Halo Eyes?

Lms0229

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How common are halo eyes in cats? It is also known as "central heterochromia". I have a Turkish Van mix male that has the craziest blue eyes I've ever seen! Bright blue rings around the pupil with sky blue rings on the outside part of the irises. Anybody have a cat like this or seen it before?
 

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Meowmee

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Gorgeous kitty😻 I think for it to be truly central heterochromia there have to be two colors. I found the pb Turkish Van that has similar blue eyes with the lighter blue around the edges. TV can have hereditary heterochromia with two different eye colors. My Quinn has blue eyes, he is a pb siamese and they change tone quite a bit.

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Lms0229

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Gorgeous kitty😻 I think for it to be truly central heterochromia there have to be two colors. I found the pb Turkish Van that has similar blue eyes with the lighter blue around the edges. TV can have hereditary heterochromia with two different eye colors. My Quinn has blue eyes, he is a pb siamese and they change tone quite a bit.

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Your kitty is very pretty 😍 I looked at a cat chart on eye colors and saw that it was being called "halo", where it is technically the same eye color but has a nearly whitish ring on the outer edge like my cat. I assumed that it was a form of central heterochromia as that would explain the concentric circle pattern and even though both are technically blue they are very different blues. For example, my mom had sky blue eyes and my dad dark blue and both were equally dominant genes and if I had received both genes it would have been a very obvious difference between the two blues. Unless, "halo" is completely a different gene altogether??? I have never found details on the genetics behind "halo" eyes, so I assumed it was central heterochromia that was inherited by 2 different colored pigments but it may be something else completely since I have only heard of blue eyed cats with "halo eyes". 🤔 Thoughts?
 

Meowmee

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Your kitty is very pretty 😍 I looked at a cat chart on eye colors and saw that it was being called "halo", where it is technically the same eye color but has a nearly whitish ring on the outer edge like my cat. I assumed that it was a form of central heterochromia as that would explain the concentric circle pattern and even though both are technically blue they are very different blues. For example, my mom had sky blue eyes and my dad dark blue and both were equally dominant genes and if I had received both genes it would have been a very obvious difference between the two blues. Unless, "halo" is completely a different gene altogether??? I have never found details on the genetics behind "halo" eyes, so I assumed it was central heterochromia that was inherited by 2 different colored pigments but it may be something else completely since I have only heard of blue eyed cats with "halo eyes". 🤔 Thoughts?
Yes maybe it is a halo. I found this pic too… but here they both have the same hue, light blue and deeper blue or navy are all still blue. While real heterochromia has two different hues, see pics. . I don’t know but if that is called central heterochromia it is not really two hues. Sectoral heterochromia is when you have the two hues like stripes or splotches etc. in each eye. Cats with blue eyes lack pigmentation in their irises, they appear blue due to reflected light and glow red. The cat and woman below, kitty seems to have true central hc with green in the center and maybe yellow( but it could be light yellow green) in the center, while the woman has lighter brown in the halo. Your kitty does seem to have almost a white in the halo.

I don’t think that it is that unusual to have different colors in your iris though, I have yellow in the center but it blends and my eye color appears blue- green, although in some light lately they appear more green.

Thanks💕 that is my Sybil, she left in 2018, after 17.5 years, my gorgeous forest cat, she had golden eyes, she was the most beautiful cat you have ever seen and a true athlete.

Can you post the chart here? i would like to see it.

I found this great article on cat eye color and others and more pics





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Meowmee

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Your kitty is very pretty 😍 I looked at a cat chart on eye colors and saw that it was being called "halo", where it is technically the same eye color but has a nearly whitish ring on the outer edge like my cat. I assumed that it was a form of central heterochromia as that would explain the concentric circle pattern and even though both are technically blue they are very different blues. For example, my mom had sky blue eyes and my dad dark blue and both were equally dominant genes and if I had received both genes it would have been a very obvious difference between the two blues. Unless, "halo" is completely a different gene altogether??? I have never found details on the genetics behind "halo" eyes, so I assumed it was central heterochromia that was inherited by 2 different colored pigments but it may be something else completely since I have only heard of blue eyed cats with "halo eyes". 🤔 Thoughts?
I was just looking at Merlin’s eyes and he has the same thing going on, see pic…


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Juniper_Junebug

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I guess I kind of assumed all cats had that halo effect to one extent or another. My Juno has green eyes in the light, yellowish eyes in the dark, and when it's in-between, there are two rings of color, one inside, one out.
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Hello everyone, I just joined today because I found this thread. I recently adopted a cat (not purebred whatsoever - actually, off a reserve) and everyone keeps commenting on her eyes.

Does she have central heterochromia? My understanding is for it to be heterochromia, it needs to be two different eye colors, not different shades of the same color. The inner part of my cat's eyes appears a vibrant blue (very striking) and the outer part is greenish color (a to be expected tabby eye color).

Attached is an unedited photo of her eyes.
 

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GoldyCat

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Most of my cats have a darker ring around the outside of the iris. I never thought of it being a specific condition. One of my Abyssinians start out with gold eyes as a kitten. He developed a bright green ring around the pupil which eventually spread so by the time he was 4 or 5 years old his eyes were completely green.
 

Meowmee

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Hello everyone, I just joined today because I found this thread. I recently adopted a cat (not purebred whatsoever - actually, off a reserve) and everyone keeps commenting on her eyes.

Does she have central heterochromia? My understanding is for it to be heterochromia, it needs to be two different eye colors, not different shades of the same color. The inner part of my cat's eyes appears a vibrant blue (very striking) and the outer part is greenish color (a to be expected tabby eye color).

Attached is an unedited photo of her eyes.
I can’t tell from this pic. I see green and yellow on one and clue and green on the other.
 
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Lms0229

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So here is an example of a cat with the bluest eyes I have ever seen, but her eyes are the same blue hue throughout without a halo effect. Turkish Van cats do carry heterochromia and I am thinking if they inherit blue the heterochromia still impacts the color distribution in those with blue eyes.... making a halo effect or central heterochromia. Just a theory.
 

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Meowmee

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I am pretty sure my Zena is dichroic, his eyes are green in the center and yellow at the edges. Here is a pic, I can’t get a great pic yet of his eyes close up because he moves around too fast 😀

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cataholic07

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I think it's normal for cats to have different colours in their eyes depending on the lighting, to be honest.
 

Juniper_Junebug

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My Juno often gets what looks like two different colored rings around her pupils, greener inside and yellower outside (though less dramatic than in the pic of Zena). And yet, in the light, her eyes are a uniform chartreuse color. The pics below were taken within seconds of each other; the dual rings are visible in the first and not in the second.

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Meowmee

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My Juno often gets what looks like two different colored rings around her pupils, greener inside and yellower outside (though less dramatic than in the pic of Zena). And yet, in the light, her eyes are a uniform chartreuse color. The pics below were taken within seconds of each other; the dual rings are visible in the first and not in the second.

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Cool 😻 I think hers are monochromatic which I think is probably more common. It’s pretty common also for cats to have different colors in their eyes also depending on the color, just like people.

But I think with Zena he actually has two different colors so it is truly dichroic or central heterochromia. I have never had a cat who had eyes like his before. Oddly enough I did not even really notice it until he was out of the cage because it was hard to see his eyes.

I don’t remember any of my other cats except for Merlin having the halo monochromatic effect either.
 
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Lms0229

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I think it's normal for cats to have different colours in their eyes depending on the lighting, to be honest.
It isn't lighting that is changing the color of his eyes. They are like this 24/7. Clearly defined rings of silver or white outer ring and blue inner ring.... it isn't like a faded or blending effect but defined rings.
 

Meowmee

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View attachment 413442
This is what I'm talking about. I will find other upclose photos
I think with your kitty it may be because he is mostly white and has the blue eyes that the outer ring.
which would normally be a tint of the inner color is white- the blue eyes are usually caused by lack of pigmentation and appear blue due to reflected light in color points anyway
See this link on white cat’s eyes and deafness etc. in general:

White Cats, Eye Colours and Deafness


Here is a pic I found of a white Persian kitty who has who has an almost white outer halo too. Or it could be due something else maybe too.
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