.com Forum · Real Show Dogs

Hi,

On another board I am on there is a discussion about breeding and blue eyes and deafness.

I was under the impression that at 8 weeks old (maybe younger) you could tell a dog that had eyes that would darken from a dog that would have perm. blue/ice colored eyes.

Would a blue eye suddenly darken or darken up to brown over time? There is a picture of a puppy posted that has one very blue eye (like a Sibe) and one brown eye, looks about 8-10 weeks old. Then we were shown the adult picture and the dog has two dark brown eyes.

Is this usual? I would have thought it would have stayed blue, not changed.

Depends on the health condition. I am currently working with a deaf/vision impaired Pit Bull. She had two blue/green eyes when I first met her about 2-3 months ago. She is two years old already and within the last 2 weeks- 1 month one of her blue/green eyes has turned almost an amber color. It is really breeding quality, at least that is my impression. If the dog doesn't have health issues, or is bred with quality their eye colors can still change. I had an Aussie who had blue/green eyes with some yellow. By the time she was 6 months one eye had darkened, not severely but it was a noticeable change to me. Hope this helped.

Thank you, it does help.

The eyes looked like this puppy's:



When it's like that, it can still change?

This is something that happens naturally in the Weim breed and is not an indication of deafness or the onset of blindness. They start off as a puppy with blue eyes and as they get older they change. Is actually a serious fault to have eyes other than gray, blue-gray or light amber, and eyes that are too blue is a DQ. I have heard that in some breeds it may be an indication of possible blindness and/or deafness but in my breed it isn’t. Know this doesn’t help much, but thought you might want to know it does happen all the time in at least one breed with no connection to any possible health issues. I don't really think anyone can tell you honestly if the dog's eye in the picture will change. This is something you would just have to wait and find out.

It's all for the breed, Weims.

But aren't weims a bit different in that they are a dilute color, much like any blue dog will usually have blue eyes as a puppy and they will change, right? I don't know a whole lot about Weims so please correct me if I am wrong.

Basically it seems you cannot tell if a puppy will have a blue eye/s as an adult. They could always change?

The reason I am asking is because the puppy was sold as show potential (from what I gathered) and the buyer was told the eye could change over time. People were saying it was an error as an eye that is blue is a DQ and the puppy should not be used in breeding programs, etc..and that blue eyes won't change when they are like that one.

The breeder then posted a picture of a dog they had with a very clear ice blue eye and one brown, and showed an adult dog with two brown eyes. I was curious as if this happens or if the breeder was trying to potentially justify selling a DQ puppy at show price because he was being slammed for it, etc...and maybe the adult dog pictured was not the same puppy pictured.

I guess maybe in breeds where it is not a dilute color and blue eyes pop up (black/white BCs, Dals, Sibes), can you tell at a certain age when they eye/s will not change and stay blue? I always thought a hazy/grey kind of blue eye as a puppy indicated it would change, whereas an ice blue eye would indicate it would stay ice blue.

Hmmm, this is interesting. Yes, Weims are a dilute color. As for your question about other color breeds I really cannot answer this, I don't know a whole lot about color breeding. Just a little about it and what causes Blue Weims as they are a DQ. When born Weim have eyes that are almost sky blue and gradually change as they get older. This change is so gradual that you barely notice it happening. The only color experiance I personally had was with our Bull Terrier, Pearl. She had pink areas on an almost black nose and the breeder assured us it would fill in as she got older. I didn't really believe them, but amazingly enough it did and her nose was completely black by the time she was a year old. You would think the breeder would know their line and any changes in something like this that will happen. It could be their line has this happening on a consistant basis, where other lines dont. I really don't know much about this breed on this subject. I did own a Sibe many years ago with eyes similar to the one pictured. The one did darken with age, but was still a noticeably different color than the other.

It's all for the breed, Weims.

Blue eyes are permissable in blue merle shelties, either both eyes blue, one eye blue, or split eyes, as long as they are on a blue dog. Every now and again you will see a tri with blue eyes because a blue merle dog is actually a dilute tricolour (to simplify) and sometimes the genetics come through funny, however blue eyes on a tricolour dog are not permissable in the ring. They are also not an indicator of blindness or deafness; however white-headed shelties are often blind and/or deaf because those genes are linked with a lack of pigment in the eye and the ear.

I've never seen a sheltie myself that had blue eyes that darkened to brown, but that's only my experience.

I'm 90% certain that whoever showed the pic of the blue-eyed puppy as an adult with brown eyes is trying to sell a bill of goods. Blue eyes don't suddenly turn brown in my experience and mixed blue and brown eyes are generally like that (again, in my experience) when the puppy loses its baby blues.

Thanks everyone! Loup, that is sort of what I thought.

I've never seen a puppy with an ice blue eye(s) have it/them change to dark brown when it's like the Sibe pic.

Blue eyes in this breed are a DQ and from what people were saying are linked to deafness and such, much like Dals I think.

I've seen photos of 8 week old Pointer puppies with blue eyes that turned the proper brown color by the time the pup was 6 months old. Since blue eyes are not something seen in Pointers....allowed in Pointers....and there were no blue eyed dogs in the pedigree (since again, its not something ever seen in Pointers)....no idea what happened there other than a delay in the iris pigmentation, since all puppies are born with blue-ish eyes.


Nose pigment is something entirely different than eye color. Black nose and eye pigment will continue to fill in as a puppy gets older...generally the eye color does not change as the puppy gets older.
Would be interesting to find more of the genetics behind it, I can only find studies done in humans relating to eye color changing as humans get older (generally by changing hormones or a health condition).

A friend of mine had a Gordon Setter girl who at 9 weeks we noticed that her one eye was hazel colored. By the time she was 5 months old it was brown like the other eye. I had never seen anything like that before...

Jo

With chocolate labs, I had a litter with green eyes @ 8 weeks old, I had asked the owner of the stud do I had used if she had ever seen this and she said not to worry and that they would likely be yellow colored eyes later on. Sure enough by six months old they had all turned to yellow. I have knowing some crackle eyed Catahoulas which get either more brown or blue eye color as they get older...Thats my limited eye color experience.