At what age do puppies eyes change color like humans?

[Adrianne Matzkin]

Charli was born in an Amish Puppy Mill. Born with an umbilical cord hernia, she would have been destroyed since she was no good to Pet Land - 'damaged goods'. His PMer surrendered her to a rescue - which is trully incredible and lucky for us!!

I was told she was 10 weeks old but I don't believe it. I think she was closer to 6 weeks when I adopted her. She was about 9" long and weighed 7lbs. A year later she is over 27" tall!!

This is her PetFinder picture - I know - how could you not fall in love! Check out those blue eyes.

 

Here she is today - her eyes are black - that brown on her muzzle is after playing the mud in the yard before her bath.

 

So back to the question, at what age do puppy's eyes change color. I am trying to figure out how old she probably was when she adopted us.

[F, Calla & Luca]

It is really funny. I was just thinking about this, sort of, today when I was out mowing. It is good thinking time. It occurred to me that although dogs are taken when they are quite young from their mother, they then go with luck on to having parents for life. Their mothers would soon push them out of the nest so to speak. They go on to have someone who feeds them and cares for their emotional and physical needs. Especially if they have DK parents. They don't have to worry about careers and they get praise, structure and discipline. I always feel sorry because their life seems boring to me but I don't really think it is to them. So just enjoy her. You can't change what might have happened anyway and she is well loved and cared for now.

[Adrianne Matzkin]

TY!!!! I have to stop this silliness. I guess seeing all the rescues with sad stories that I just can't help thinking about Charli and Samantha's rotten start in life. I am blessed that they are so fantastic in spite of the rotten people that helped bring them into the world and got them to me.

Samantha is terrified when I start to unreel the hose to water my veggies. You would think that I beat her with it they way she cringes to the floor and runs away to hide. I was told by someone, who I trust my girls with their lives, that when she was in the PM, transport, store or wherever that they probably turned a hose into the cage to clean her and the cage. I just cry when she does that. I am trying to slowly desensitize her but it really isn't working.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Well again, Luca was raised by a good breeder, I think. Yet he is really scared of the garage door opening and won't go near it til the last vibration of the springs has quieted down.You never can really know what goes on in a doodle brain.

[Adrianne Matzkin]

[F, Calla & Luca]

Funny.

[F, Calla & Luca]

OK, this is scary. I, me , myself checked this out before and wrote:

When tapetal pigment is present, its color dominates the color of a given animal's reflex. Tapetal color loosely follows coat color. For example, black coats and green reflexes tend to go together, as seen in our border collie above. Most dogs and cats show a blue reflex as their eyes mature in the first 6-8 months of life. Pigment-poor animals like blue point Siamese cats with no tapetal pigmentation show a red reflex for the same reason humans do.http://www.doodlekisses.com/forum/topics/goldeye-1?id=2065244%3ATop...

It is true that this was almost a year ago but geesh. Why bother if you forget everything.
Here's the whole thing I wrote:
Dogs have red blood just as humans do. We have red eye from light reflecting off capillaries filled with blood in the retina. Dogs and many other mammals have different retinal structures as explained here (probably more than you ever wanted to know but interesting):
Reflex Colors

The consistently red color of the human reflex derives from the red blood pigment hemoglobin. Light from the flash picks up the red from blood vessels encountered during its bounce off the retina, just as reflected sunlight picks up the color of a red sweater.

Why, then, do animal reflexes come in so many other colors and seldom in red? The answer lies in the tapetum lucidum, a highly reflective, variably pigmented membrane backing the retina in animals with good night vision (including dogs, cats and most domestic animals) but entirely absent in humans. The tapetum lies directly behind the retinal photoreceptors. Nova's The Nocturnal Eye nicely illustrates the anatomy.

The tapetum enhances low-light vision by giving retinal photoreceptors a 2nd crack at any incoming light that manages to escape absorption (detection) on the first pass. In dogs, at least, an additional boost may come from tapetal fluorescence, which shifts incoming wavelengths into better alignment with the peak spectral sensitivities of the photoreceptors. Tapetal pigments surely come into play here.

When tapetal pigment is present, its color dominates the color of a given animal's reflex. Tapetal color loosely follows coat color. For example, black coats and green reflexes tend to go together, as seen in our border collie above. Most dogs and cats show a blue reflex as their eyes mature in the first 6-8 months of life. Pigment-poor animals like blue point Siamese cats with no tapetal pigmentation show a red reflex for the same reason humans do.
http://www.dpfwiw.com/red-eye.htm#colors

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

I get a lot of this...... but good grief don't test me on it. I was able to go back to a deer article I found that explained the pigment/rods and cones/night vision of the deer/ rods-daytime cones-nightime and my confusion with the membrane ( which was not the cornea but retina )This would work great with some other discussion about how much color dogs see.

I read it three more times...now I'm running out of here. :) Interesting though

[Goldendoodle World]

Eye color does not change on brown eyed dogs.  Their eye color stays the same.  With our blue eyed dogs,  if one eye decides to turn blue,  we saw that the eye will turn brown before the pup is five weeks of age.  I will know before the dog is ready to go ...ie...before the pup turns eight wks of age, whether the eyes will stay blue or will turn brown.  I've had green eyed Goldendoodles;  Goldendoodles with one green eye/ one blue eye and Goldendoodles with blue eyes (pair) and Goldendoodles with one brown eye/one blue eye.  Since 1999, we've not had many with blue eyes because the brown eyed gene is dominent in all dogs.  The people in here posting their stories about blue eyed dogs is nonsense.  My blue eyed Goldendoodles have never had any visual problems.  Have always been extremely healthy.  Have NOT had their eyes change color beyond puppyhood.  If their eye color is going to change,  it changes as a puppy. NOT as an adult.  I've written about Goldendoodles since 1999.  If people want to know about our dogs,  go to our website at http://www.goldendoodleworld.com or go to http://www.articlesbase.com and look me up as "Dee Gerrish" the author.  I've written about the Goldendoodle very extensively and more than anyone since these dogs began.