It Secrets Why Dogs Eyes Illuminates when the Dark (Glow in the Dark)

 

During the day, your dog's eyes may look like a normal eye color. However, when conditions are dark or night, your dog's eyes will light up or glow in the dark phrase that emit different colors with the original eye color. Sometimes looks creepy green, blue or even beautiful purple color.

What happened?

To answer, the site Vetstreet.com asked two leading experts veterinary ophthalmologist Dr. Cynthia Powell of Colorado State University and Dr. Bill Miller of the Animal Ophthalmology Clinic in Memphis, Tenn.

The dark area, the dog's eyes react to light exposure in contrast to the human eye because of the dog (along with cats and many other animals) have surfaces that reflect light known as the tapetum lucidum located between the optic nerve and retina. Tapetum lucidum works like a mirror, reflects light and allows rods and cones in the eye has a chance to take a limited amount of light at night, Dr. Powell explained.

"This is an adaptive feature in animals that tend to hunt at dawn and dusk," says Dr. Miller. "The eyes of the animals are intended for low-light vision. They include dogs, cats, cattle, deer, horses and ferrets. However, humans and primates do not have a tapetum lucidum these features as well as the squirrels because they are more active during the day and they are designed for visual retina brighter light. "

 

Eye color that glows on each animal varies and depends on the amount of zinc and riboflavin are present in specialized pigment cells in the tapetum lucidum. "Zinc is a metal, and riboflavin is an amino acid, and both act as a reflective agent (or agents reflective)," said Dr. Powell. "Depending on how much the amount of zinc or riboflavin in these cells, eye color can vary emanating from one animal to another and from one race to another."

The age of the animal, as well as coat color and can also affect the eyes, also known as luminance or light eyes. "Age can change the reflectivity / reflection power and the lens becomes denser" Dr.Powell said. "This factor reduces the animal's ability to reflect light back out of the eye."

Dr. Miller said that most dogs born with tapetum blue to purple, but the color shift occurs by the age of 16 weeks. "This is not the standard rules and rigid, but tend to have a yellow labrador dog tapetum bright yellow and black labrador tapetum tend to have a yellow or a darker green," he said.

Dogs with white fur and blue eyes can emit red-eye in dark conditions. Red-eye effect is related to the blood vessels in the eye that glows when exposed to light. "Among all, my favorite is Miniature Schnauzers," said Dr.Powell. "Their eyes tend to emit the color turquoise (turquoise) Beautiful"