I have received some private replies to my query, and some people do
not understand what I mean by green or blue eye color.

I am not talking about the color the eyes can appear in a flash
picture. That is something different. The way the eyes reflect light
can be meaningful, though. I have been told that fully pigmented ferret
eyes should reflect green. If they reflect red or some other color,
then they are not fully pigmented. Lack of proper pigmentation can (but
is not necessarily) related to neural crest disorders.

Here is a link to a picture of a ferret with the blue eyes. As you can
see, the black pupil is clearly visible in the center. This is not
color caused by light reflecting off the back of the eye, but the
actual eye color. This ferrets eyes will look blue or blue/green in
just about any lighting situation.

http://www.mindspring.com/~jbferret/Salmarieye.jpg

This picture is not one I took, but I do have the permission of the
photographer to share it.

So far, most of the first hand reports I have gotten about ferrets
with odd eye colors are ferrets with the unusual white markings often
connected to neural crest problems (blazes, pandas, mutts, etc.) In
those cases, it is hard to know if the related health problems are
because of the white markings or because of the eyes, or both. The
eye color and health problems could be pure coincidence. What would
be useful is if there were some standard sable ferrets with the odd
eye color, where any neural crest disorder type health problems were
clearly not related to white markings.

Many of the ferrets seen recently with this problem (or oddity) are
black solids, or dark sables out of black solid lines. They do not
have the white markings, but also are just kits, so it is hard to know
whether or not there will be related health problems down the road.

It may well be I am obsessing over nothing, but I do think it would
be wise for private ferret breeders to watch this oddity carefully,
and track what health concerns might arise down the road in ferrets
expressing this trait.

I have also gotten reports of ferret whose eyes appear black, until the
are examined carefully under bright light. Under careful examination,
the eyes are actually a dark indigo blue. However, you can not see the
pupil clearly defined without really looking. Everyone who has reported
about one of these ferrets to me privately has said they have not
experienced any health problems with them - or at least none that
would point to a genetic fault like neural crest disorders.

Danee DeVore

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[Posted in FML 6450]