My dog has one blue eye and one brown eye. Why are his eyes different colors?
My dog has one blue eye and one brown eye. Why are his eyes different colors?
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Having one blue eye and one dark eye is called complete heterochromia. It’s the result of the way the pigment melanin is distributed in an animal’s skin and hair. A dog or cat with complete heterochromia has a white area of skin and hair around its eye, where there’s little or no melanin, and therefore the eye is blue. But for some reason, plenty of melanin is concentrated in the other eye, which is a different color.
Complete heterochromia is seen quite often in cats, horses, and other animals. Partial heterochromia, where the iris of an eye is two different colors, is much more unusual.
Why the phenomenon occurs is not clearly understood, but it’s believed to be inherited in most cases.
– Dr. Andrea Looney, DVM for the “Purina® Animal Instincts” Podcast Series