What color do cats really see?

To talk about cats’ eyes is to refer to eyes that are very colorful, since they normally have colored irises such as blue, green, gray, etc. However, The colors that cats see is a different topic.

These have magnificent peripheral vision, while having a 200-degree field of vision, in addition to being able to see in the dark, but, regarding color, which ones do they see exactly?

What colors do cats see?

Cats see different colors, although they do so in a more limited way, depending on the amount of light that is present at the moment.

As in the human eye, the retina is responsible for transforming the light that receives a nervous impulse and sends it to the brain through the optic nerve, where said light is converted into the images that both humans and cats perceive, although Felines have other elements, such as the so-called tapetum lucidum, located behind the retina and which reflects light rays, increasing the amount of light that enters, improving the vision of cats in low light conditions by up to 40%.

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The eyes of kittens have photoreceptors that capture light with which they distinguish only colors such as blue and green, even yellow.

In this sense, cats perceive cold colors better than warm ones, for example red, is nullified, being a gray for their eyes.

How do they see in the dark?

The characteristics of cats’ eyes are favorable for night vision, which is not the same for the brightest hours of the day, because cats become saturated with light, causing their vision to become blurred and unclear.

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The fact that cats see in the dark does not mean that they do so in color, because the less light there is, the more they see in gray tones.

Even so, they are able to differentiate elements by their shape, but they do not do so by their color at night.

The good thing is that thanks to this they can concentrate better on their objective when hunting, complementing their sight, sense of smell and hearing.