofs!

Sparrow's Eye Color Chart 2025 Edition

Eye colors in cats are difficult to model because they vary to a significant extent on two axes. This is my best attempt at a general model of cat eye color based on observation and research into how eye color works across species.

Pigmentation refers to the amount of pigment in the colored layer of the iris. Higher pigmentation causes darker colors.

Refraction means the extent to which light is scattered in the structures of the iris. Higher refraction causes deeper blues or greens.

Eye colors are related to coat color, but not as closely as breed standards might have you believe! Most coat colors can have most eye colors outside of purebred lines selected to meet breed standard.

What Color Are My Cat's Eyes?

Color names are descriptive of the actual color of the cat's eyes - I chose them all to sound nice so that breeders can use them if desired. Note that breed standards have a much broader use of color names - "Amber", for example, may include much of the golden to orange range.

Colors are based on pictures of cats in full white light (such as midday sun fully illuminating the eye), and tweaked to look good on properly color-calibrated screens. Always determine eye colors based on how they look in full light.

Main Block

standard eye colors possible with most pelts

Every cat is assumed to have genes that specify some genetic eye color in the main block, but certain other alleles can depigment the eyes partially or completely, creating the lower block.

Pigmentation and Refraction are modeled here as dependent on multiple genes, which seems to best fit the wide spectrum of possibilities in cats. The actual number of genes is unknown and could be very many, but for simplicity they are shown here on a scale from 1-7.

In theory, the genetic eye colors of the offspring should tend to fall somewhere between the genetic eye colors of the parents. Then, any depigmentation factors are applied, which may result in an actual eye color somewhere below the genetic eye color.

Lower Block

occur with phenotypes which cause depigmentation of the iris.

Gray-blues: Fairly rare coloration. The cause of gray eyes in humans is not well understood, but one theory is that collagen or very small amounts of pigment in the eye alter the scattering of light.

Blues: Most common depigmented colors. Can be caused by white spotting/dominant white, colorpoint, and sometimes mocha. There are also multiple Dominant Blue-eye (DBE) mutations known which cause blue eyes as the main effect.

Albinistic: Caused by complete albinism, which also fully depigments the back layer of the iris meant to keep light from getting through. This allows the red color from the retinal blood vessels to bleed through, and also causes poor visual acuity.

Following is a list of all eye colors shown on the main diagram. Rows are pigmentation levels starting from the highest pigmentation, refraction increases from left to right.

Main Block: Copper, Chestnut, Umber, Walnut, Earthen, Olive, Moss; Ochre, Caramel, Bronze, Serpentine, Artichoke, Fern, Forest; Orange, Amber, Brass, Peridot, Avocado, Clover, Malachite; Saffron, Butterscotch, Shrub, Spring, Jade, Pine, Emerald; Gold, Citron, Pear, Lime, Mantis, Grass, Viridian; Yellow, Chartreuse, Sprout, Laurel, Mint, Turquoise, Teal; Canary, Chiffon, Honeydew, Sage, Celadon, Aqua, Cerulean.

Lower Block: Gray-blues: Frost, Opal, Flint, Storm, Steel, Slate, Cadet. Blues: Ice, Powder, Celeste, Sky, Azure, Lapis, Cobalt. Albinistic: Pink, Mauve, Lavender, Periwinkle, Cornflower, Royal, Indigo.

Combo Colors

Cats can exhibit a few different heterochromia types, most commonly a blue with a non-blue. The other most common cause for heterochromia appears to be localized hyperpigmentation, which can be caused by damage to the eye. It can also happen simply due to differing iris structure or unusual pigment migration within the iris.

It is also relatively common for the center of the eye to be a slightly different color, without being marked enough to constitute full heterochromia. My provisionary term for this is "dual-toned". The boundary between this and "true" central heterochromia is somewhat subjective.

For any form of heterochromia or dual-toned eyes, my recommendation for describing them is to note both colors with a slash. For dual-tones, I generally write the outer color before the center one.

Complete Heterochromia Blue/non-blue is commonly caused by white spotting/dominant white, other combos are rare.

Sectoral Heterochromia Blue/non-blue sometimes occurs with white spotting/dominant white. Can also be from hyperpigmentation.

Central Heterochromia Can occur due to hyperpigmentation, uneven pigment distribution, or iris structure. More common in certain breeds.

Dual-toned Irises Relatively small differences in central eye color are common in cats.

Iris Atrophy Iris atrophy due to old age can cause a distinctive lighter ring in the center of the iris.

All writing, art, and chart design ©Sparrow Hartmann 2025

Icon designs are released to the Creative Commons under a CC-BY-SA license and will be made available for download.

Go to sparrows-garden.com for more genetics resources!

[hannahstales]

Ducktales eye color headcanons

I got bored and remembered I had headcanons for some of the DuckTales '17 characters eye colors!

I headcanon the triplets to all have heterochromia they inherited from their fathers side. All of them have their right eye brown while their left eye is different colors.

Huey has his left eye hazel.

Dewey has his left eye blue(same shade as Scrooge & Webby).

Louie has his left eye green(same shade as their mom).

The twins have the same eye color of green.

Donald has spring green.

Della has amber green.

Scrooge, Webby, May and June all have the same eye color of greenish blue.

Goldie obviously has darkish green(its fricking canon).

Lena, Magica and Poe all have royal yellow eyes that turn to dark violet when using their powers past a certain point, with Lenas changing to pumpkin orange that turns to sky blue.

Daisy duck has dark hazel eyes(it just makes sense to me).

I'm thinking of Violet having brown eyes that then slowly turn violet between finding Magicas amulet and meeting Webby(magical exposure when your DNAs not used to it or smth IDK).

No idea about the rest.

Edit: drew what I was picturing(ignore the weird eyelashes):

[amber-tortoiseshell]

Are these kitties okay?? :<

And do you know at least a few of these conditions??

The first one has a condition called 'persistant pupillary membrane' (PPM) and according to the owner, no vision problems.

Second one has coloboma; the visual effect of this ranges from none to mild to severe (only being able to see in light or dark).

The third cat had an infection and is blind for one eye.

The fourth and sixth i think are both has very extensive iris melanosis, a usually benign overpigmentation of the eye.

The fifth had bilateral glaucoma, and later both of his eyes were amputed (glaucoma increases the pressure in the eye, it's unsafe to leave it alone).

[werepire05]

Destiel. Where ethereal shades of blue meet earthy shades of green.

[violentdelightshavevioletends]

Violet’s hazel eyes are blue like Sgaeyl's; as is the color of her lightning signet, & amber like Xaden’s eyes become—Xaden the one she chose, as did Sgaeyl… Xaden who chose them both, the same as Tairn; whose scales are dark as night & as Xaden’s signet of shadows, eyes of onyx—with gold-flecks, like Andarna… Andarna who chose black scales like Tairn, who chose to keep secrets only her rider could know like Sgaeyl, who chose to break the rules like Xaden, for Violet with ever-changing eyes the color of Andarna’s true scales; Violet who she waited centuries to emerge for, Violet who finally becomes who she was truly meant to be too as all the secrets are unraveled.

[mindless-polls]

What color are your eyes?

Dark brown

Medium / Light brown

Amber / Golden

Hazel [Brown/Green]

Green

Blue

Grey

Multiple colors

Another color

Results

Voting ended onAug 2