Is there any way to predict the color of a babies eyes?

Answer 1

Not really. Eye color is a very complex genetic puzzle. For starters, there are at least 3 different genes that determine eye color, likely more. We've only positively identified 3 of them thus far. A typical punnett square deals with one or two genes. 3 genes is a whole other ballpark because the variety goes up.

Let me give you a real life example. My mother has green eyes and my father has brown eyes. They have three daughters whose eye colors are, in order of birth, green, blue, and brown.

Eye color itself is a matter of how much melanin (pigment) is in the eyes themselves. There is no green pigment, or blue, or hazel, etc. The "default" color for eyes is blue or the variant grey. If there is a little bit of melanin, the shade of the eyes can become green. If there is a bit more then it can be hazel. A lot of melanin starts turning to shades of brown to black.

So, basically, there isn't a way to determine it completely. Chances are, though, two dark eyed people are going to have a dark-eyed child. Same for two people with light colored eyes.

Answer 2

You can take some entertaining guesses by considering the colors of their parents. But don't expect high accuracy because there may be genes not expressed in their parents that will add up to new eye color in the baby.

I know two brothers who have brown eyes and brown hair. Their daughters all have strikingly blue eyes and very blond hair. Go figure.

Answer 3

I don't know. But did you know that all babies are born with blue eyes. Then they change to whatever colour they are destined to become. The blue eyes could last 2 seconds, one day or for the rest of their lives!

Answer 4

Try the Punnet square. http://anthro.palomar.edu/mendel/mendel_2.htm

You get your eye color from two genes. One from each parent.
Brown eyes are dominant. (B)
Blue eyes are recessive. (b)

Blue eyed dad. both of his eye genes are (b b).
Brown eyed mom with both parents brown eyed. Hers are probably (B B).

They have three kids. All three are (B b). They all have brown eyes, but unlike mom, these kids are capable of having blue eyed children.

Kid1 (B b) marries a blue eyed girl (b b). 50% probability of Kid1's child having brown eyes like him, and a 50% probability of having blue eyed kids like Kid1's wife.

Kid2 (B b) married a purebred (B B) brown eyed girl like his mom. All of his kids will have brown eyes, 50% will be (B B) like their mom and grandmother. 50% will be (B b) just like dad. Half of Kid2's kids will be capable of having blue eyed children.

Kid3 (B b) married a brown eyed hybrid (B b) like himself.
50% probability of brown eyed hybrids like mom and dad.
25% probability of brown eyed purebreds like grandmother.
25% probability of blue eyed kids like grandfather.

Two parents with either green or blue eyes will never have a brown eyed child.

As I have proved, two brown eyed parents can have a blue eyed child. The only way a brown eyed person knows for sure if he/she is a hybrid is if he/she has a blue/green eyed parent.

You can try the same scenario with hair color. Blondes and redheads are recessive.

The dominants will cover (hide) the recessive. If you have two recessives, blonde and redhead (b r), then you might get that "strawberry blonde" look. Yet, blondes often carry a red gene, and redheads often carry a blonde.
I had a blue eyed dad, and a green eyed mom. My blue eyes have a tiny bit of green.