Why Do Siamese Cats Have Blue Eyes?

The striking ocean deep eyes of Siamese cats can easily make anyone wonder why do Siamese cats have blue eyes. Everyone wants to know the mystery behind Siamese cat blue eyes as they add charms to the already refined elegance and exceptional style of these cats. With the emerging hybrid breeds of the Siamese cats, it also can get one thinking that do all Siamese cats have blue eyes.

If you are also looking for answers to such questions, continue reading as we are going to shed light on every mechanism and aspect related to the blue eyes of Siamese cats.

A short briefing of the Siamese cats

These cats are known to have a long history where their origin has been dated back to the 14th c when they used to be the sacred pets for royal families and priests of Thailand or Siam. These cats also have been one of the oldest domestic cat breeds on the earth. This naturally makes them the parent breed for so many other breeds of cats.

Physical characteristics of the Siamese cats

Solving the mystery of Siamese cat blue eyes

The modern-day Siamese cats have little to nothing in resemblance with the traditional Siamese breed of cats because of the numerous genetic experiments that they have been subjected to. However, the blue eyes of these cats are the characteristic trademark that has never been attempted by breeders to exclude. Now, this blue color of their eye is a result of a unique genetic allele present in these cats that makes them the carrier of an albinism form.

This particular form of albinism has relations with the factor of temperature which means that Siamese cats have characteristics developed due to the effect of temperature. Speaking about do Siamese cats have blue eyes, the form of albinism in the Siamese is the cause behind their blue eyes and pointed coloration coats too and both these traits are temperature sensitive.

Now the name of the dominant gene related to albinism has been given the name of the Himalayan gene that is heat-sensitive.

Other factors responsible for the blue eyes of Siamese cats

The next factor that is majorly responsible for having you wondering why do Siamese cats have blue eyes is the distinctive structure of the eyes of Siamese cats itself. The basic structure of anyone’s eye involves two layers in the iris portion called the Stroma and Epithelium respectively that are filled with the color pigmented cells all over. Now, this mechanism is where the difference occurs in the case of Siamese cats that make their eyes uniquely blue.

The eyes of Siamese cats have no pigments in both of the iris layers at all even when the other blue eye cat breeds have some of the pigmented cells in the lower layer called Epithelium. The case is so with the Siamese due to the above-discussed albino gene. The partial albinism is responsible for the complete absence of color cells in the Stroma layer which is why the eyes appear sky blue.

Let us now understand the fact behind the Siamese cat eyes looking blue despite the absence of any kind of pigment cell. This happens because of a mechanism that is similar to the reason behind the sky appearing blue.

The wavelength of blue color is the shortest which allows it to scatter the most as compared to other colors. This phenomenon is called the Rayleigh scattering where the blue light from the sky reflects from the stroma eye layer and becomes more visible to the naked human eye.

As per science though, the wavelength of violet color is shortest, and applying the same logic above, the sky or the eye should appear violet. It is to note that this doesn’t happen due to human biological reasons that make violet color invisible to the naked human or animal eye. Similarly then, the eyes of the Siamese cats appear blue.

Different shades of the blue eye color of Siamese cats

Some of the Siamese cats can still show the presence of pigment cells in their layers. When light passed through these cells, the blue light can get retained for a while and this makes the eyes of different Siamese cats come out with various tones of blue color. They can be very pale with just a tint of blue or they can be very dark just like the navy blue color.

Thus, if you ask that do all Siamese cats have blue eyes of the same shade; the answer would depend on the number of pigment cells present in their eye layers. The larger the amount of pigment cells in their eyes, the lighter is the shade of the blue color of their eyes and vice versa.

There are two more important things to note about the color of Siamese cats eyes-

Related posts: