What is it about Aussies that causes them to have heterochromia? It all comes down to genetics. Those two different eye colors, which is also known as wall eye, is one trait of many in dogs that their mother and father canine can pass down. With two parents, a puppy's gene copies double.
They often have two different colored eyes.
The Australian Shepherd is one of a few dog breeds that commonly have two different colored eyes, called heterochromia. Aussies might have any combination of brown, blue, hazel, amber, or green eyes. Some Aussies even display more than one color within the same eye.
Heterochromia is caused by a lack of the pigment melanin in all or part of one eye. In dogs with heterochromia, the lack of melanin causes one of their eyes to appear blue or bluish-white. Heterochromia in dogs is often hereditary, meaning it is passed through their genetic makeup.
As inbreeding is more unusual and less common for humans, the gene for heterochromia is typically masked by more dominant genes. However, if two people who both have heterochromia were to produce offspring, it is much more likely that their offspring will also have the condition.
Black Australian Shepherds usually have amber or brown eyes, although they can have blue eyes, two different-colored eyes (which is known as heterochromia iridum), or even marbled eyes.
Solid black and red coats are the least common coats among Aussie dogs, with solid red being the absolute rarest. The red-colored gene is recessive in dogs, meaning red fur must be present in both parents to make a red-colored pup.
This term refers to a puppy bred by two merle colored Aussie parents. Many people are unaware, but when two merles (of any breed) are bred together, each puppy has a 25% chance of being born as a double merle.
The second-rarest eye color is hazel, a mixture of brown and green with golden flecks. About 18% of Americans have hazel eyes, compared with about 5% of the world's population.
Heterochromia is fairly uncommon, occurring in less than 1 percent of the population. It can be caused by several factors and present itself in different ways. What causes Heterochromia?
People can be born with heterochromia, or it can result from disease or injury. It's pretty rare for people to inherit mismatched eyes from their parents.
While there is misinformation out there about potential health problems in hereditarily heterochromic dogs, this does not seem to be true for the most part. There does appear to be a link to deafness in Dalmatians with heterochromia, but most dogs with hereditary heterochromia enjoy normal, good health.
While two-toned eyes are certainly striking, there is no need to be alarmed. The condition is genetic and there is generally no need to worry. But dogs with heterochromia might also be linked to glaucoma, so if you suspect that there might be something wrong, definitely talk to your vet about all concerns.
This condition is called heterochromia, and it's due to variations in the amount of melanin pigment in the iris, which is the colored part of the eye. Heterochromia can be congenital (inherited) or acquired. Inherited heterochromia is caused by specific genes that are passed to the puppy from one or both parents.
Blue eyes are not more susceptible to eye defects and disease but they are more sensitive to bright light (just as they are in blue-eyed people.) There is no clear association of blue eyes to deafness in Aussies; deaf Aussies virtually always have too much white on the head or are double merle.
Aussies are best suited for families with an active lifestyle and a large fenced yard. They need plenty of exercise and mental stimulation to prevent boredom. They can weigh between 35 and 70 pounds and have an average life span of 12-13 years.
In the case of the Australian Shepherd pup, tail docking is a procedure that benefits the life of the dog. A shorter tail prevents potential breaking later in life and ensures a cleaner and more sanitary lifestyle for the dog and its owner.
"The factors that can cause eyes to change colors—or appear to have different colors—include genes, diseases, medications and trauma," said Omar Chaudhary, MD, an ophthalmologist in Potomac, Md.
Brown, which is the most common eye color in the world. Green, which is the least common eye color. Only 9% of people in the United States have green eyes. Hazel, a combination of brown and green.
Your children inherit their eye colors from you and your partner. It's a combination of mom and dad's eye colors – generally, the color is determined by this mix and whether the genes are dominant or recessive. Every child carries two copies of every gene – one comes from mom, and the other comes from dad.
We found that green is the most popular lens colour, with brown coming in a close second, despite it being one of the most common eye colours. Although blue and hazel are seen as the most attractive eye colours for men and women they are surprisingly the least popular.
If both the parents have brown eyes, then there is generally a 25% chance for their child to have blue eyes. Because both the brown-eyed parents have a recessive blue-eye gene and can pass it to the next generation. However, since eye color is polygenic, several other genes exert their effects as well.
Dogs with cryptic merle (also called phantom or ghost merle) typically display little to no merle pattern and some may be misclassified as non-merles. The cryptic merle alleles occur in the lower end of the range (typically from 200-255, however, this range and designation varies by study).
In merles blue eyes are an extension of the merle pattering. Just as the coat has variegated pigment, so can the eyes. Blue eyes in non-merle Aussies can vary in appearance. Sometimes one eye is blue, sometimes both.
Is a blue merle Australian Shepherd rare? While blue merle Australian Shepherds are undoubtedly beautiful, they're not particularly rare. The blue merle color pattern is surprisingly common in this breed, being more frequent than the red merle.