# Question About Mixed Eye Color



## NormanF (Apr 14, 2013)

I saw a GSD with a left brown eye and a right blue eye.

I was taken aback. GSDs typically have brown eyes but are mixed eye colors possible?

A GSD pup with it had normal brown eyes.


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## Fodder (Oct 21, 2007)

yes


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## Solo93 (Feb 16, 2016)

Split eyes aren't uncommon in some breeds...or even parti-eyes (multiple colours in the same eye). I have never seen a blue eyed GSD though. Is that even genetically possible?


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Could it have been a cataract in the blue eye? Full cataracts give the eye a pale blue/white tint (but you won't see the pupil, and the dog will be blind in that eye). 

Here's an example of the blueness of cataracts in a dog, so that you can compare to what you saw in the dog with one blue eye (this dog has them in both eyes):


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## Fodder (Oct 21, 2007)

http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/breed-standard/111556-eye-color.html


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## gsdsar (May 21, 2002)

A friend of mine has a GS with a brown and green eye. And yes pure GSD, from very nice working lines as well. It's the first time I had seen it and not wondered if something else got in the yard


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## NormanF (Apr 14, 2013)

gsdsar said:


> A friend of mine has a GS with a brown and green eye. And yes pure GSD, from very nice working lines as well. It's the first time I had seen it and not wondered if something else got in the yard



I thought mix but its possible for a purebred GSD to have a different eye color than brown or even mixed eye color. Its probably a genetic thing and its expressed differently depending on the dog.


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## Solo93 (Feb 16, 2016)

The dilutes (liver and blue) often have green eyes, because of the effects of the dilution gene on the eye. I wouldn't expect to see anything lighter than amber on a B&T though? ...someone on the other thread mentioned "spontaneous mutation". I would very much like more information on that if anyone has knowledge of it. I recall seeing a coy/husky mix years ago with one blue eye, and blue is recessive, and the wild type can't carry it (barring mutation) so it should NOT have been there ;-o but at least in that case, it was common on one side. A recessive mutation present on both sides...? (both sire & dam GSD) It seems that "mix" is a more likely option. However...eye genetics are complicated, not a simple dominant/recessive thing. It would be super cool if somebody could clear that up.


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## Stonevintage (Aug 26, 2014)

lol - eye color genetics - could you imagine how many ice blue eyed dogs we would have running around if it were an easy trait to bring into various breeds? 

I would love to understand the eye color but man, that genetics stuff gets too much like math to me.


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## Dotbat215 (Aug 19, 2015)

I saw a wolfdog the other day....malamute and grey wolf with a big fluffy reddish coat and ice white eyes. Canine genes are fascinating.


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## Solo93 (Feb 16, 2016)

I think it's fascinating ;-) but it's complicated. It's affected by more than one gene, and the amount of melanin in the eye is along a continuum (not a binary 1-or-0 thing). I tried to find the explanation for why green eyes are "closer to" blue eyes--more likely to produce them--but the closest I got was this. (at bottom) What is Polygenic Dominance? | Study.com


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