# Why are a lot of blue-eyed cats crosseyed?



## shan841

Is this a sought-out trait in some breeds? 

Just curious


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## Dave_ph

It's the Siamese in them





I kill me.


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## Dave_ph

More seriously. I think breeders try to breed away from the crossed eyes. I don't know where they came from to start. Have you checked Wikipaedia. I'm going to. I'll be back here as an expert in a minute


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## shan841

Dave_ph said:


> More seriously. I think breeders try to breed away from the crossed eyes. I don't know where they came from to start. Have you checked Wikipaedia. I'm going to. I'll be back here as an expert in a minute


lol no, i figured it would be easier to ask on here and let someone else do the work for me :wink


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## Dave_ph

OMG, OMG, I go to Wikipaedia for Siamese Cross Eyed cats and the first thing up is a pic that looks exactly like my Mia. Or like she did before she got me to stuff her full of treats. A Lilac Colorpoint




Here we go

Siamese Cat Articles - Excerpts from Wikipedia
"Many early Siamese were cross-eyed to compensate for the abnormal uncrossed wiring of the optic chiasm, which is produced by the same albino allele that produces coloured points. Like the kinked tails, the crossed eyes have been seen as a fault and through selective breeding, the trait is far less common today."

From Jimmy Wales

"This Siamese cat demonstrates the once common cross-eyed trait that has largely been bred out"


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## GhostTown

My ragdoll Truman is a blue colorpoint, and his eyes are slightly crossed.

Ragdolls however, have no Siamese in them (going by everything that I have read that is). The breed was created by breeding Persians with Birmans.


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## shan841

Ahh... i don't know what optic chiasm or albino allele is, but im guessing that it is the colorpoint trait that also causes the crossed eyes. Makes sense, since I was thinking i've seen it often in ragdolls as well. Thanks Dave!


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## Dave_ph

I don't either but it sounds sciencey enough for me to accept


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## Dave_ph

GhostTown said:


> My ragdoll Truman is a blue colorpoint, and his eyes are slightly crossed.
> 
> Ragdolls however, have no Siamese in them (going by everything that I have read that is). The breed was created by breeding Persians with Birmans.


I've got a blue eyed Raggie without crossed eyes. 

I was going to say more but I've been purr-summoned


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## granitestatecat

this thread is adorable 

although i will say that many registries do not see kinked tails or crossed eyes as a fault ... i have a queen with slightly crossed eyes and a slight kink in her tail (can be felt but is not visible to the eye) of the 15 kittens she has birthed one has had crossed eyes


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## shan841

rhythmicgoldfish said:


> this thread is adorable
> 
> although i will say that many registries do not see kinked tails or crossed eyes as a fault ... i have a queen with slightly crossed eyes and a slight kink in her tail (can be felt but is not visible to the eye) of the 15 kittens she has birthed one has had crossed eyes


I think crossed eyes are adorable, does it effect their vision though? Is a kink usually in a certain spot on the tail? I feel like Banjo's has a little kink on the tip


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## RachandNito

Chica is a lynx point mixed breed kitty and she has very slightly crossed eyes.


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## marie73

Cinderella's (Birman) eyes were sometimes slightly crossed. It didn't really seem like they always were, if that's possible.


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## yingying

shan841 said:


> I think crossed eyes are adorable, does it effect their vision though?


Yes it does affect their vision. Crossed eyed cats have problem perceiving "depth", e.g., when they jump from one spot to another, they may fall because they mis-estimated the distance. They have trouble seeing things close to them, and they lose a lot of peripheral vision. So it's actually a minor disability.


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## GhostTown

marie73 said:


> Cinderella's (Birman) eyes were sometimes slightly crossed. It didn't really seem like they always were, if that's possible.


This is exactly how Truman's (Raggie) eyes seem. Sometimes they seem to cross, but others they don't. They tend to cross when he's being a lazy clown, when he's doing his flop and what not. But when he's focused and alert they don't appear crossed at all.


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## asrowley

Our Chocolate Siamese, Bitsy, actually only had a lazy eye. She wasn't cross eyed but one of her eyes would drift towards the middle when she was relaxed. It was cute. I miss her. She's back in Oklahoma with my parents.


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## Abbie

I have two blue eyed Ragdolls. Mitzi has normal eyes. Evie's eyes are sometimes ever so slightly cross eyed- only when she's concentrating on something super hard.


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## kitten323

Hmmm i have 4 blue eyed kitties.. i dont think any of them are crossed.. Ill have to check them again..


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## GhostTown

My comment above, about creating raggies out of Birmans and Persians.... completely wrong.


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## Binkers

The optic chiasm is where the right and left optic nerves meet in the center (sort of) of the brain. Each optic nerve is made up of two strands of nerve tissues which run parallel until they meet at the chiasm. At this point one strand of the right eye crosses over to the left eye, and one strand from the left eye crosses over to the right eye so on leaving the chiasm each eye still has two strands of nervous tissue. Crossed eyes occur when the is no crossing over of nervous tissue between the two eyes. This is a very simplified explanation of the anatomy without getting into TMI. BTW Birman's post WWII were heavily crossed with Siamese and Persians to restore the breed and the original Siamese bred by the monks were actually selected for crossed eyes due to superstition. Hope this helps, GL B


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