Ever Wonder How Your Cat's Eyes Work?

My cat Roscoe has the most beautiful big green eyes I have ever seen, while peering into them I do wonder how my cat's eyes work. As I play with him, his eyes dilate within seconds, and the pupil opens so wide most of the sage green color in my cat's eyes disappear. Then, while Roscoe sits in the sun, I can see a thin black vertical line surrounded by a beautiful sage green color. Let us look at our felines beautiful eyes and see what is behind those windows of their soul.

The Pupil has a great deal of how cat's eyes work. The Pupil changes quite often and can tell you a lot about your cat's mood but observing the pupil. When your cat's eyes widen, and the pupils are enlarged more than likely your cat is excited. The pupils can also create that glow in the dark look your cat's eyes may have at times. Cat's eyes have a reflective layer called the "tapedum lucidum", which is a membrane that reflects light back into the retina, this is what allows a cat to see better at night. This membrane can also cause light to bounce off the cat's eyes and reflect back, which in turn causes that glowing look in your cat's eyes.

Cat's eyes have vertical viruses. When the irises are narrow, this protective measure protects cat's eyes from bright light. A cat's narrow iris also controls the amount of light that passes into the cat's eyes. When the pupil is enlarged it can cover almost 90% of a cat's eyes and allows the least amount of light available to be captured. This also helps cat's see better at night.

A cat's eye can even detect motion much better than a human's eyes. This is due to the amount of rods that cat's eyes have. The rods in cat's eyes react to different intensities of light, which allows a cat to detect motion much more accurately than a human eye. In order to not bore your cat while your playing with them, perhaps more erratic movement will engage your cat to play with the cats choice of toy.

There is also another important part of your cat's eye, which is referred to as the third eyelid. The third eyelid in a cat's eyes actually helps to protect their eyes. This third eyelid is called the nictitating membrane, which is the part that rests in the inside corner of the cat's eyes. This part of the cat's eye is most important because it can indicate your cat's wellbeing. If your cat's eyes are inflamed the membrane may begin to extend beyond the cat's eye. This can also happen with irritation. If your cat's eyes are covered even partially with the third eye, this can be an indicator that your cat may be debilitated or even seriously ill. It is imperative that you take your cat to the veterinarian as soon as possible if you see this happen.

Now that you have discovered some of the ways a cat's eyes work, this should take away some of the mystery behind how your cat is looking at you with their big eye's and help understand your feline partner more.

Marcella Durand/ http://www.kwch.com/Global/story.asp?S=7069033&nav=menu486_8_17_4 /Studio One Networks