kitty cat eyes?

Question

Can cats see in black and whit like dogs?

Answer 1

Hi there...cats actually can distinguish between colours mostly in shades of blue, green and red. Apparently, seeing in colour doesn't seem to be a basis for their survival though according to some scientists.

See Do Cats See in Colour: http://www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/whydo.html

Answer 2

Domestic cats do most of their hunting at night and from relatively close range. Because of this scientists for years thought that had little or no perception of colors -- it was unnecessary for them to have that capability. It's only in the last 20 years that we've discovered that or feline friends have a much more complicated and complete visual perception of the world than we imagined.
Both cats and people have rods and cones in their retina (stick with me here, this will get interesting). Rods help us see in dark conditions and to pick up movement; cones help us see in daylight and decipher colors. Cats have more rods than cones in their retina than we do. Thus cats are able to see better in the dark and perceive movement to a higher degree than we can. But there is a trade -- they can only "pick-up" on the colors blue, green and yellow; while the colors red, orange and brown fall into a gray range.
For example, lets say you and one of your tabby friends are looking at a stop sign 20-feet away on a blustery day. You see the stop sign in detail; as moving slight (due to the wind); and as red-and-white. The tabby next to you sees the stop sign in almost the same detail; is much more aware of the movement; and sees the sign as gray-and-white.
What the tabby loses in the color spectrum it gains in distinguishing more subtle aspects of movement.
Take that same situation at night: how we see the stop sign with a clear sky and full moon; is how our feline friend will see the sign on a partly cloudy moonless starry night.
Again, this is because cats have more rods than cones in the structure of their eyes in comparison to us.
Cats are slightly nearsighted when compared to us. Don't think this gives you any sort of edge. Their hearing and sense of smell is better than ours my several fold!

Answer 3

Hi,
At one time it was thought that cats were color blind, but they aren't.
They don't see color the same way we do, but they do see some colors.
They can see some colors but they can't see the different shades of that color.