Beavis Miner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
>I think both of my gerbils have black eyes but under some lighting it looks
>like they have red or ruby eyes. I don't know there parents genetics but is
>there any really good way to find out the color excepted just looking.
>
>Thanks in advance,
>Wee
All eyes can appear red in certain light, for example a human wit the
darkest eyes can still show re-eye when bright light is shone straight
at the retina, hence the red-eye problem in photography.
In gerbils, the very dark eyes of blacks and Golden Agoutis almost never
shows red, but the more diluting factors a gerbil has the more red the
eyes will appear in bright light. For example, six years ago on this
list we were discussing how Grey Agoutis can have red looking eyes when
a light is shone on them. Colour point gerbils have very dark ruby eyes.
Even so, for normal descriptive purposes there are still only three eye
colours, because in normal light there is only Pink, Ruby and Black.
Black is also sometimes called "dark" as it recognises that the eye can
be a dark colour without being truly black. Even then, "black" eyes show
a brown iris when a light is shone on them.
--
Julian
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
National Gerbil Society
http://www.gerbils.co.uk/
