Maine Coon eye color infographic fully illustrated

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In presenting Maine Coon eye colour, I have relied upon two sources: Gloria Stephens in her excellent book Legacy of the Cat illustrated by Tetsu Yamazaki and the Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA). 

Maine Coon with hazel-yellow eyes
With hazel-yellow eyes. Image in public domain.

Gloria Stephens illustrates eye colour in drawings in her book. The CFA describes them in words. Gloria Stephens has included hazel as a Maine Coon eye colour.

I take this to be a shading between green and gold because this is how the CFA describes the eye colour for this breed - see infographic.


The Maine Coon is recognised in all colors and divisions of the traditional category for the coat. Most are brown tabbies.

Coat colour

Eye color has no relationship to coat color. This means that the breed standard does not insist that there needs to be a certain eye color with a certain coat color.

Spectrum

Eye colors are a spectrum of colors and subtle shades. The infographic shows certain colors.

Aqua

Note on the infographic: the 'Aqua' eye color has no color. As I understand her reasoning, this is because there is no pigment (melanin or sometimes referred to as 'eumelanin') in the iris and the color is derived by the refraction of light. And/or the color is left blank as it is a variable color from green-aqua to aqua-blue. That's my understanding of 'Aqua'. Aqua means water which is normally various shades of blue.

Blue

Gloria Stephens has a different take on the cause of blue eyes. She says that the front half of the iris is clear without pigmentation while the back half has blue pigmentation. Light passes through the front half and is reflected off the rear of the iris. The amount of eumelanin in the rear half dictates the depth of blue. In the past I have stated that the reason why kittens have blue eyes is because melanin has not developed in the iris and refracted white light causes blue to be scattered more.

Green

This color is derived from light reflecting off eumelanin in the front half of the iris and blue in the rear half. Blue and yellow combined makes green. This is Stephens' argument. The intensity or density of the green colour is dictated by the amount of pigmentation.

Yellow to gold

This is caused by melanin in the smooth muscles of the iris in varying amounts.

Hazel

A blend of yellow/gold and green

Odd eye color

Odd-eye colour means one eye being (often) yellow white the other being blue. The latter lacks melanin due to the presence of the white spotting or dominant white gene. The other eye has melanin and creates colour.

Iris

The iris is the circle of muscle surrounding the pupil which for domestic cats is a slit down the centre.

I welcome the input of breeders and others to this page.

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