Can cats see color?

By the MeowWise team · Published 14 October 2026 · Last reviewed 14 October 2026

Yes. Cats can see color, but they do not see the same rainbow most people do. Behavioral and physiological work points to dichromatic vision: two cone types for daylight color, with peak sensitivities near about 460 nm (short wavelength, "blue") and about 560 nm (medium to long wavelength, often called "green"). A 2016 behavioral test found a spectral neutral point near 505 nm, close to that of a person with classic red-green color blindness. Cats are not colorblind in the sense of seeing only greys.

What "seeing color" means here

Color vision needs at least two kinds of photoreceptor that respond differently across the spectrum, plus a nervous system that compares their signals. Most people have three cone types and are trichromats. Many other mammals, including dogs and cats, have two and are dichromats. Rods, which dominate night vision, do not give the rich color experience people associate with daylight. So the useful question is not "do cats see color at all?" but "how many cone channels do they use in bright light, and what can they tell apart?"

Two cone types, not one

For a long time researchers argued about whether cats had only one cone type and borrowed rods for any color discrimination. In 1970, N. W. Daw and A. L. Pearlman trained cats to tell red from cyan, and orange from cyan. The cats kept making those distinctions on backgrounds bright enough to saturate the rods, and one cat still succeeded after five minutes under a very bright white light (9000 cd/m²). That argued for more than one cone process. Recordings in the lateral geniculate nucleus then found rare opponent color cells in layer B with input from a green absorbing cone and a blue absorbing cone.

In 1987, M. S. Loop, C. L. Millican and S. R. Thomas measured photopic spectral sensitivity with a two choice task. On dim white backgrounds, cats were most sensitive near 497 nm (scotopic, rod dominated). On brighter white backgrounds (30 and 300 cd/m²), sensitivity peaked near about 454 nm and 561 nm, and intermediate wavelengths behaved as if "blue" and "green" cones acted independently. They found no evidence for a separate 500 nm photopic mechanism that would have supported true trichromacy under those conditions.

The 2016 neutral point test

A few earlier reports had raised the possibility of a third photopic receptor around 500 to 520 nm, and one behavioral study claimed trichromatic vision. Daria L. Clark and Robert A. Clark noted that intensity cues could have contaminated that design. In Experimental Eye Research (2016) they used a two choice discrimination with monochromatic LED light mixed with white light of variable intensity, and white only negatives, so brightness could not solve the task.

• Two experienced cats (one male, one female) discriminated monochromatic targets from 456 nm to 497 nm and from 510 nm to 524 nm.
• Both failed at 505 nm across many trials. That wavelength sits at a classic dichromatic "neutral point," where the two cone systems cannot separate the light from white.
• Conclusion: strong evidence that cats are dichromatic with a neutral point near 505 nm, nearly the same as a human deuteranope. The authors suggest feline vision is a better model for red-green colorblind people than for people with normal trichromatic vision.

Where the cones sit in the retina

Anatomy matches the two cone story. K. A. Linberg and colleagues (2001) mapped short wavelength (S) and medium to long wavelength (M/L) cones in the domestic cat. M-cones made up about 80% to 90% of cones and peaked at over 26,000 cells per mm² at the area centralis. S-cones made up about 10% to 20%, with a more uneven pattern and high densities in several regions, including parts of the far periphery. So cats really do carry two spectral cone classes across the retina, with M-cones far more common.

What that looks like for your cat at home

1. Blues and yellows are the stronger color cues. Dichromats with a ~505 nm neutral point struggle most with the red-green axis people take for granted. Toys and laser dots that look vividly red to you may not stand out by hue the same way; motion, brightness and contrast often matter more.
2. Dim light is mostly greyscale. In low light, rods dominate. Cats are excellent at detecting movement in dusk conditions (see our cat adaptations lesson), but that is not the same as rich color vision.
3. "Cats are completely colorblind" is a myth. They are not monochromats. They see color in a limited, two channel way. We unpack that myth on our myths vs facts page.
4. Other senses fill gaps. Close up, whiskers help where focus is weak. Taste is a different story: cats lack a working sweet receptor (see can cats taste sweet?), so "how cats sense the world" is a set of adaptations, not a single answer.

Every paper cited here is listed with its DOI on our cat research page. Teachers can pair this post with the eyes section of the adaptations lesson for a structure and function discussion.

General education, not veterinary advice. If you are worried about your cat, contact your veterinarian; in an emergency, go to the nearest emergency vet.