Eclipse vs. Abyssinian

[preacherman]

A lot of raptor eyes do get really dark as they age. I'm not sure what causes it. The ones pictured above still have really great body coloration, so I can't see it being caused by their environment. I'll have to look later today and see if any of my adults still have bright red eyes. I think the novas will keep their bright eyes later into life, but time will tell.
And Dan, I looked, and all of our eclipse that don't have solid black eyes do have red veining.

 

[Rhacodactyl]

That male's daughter has more reddish coloration to the eclipse part of her eyes, but I always liked his better. I guess it's just personal taste, but I like the look of the very dark eyes on a RAPTOR as opposed to the red.

 

[bohannbj]

The darkening could be due to light sensitivity and the eyes are reacting to keep vision. Remember albinism is a fairly detrimental mutation for most organisms.

 

[godzillizard]

The darkening could be due to light sensitivity and the eyes are reacting to keep vision. Remember albinism is a fairly detrimental mutation for most organisms.

That's what I was assuming, also. The pigments in skin, hair and eyes protect what lies beneath. I wonder if the darkening could possibly be a reaction to UV exposure? Or if it's just the way the eyes look when they are fully developed/dense? And Jason's spot on about the environment--I had some beautiful geckos turn dookie on me (as full grown adults) a couple years ago, and since then, I've kept the hot end at 92F and the cooler end no cooler than 75-80F.

 

[boywonder]

hatchling tremper eclipses have red eyes because the skin on their heads is translucent, as they grow the skin thickens and becomes opaque letting less light through to the back of the eye. kind of like when you hold something plastic up to the light and you can see light through it, the plastic appears to glow

 

[godzillizard]

hatchling tremper eclipses have red eyes because the skin on their heads is translucent, as they grow the skin thickens and becomes opaque letting less light through to the back of the eye.

That's part of the equation, but I don't beleive it's that simple. I've lampworked color glass for 12 years, and I believe there's more to this than density/translucency of the surrounding skin...The Tapetum lucidum is the reflective layer behind the retina (night vision), when you see glowing eyes at night, thats what you are seeing, the light reflected off the tapetum lucidum, and in the case of my Raptors, it appears there's something obstructing those cells...it's possible that some have the tapetum lucidum in the back of the retina itself, and others have it positioned farther back?