>From: FERRET5 <[log in to unmask]> >I just bought what I thought was a black-eyed white ferret but his eyes >aren't always black. They look like they are dilating, and they change to >red with just a black ring around the edge. There really is no such thing as a black eyed white. There really is no such thing as a black eyed ferret is what I really mean. In humans you talk about eye color as the color of the iris. In sable ferrets the iris is usually green or brown. But the size of the eye is much smaller than the humans and the "white" is barely visiable. In the darker eyed ferrets little light reflects back out of the eye. You see colors by seeing light reflect back out. White is all light reflecting while black is nearly no light reflecting. Black holes is space are called that be cause no light escapes from them. Back to ferret eyes, by having little light reflect back out from a ferrets eye especially off of the iris the eye appears black. Remember at night with very little light to reflect almost everything appears dark or black. Albinoes do not have red eyes. Their iris's are pigmentless so they are basically clear. Light reflects back off the insides and blood vessels of the eye so you are seeing the color of the blood "behind" the eye. Some ferrets have blue eyes. Mostly champagnes and other dilutes. We have a little sable jill with blue eyes which are pretty blue. Fran yes that is the temperamental Yang - in case you had noticed. With a blue eyed ferret particularly a dilute blue eyed ferrret light passes through the iris like it does with the albino eye and you see both the red and the blue. Remember playing with paint colors? red and blue is "purple". In ferret eyes its a shade of ruby or burgandy usually. Every dark eyed white (blue not clear colored iris) we've seen has eyes of this color. bill and diane killian zen and the art of ferrets http://www.zenferret.com/ mailto:[log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 1954]