do cats see color

You buy your cat a bright red toy, certain it will love the colour, and the cat regards it with the enthusiasm of a tax auditor. A common belief is that cats see the world in black and white, and another is that they see it just as we do. Both are wrong. Cats do see colour, but a narrower, more muted range than you. Here is what your cat's world actually looks like.

The black-and-white myth can go straight in the bin. Cats are not colourblind in the sense of seeing only greys; they perceive colour, just not the full, vivid spectrum a human enjoys. Their colour vision is limited rather than absent, tuned by a different set of priorities than ours, and understanding those priorities explains a great deal about how a cat sees.

which colours cats can and cannot see

Colour vision comes from cells in the eye called cones, and cats have far fewer of them than humans do, and fewer types. The upshot is that a cat's colour vision is thought to be similar in some ways to a human with red-green colour blindness. Cats see blues and yellows reasonably well, but they struggle with reds and greens, which likely appear muted, greyish, or simply hard to tell apart. That bright red toy you chose may register to your cat as a dull, indistinct shape rather than the vivid object you see. If you want a toy your cat can see clearly, blue and yellow are better bets than red.

Everything about a cat's world is also less saturated than yours. Where you see rich, deep colour, a cat likely sees a softer, more washed-out palette, the whole scene turned down a few notches in vividness. It is not a grey world, but it is a gentler one, colour-wise.

what cats gained in exchange

A cat did not lose colour for nothing. The eye traded some colour vision for strengths that matter far more to a hunter. Cats have a huge number of the other type of light-sensitive cell, the rods, which handle vision in dim light and detect movement, and this is why cats see so well in the gloom, a subject covered in can cats see in the dark. A cat's eye is built above all to catch the faintest movement in low light, exactly the skill needed to hunt at dawn and dusk, and rich colour vision in bright daylight was simply never the priority. Detail is the other trade; cats do not see fine detail as sharply as we do, and most are a little short-sighted, better at judging a nearby pounce than reading a distant sign.

So the honest answer is that your cat sees colour, but a paler, narrower version of the colourful world you know, strong on blues and yellows, weak on reds and greens, softer all over, and traded for superb low-light and motion vision that leaves you looking half-blind by comparison. When you next offer a toy, remember whose eyes you are choosing for. The cat is not being ungrateful about the red mouse. It quite possibly cannot see how red it is, and would have preferred you pick something that moves.

Related reading from my desk: can cats see in the dark, the strength cats traded colour for, and why do cats have whiskers, another of a cat's remarkable senses.

Sudden changes in how your cat sees, bumping into things or cloudy eyes, can signal a vision problem, worth a vet check. I am a cat with opinions, not a veterinarian.