Genetics · Breeding · Honesty · Eureka, Northern California
Dominant Blue Eye
The Truth About DBE
Blue eyes on any coat color. One of the most extraordinary — and most misunderstood — traits in cat breeding. A breeder’s honest account.
Breeder’s Note: The observations in this article are based solely on my personal experience working with DBE cats across three litters to date. This is not a scientific study. Every breeding program is different, and your results may vary significantly. Nothing here should be taken as a guarantee, a universal rule, or professional veterinary advice. This is one breeder’s honest account — shared in the spirit of transparency, not authority.
DBE in Our Cattery
Our DBE Cats in Photos
Gopher · Bambi · Magic — and their extraordinary eyes
The Basics
What Is Dominant Blue Eye?
Dominant Blue Eye (DBE) is a genetic trait that produces blue or odd-colored eyes in cats regardless of coat color or pattern. Unlike blue eyes in colorpoint cats like Siamese, or in white cats, DBE cats can have deep sapphire blue or odd eyes on any coat color — golden, silver, tabby, tortoiseshell. You name it.
It is called dominant because only one parent needs to carry it to pass it on. You do not need two DBE cats to produce DBE kittens.
Lineage & Origins
Where Did It Come From?
DBE is not one single mutation — it has appeared spontaneously in multiple cat populations around the world. The lines most relevant to British Shorthair and British Longhair breeding trace back to several documented foundation cats.
The line present in my cattery through the Kittystar cats traces back to Igor Azure Dream, a DBE bicolour male found in Kazakhstan who went to Ukrainian breeder Natalya Lebedenko. Igor and his descendants introduced DBE into numerous British Shorthair and Longhair lines, including Kittystar. This lineage is documented in depth by researcher Sarah Hartwell at messybeast.com/DBE-azure-dream.htm.
A separate line — the Cyrridwen lineage — was founded by Nataliia Zalesskaia in Volgograd using an outbred female named Marusya, acquired from a shelter. This is a distinct mutation from the Igor/Kittystar line, documented by Sarah Hartwell at messybeast.com/DBE-cyrridwen.htm. Marusya’s line has since been identified in peer-reviewed literature (2024) as carrying the DBE-ALT gene variant.
Sarah Hartwell’s site at messybeast.com is the most comprehensive English-language resource available on DBE lineages and is recommended reading for any breeder working with these lines.
Expression
The Spectrum — It Is Not Just Blue Eyes
One of the most important things breeders need to understand is that DBE does not always show up as obvious blue eyes. The same gene expresses differently in different cats:
A cat with normal green eyes that glows blue on camera flash may be a latent DBE carrier. These cats produce blue-eyed and odd-eyed kittens even though they look completely ordinary. This is not theoretical — I have seen it firsthand in my breeding program and in cats owned by fellow breeders.
Appearance
The Facial Structure Question
Many DBE cats show a characteristic called telecanthus — a slight widening of the space between the inner corners of the eyes. In kittens this can look more pronounced. In adults it often softens significantly.
In my experience this feature, far from being a flaw, gives these cats an otherworldly doll-like appearance that makes them look almost unreal. Research confirms telecanthus tends to decrease as DBE cats mature.
The Part Nobody Talks About
The Honest Truth About Deafness
DBE can produce deaf kittens. Not in every litter. Not even commonly. But it happens, and buyers deserve to know.
In my own program, I produced one deaf kitten with gorgeous blue eyes. The deafness appears to be linked to overexpression of the DBE gene affecting the melanocytes in the inner ear — the same pathway that causes deafness in some white cats.
However this is different from white cat deafness in one critical way: with white cats the rule is do not breed white to white. With DBE, a single DBE parent alone can occasionally produce a deaf kitten. This is a higher risk profile and breeders need to be honest about it.
The responsible approach: Test all DBE kittens for hearing before placement. Never breed DBE to DBE — and never breed DBE to a Latent Carrier. Be transparent with buyers.
If you are acquiring new cats to add to a DBE program, ensure they have no history of DBE in their lines. If they do, confirm that those lines are entirely separate from one another — this is not a minor detail, it is a foundational breeding decision.
The Cats Behind the Program
Meet Our DBE Royals
Gopher photo coming soon
Gopher carries DBE from the Cyrridwen lineage — the Marusya line documented in peer-reviewed scientific literature. Her color genetics tell their own fascinating story: her feet alone show four simultaneous genetic expressions — blue golden tipping, cream tortoiseshell expression, white from bicolor spotting, and the underlying dilute. She co-parents with Bambi and the two are deeply bonded.
DBE-ALT Gene Variant
Bambi has the most extraordinary deep sapphire blue eyes I have ever seen on a cat. Her DBE comes through the Kittystar Leon line with deeply stacked golden British foundation going back multiple generations. Her face has the characteristic telecanthus that makes her look like a Japanese painting — not quite real. Her personality matches: she will lick you, sit in your lap, sleep on you, and co-parent any kitten in the house.
Full Blue Expression
Magic is our odd-eyed blue golden shaded British male — half sibling to Bambi through their shared father in the Kittystar line. His odd eye is DBE expressing differently than Bambi’s full blue — same gene, variable expression. He has gargantuan cheeks and a personality so good he has never done a single bad thing. His kittens present with normal facial structure, consistent with odd-eye DBE expression.
Odd-Eye Expression“The cat breeding community needs more honesty and less Instagram perfection. These cats are extraordinary — their genetics, their personalities, their appearance. They are also complex. Buyers deserve the truth, and responsible breeders owe it to them.”
— LynnC Caisse · Inara’s Prettiest-Kittens.com
Sources & Further Reading
Interested in a
DBE Kitten?
Our DBE program is small, intentional, and built on transparency. If you want a blue-eyed kitten from a breeder who will tell you the truth, you’re in the right place.
