What our cats and dogs see
Did you know that our pets, dogs and cats, are unable to distinguish between colors close to red and green? The latter shades appear dull to their eyes, tending more towards pale yellow. However, they are more able to distinguish colors from the blue family. The main reason for this phenomenon is that their retina has very few cones. Humans have three cones while our cats and dogs have only two. They are said to be dichromatic. On the other hand, their retina has a lot of rods, which gives them a more piercing vision than ours in order to see well at night.
Let's discover the different visions of our cats and dogs.
Our cats
True color blind, our cat discovers his environment in pastel tones because he has much less cones than we do. It is these cones that allow his eye to observe all the colors that surround us.
According to experts, our cat's vision is similar to that of a presbyopic and myopic person. Our cat sees rather badly up close and not very well at a distance either. In other words, he sees blurred. His vision is optimal between 10 cm and 1 m distance. But even if he sees blurred, he remains a real hunter who is not disadvantaged by his vision.
Our cats are born predators, but even if vision is an important tool it is not his main asset. It uses more its hearing and its sense of smell which are extremely developed. Also, our cat has a visual field of 200o. While that of humans is 180o. With its sight totally adapted to catch moving objects and of course its capacity to run fast, our cat has everything of a great hunter!
We already knew that our cat prefers dim light to bright light. This makes him a nocturnal and twilight hunter. His night vision is six to eight times superior to the human one thanks to his numerous rods. Our cat is therefore nyctalope.
Our dogs
Our dogs are known for their acute sense of smell. Like our cats, our dogs do not see the full range of colors that humans can see. Although the world does not appear to them as black, gray or white, their color range is limited to blue, yellow and shades of gray.
Our dogs are not nocturnal like our cats, but they are crepuscular, so they are more active at dawn and dusk, when the light is lower. As with our cats, the high number of rods in our dog's retina and its ability to detect movement in the dark allowed its ancestors to better track their prey at night.
In addition, our dogs have a much wider field of vision thanks to their increased peripheral vision up to 240o around them. It is the more lateral position of their eyes on their head, compared to humans, that gives them a wider field of vision.
Also, humans are able to see farther than our dogs. To locate objects at a great distance, our dogs rely much more on their hearing and sense of smell than on their vision.
Our dogs also like to watch TV, but they need a minimum of 70 frames per second to keep it running smoothly on the screen. Humans, on the other hand, only need 60 frames per second. Nowadays with "high definition" monitors, we can easily reach the frame rate that allows our dogs to watch our favorite shows with us.
One breed of dog that sees much better than others is the greyhound. For many generations, these dogs have been trained to hunt by sight rather than by smell. As a result, they have a field of vision of up to 270o, which is 90o more than humans. The other anatomical advantage of the greyhound is that the retina of their eyes is larger than in our other breeds.
How can we protect our pets' vision?
To keep our pets' eyes healthy, it is important to have their eyes checked every year during their veterinary exam. If we notice dryness or deposits in the eyes of our pets, we can administer artificial tears. But if there is any discharge, redness, whiteout or other problems, contact your veterinarian. However, if the hair around the eyes becomes crusted with dried secretions, we can use Zanimo EYE CARE to maintain the health and beauty of the eye area.
Sources :
1 Cones are cells of the eyes that detect colors.
2 Rods are cells of the eyes that are sensitive to light.
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