# Interesting eye color question



## maherwoman (Jul 4, 2006)

Hey guys! My bunny Flower (who is about three months old) has one brown eye, and the other eye's top half is brown, and the bottom half is a very light blue. I would be of the thought normally that her eye is just in the process of changing color, except for the fact that it's been that way (completely unchanging) for a month.

Could there be anything to this?

What is this called?

Is this a breed trait?

In addition to the above information, she weighs approx. 4.5lbs and is apparently a lop, though neither ears have fully lopped yet. The tips flop down, but the rest of the part of each ear is more airplane than anything. 

So, any ideas about the eye color?

Here's a picture of Flower (which is about a month old):







Thanks guys!


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## pamnock (Jul 4, 2006)

Sounds like your bunny may have some Dutch or Blue Eyed Whitein her background. 

I've never heard of a particular term that is used for the blue spots, but I've seen them in Dwarf Hotots, Dutchor breeds that have a Blue Eyed White rabbit in their lineage. 



Pam


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## naturestee (Jul 4, 2006)

So... like this but upside down?






That's Fey's right eye. She and Sprite both have mottled blue and brown eyes, although generally more blue than brown. Doesn't it look neat?

They're dwarf hotots, BTW.


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## maherwoman (Jul 4, 2006)

*Hehe...I would tell ya if the picture worked. :?

naturestee wrote: *


> So... like this but upside down?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## maherwoman (Jul 4, 2006)

*Hi Pam!

Thanks for the information! What exactly is a Blue Eyed White? Do you have any pictures of them?

I don't think she's got any dwarf hotot in her genes, as she's already bigger than my Maisie, and Maisie is three months older than her. I do suspect that Maisie has some dwarf in her blood, though, as she's approx 3.5lbs.

I know Flower's eye rings look dwarf hotot-ish, but given that she's about 4.5lbs at three months of age, does that indicate that it could be more of a broken English Spot, or something akin in her genes? I ask because she's also got a honey-colored stripe down her back (though that could, I suppose, be Holland Lop in her blood, too, coupled with the ears and foofiness).

What do you think?

pamnock wrote: *


> Sounds like your bunny may have some Dutch or Blue Eyed Whitein her background.
> 
> I've never heard of a particular term that is used for the blue spots, but I've seen them in Dwarf Hotots, Dutchor breeds that have a Blue Eyed White rabbit in their lineage.
> 
> ...


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## NZminilops (Jul 4, 2006)

We don't have hotots here but isn't there a normal, non dwarf variety?


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## pamnock (Jul 4, 2006)

*maherwoman wrote: *


> *Hi Pam!
> 
> Thanks for the information! What exactly is a Blue Eyed White? Do you have any pictures of them?
> 
> ...


 

A Blue Eyed White (BEW) is a type of albinism, but the rabbit has very bright blue eyes.

I think the most likely scenerio is that Flower is a Lop with Blue Eyed White in the background. The spotting pattern in the lops originally came from the English Spot. Her coloring indicates Holland Lop.



minilops: There are large Hotots (now called Blanc de Hotot in the US).



Pam


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## naturestee (Jul 4, 2006)

You can't see it? I can.:?

Darn Photobucket. I usually never use that site except for videos, but Tinypic wasn't working.


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## pamnock (Jul 4, 2006)

I can't see it either 



Pam


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## Pet_Bunny (Jul 4, 2006)

*naturestee wrote: *


> Darn Photobucket. Tinypic wasn't working.


 For all my pictures. I use http://www.holdthatpic.com/

You can browse through multiple pictures, have them resized, copy and paste them very easily onto thisforum.

Rainbows!


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## maherwoman (Jul 5, 2006)

*Nope, can't see it. It says "my image for that link is no longer there". Would it be in the same space as your videos? Could you possibly tell me how to find it from there? 

naturestee wrote: *


> You can't see it? I can.:?
> 
> Darn Photobucket. I usually never use that site except for videos, but Tinypic wasn't working.


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## maherwoman (Jul 5, 2006)

*Okay, I get it. Thank you very much! 

So, it sounds like (from this thread, and the other I posted asking about something else to do with her appearance) by all indications, Flower is a Holland Lop mix...and by your information, possibly a mix with a BEW. When I look at her, and her features, and from what I've seen, that seems the most likely. 

Thank you for the data! 

pamnock wrote: *


> *maherwoman wrote: *
> 
> 
> > *Hi Pam!
> ...


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## maherwoman (Jul 5, 2006)

Naturestee, is this the picture you mean?


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## naturestee (Jul 5, 2006)

Yes, and now I see it on this thread three times! My original post, your response, and now this last one.

I have no idea what's going on.


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## maherwoman (Jul 5, 2006)

Lol!! I don't know...computers are weird.

But yes, that is the color I mean, but her eye is split almost exactly horizontally, with dark brown in the top half, a very light blue (like the light blue in your pic) in the bottom half. Both of her eyes started changing the day after we brought her home originally, and that one just didn't finish. It's so strange! I've heard of animals having one eye blue, and one green, and the likes, but to have one HALF of an eye blue and the other half brown? The two colors are on such opposite ends of the spectrum!


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## pamnock (Jul 5, 2006)

*maherwoman wrote: *


> Lol!! I don't know...computers are weird.
> 
> But yes, that is the color I mean, but her eye is split almost exactly horizontally, with dark brown in the top half, a very light blue (like the light blue in your pic) in the bottom half. Both of her eyes started changing the day after we brought her home originally, and that one just didn't finish. It's so strange! I've heard of animals having one eye blue, and one green, and the likes, but to have one HALF of an eye blue and the other half brown? The two colors are on such opposite ends of the spectrum!


 

It's notuncommon to have 2 different colors in one eye. Certain genes can produce a wide array of "marbled" coloration to the eye.

Pam


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## rabbit_whisperer (Jul 5, 2006)

adorable rabbit,I had a rabbit with one pink eye and one blue eye.


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## tamsin (Jul 5, 2006)

Here's Alfie's eye, they're really bright blue!


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## pamnock (Jul 5, 2006)

Alfie is awesome!

Pam


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## maherwoman (Jul 6, 2006)

Oh my gosh!! Alfie is so adorable!! What a cutie!! What breed(s) is he? Looks part Lionhead...??


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## maherwoman (Jul 6, 2006)

*Thank you! I love my babies so much!

That sounds really interesting...one pink, one blue...

rabbit_whisperer wrote: *


> adorable rabbit,I had a rabbit with one pink eye and one blue eye.


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## naturestee (Jul 6, 2006)

Okay, here's Sprite's right eye if you can see the pic:







I just took this pic today. I've been wanting better pictures of their eyes anyway, because that blue is so beautiful! You usually have to be pretty close to notice the brown.


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## pamnock (Jul 6, 2006)

Wow! Super photo! In the case of Dwarf Hotots, the blue color is caused by the Dutch marking gene.

Pam


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## maherwoman (Jul 6, 2006)

Oh, Naturestee...I can kinda see that the upper right hand diagonal section is brown...is that right?

Wow...I thought this was unusual...I guess it's not as much as I thought! 

I felt like this when I learned that it wasn't too unusual for kitties to have two different-colored eyes! LOL!!

P.S. Bunny eyes are so pretty, aren't they? What beauties!!


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## RedDiamondDawn (Jul 25, 2019)

My bunny has half and half eye color as well. I thought they weren’t done changing but they didn’t change.


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## SableSteel (Jul 25, 2019)

That eye looks like it's probably the result of the vienna gene. Likely that rabbit had some blue-eyed-white ancestor.


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## RedDiamondDawn (Jul 26, 2019)

SableSteel said:


> That eye looks like it's probably the result of the vienna gene. Likely that rabbit had some blue-eyed-white ancestor.


Mom has brown eyes, her dad had blue eyes.


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## RedDiamondDawn (Aug 23, 2019)

SableSteel said:


> That eye looks like it's probably the result of the vienna gene. Likely that rabbit had some blue-eyed-white ancestor.


Dad is white BEW with blue eyes. Mom is Chestnut Agouti with brown eyes.


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## Nancy McClelland (Aug 23, 2019)

Heterochromia. We had one that was Vienna marked and Black Otter. HIS EYES WERE WHAT WAS REALLY STRIKING--RIGHT WAS 1/3 BLUE, 2/3 BROWN and his left was 1/3 brown and 2/3 blue. I've seen some with 2 different color eys, but he was the first with 2 colors in both eyes.


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## RobertR (Aug 24, 2019)

RedDiamondDawn said:


> View attachment 42058
> View attachment 42059
> My bunny has half and half eye color as well. I thought they weren’t done changing but they didn’t change.



This is sectoral heterochromia, a result of the Vienna (v) gene. Most of the time brown is on the top. Blue can also come from the Chinchilla (cchd) gene and give a blue/brown speckled look (some call this mottled or marbled). The diluted (dd) gene can also give blue cast looking eye.


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## Bunnynanny (May 5, 2020)

Hi. New member here.
Our Californian REW doe mated with a brown mini lop. 4white babies all have REW eyes. One of the tan babies has 1brown eye and one blue metallic looking eye...the other tan baby has both brown eyes..is there something wrong with the blue eye.


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## SableSteel (May 6, 2020)

Yes, that's not normal. The eye shouldn't be cloudy like that. Could be a sign of glaucoma or some other disease. Eyes are complicated; not really something that you want to mess with without much experience. If you're really concerned or it looks like its causing the rabbit pain you should take it to the vet.

You might want to start a new thread about it as well, this one is from 2009.


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## Nancy McClelland (May 6, 2020)

Can't tell by the pic, but there have been several with different color eyes--no problems-- there's even a couple of movie stars with different color eyes. If the eye is cloudy looking and not the color around the opening then you have a problem--glaucoma. Our avatar bunny was blind for the last 4 years of her life but did just fine.


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