Re: [PyrNet-L] Rescue Pups with Blue eyes

[Kshoffman@aol.com]

In a message dated 01/07/2000 4:25:48 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
clhenke@juno.com writes:

<< Is that an " In your experience " ?  Granted all blue eyed dogs in any
 breed are not necessarily going to be deaf.  But the article did say that
 blue eyes in Pyrs. can  be associated with deafness. >>

I think we may be talking about two different (three different?) things here: 
(1) normal "baby blue" eyes which within weeks, usually definitely by 8 wks, 
start getting darker pigment and begin to change to an acceptable shade of 
brown; (2) baby blue eyes which don't start changing color for perhaps months 
but eventually end up being a yellow or amber color as an adult; and (3) blue 
eyes that never get any pigment but stay blue.

I know the former two exist in Pyrs, and I suspect the latter one does as 
well, though I've never actually seen a blue-eyed Pyr adult.  Have seen 
plenty of yellow to light-brown eyed Pyrs though. (I prefer near black 
myself, thank you very much <g>).  Also, have known of a few deaf Pyrs here 
and there, and light or blue eye color was not a common factor to my 
knowledge.

Blue-eyed whites are a common mutation linked to the white spotting gene 
locus, (as is deafness, by the way), so it would not necessarily be 
surprising for blue eyed Pyrs (adults) to pop up occasionally, nor for deaf 
Pyrs to pop up occasionally.  Also, in my experience, Jan is correct (I think 
it was Jan) in surmising that the longer the "baby blues" take to get any 
kind of brownish pigment, the lighter the adult eye color will be.

My question is, as far as the original post of this thread, which of the 
above three mentioned eye color types did these alleged blue-eyed rescue 
puppies have and at what age?  It could simply be they were too young for the 
eyes to start changing color yet.

Kelley Hoffman
kshoffman@aol.com