Can Cats See in Color?

| Print | By | February 19, 2008 11:31 AM

The eyes of a cat truly hold fascination for us all. Besides their jewel-like glory, they seem to perceive so much more than we do. In fact, cats require only one-sixth as much illumination as we do and use twice as much available light.

The back of the eye (retina) acts like a movie screen and is covered with highly specialized light-sensitive cells. Cones recognize color, while rods respond to shades of black and white and our kitties have many more times rods than people do. That allows them to see an incredible array of grays and blacks in even low light conditions.

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While many books may state that cats are color blind--don’t believe it! They do have the equipment to perceive colors. But rather than seeing in a three-color system like people do (red, yellow, and blue), cat color vision is based on a two-color system of blues and greens. In very bright light, green and blue seem much brighter than red to cats because they have very few red-sensitive cones or none at all. Feline daytime vision is dominated by shades of blue. Maybe that’s why my cat Seren prefers her blue sparkle toys!

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Comments (1)

eric May 13, 2009 9:02 AM

Thanks for the information. I am doing a science fair project on Can cats see colors? Do you know where I can get more information on this?

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