Do cats have a second eyelid or something
 

I've been noticing on my kitten right when he wakes up there is this white surrounding his ummm iris other times i notice this white in the corner of his eyes...this is not part of his normal eyes which are usualy clear or colored this is like white as in not clear but white...

Is this normal?

don't cats have those membranes that cover their eyes when they feel like something might hit the eye? or is that unique to alligators?

yes, it is a protective thing...had a cat that went to the vets to get 'fixed'...when it was coming out of the anestisia i saw the same thing and i flipped! vet explained it to me...

or sharks

camels?

Haven't you ever seen a cat open its eyelids when its asleep? Usually the eye is at least slightly covered by the white membrane. It's pretty freaky when you see them twitching with their eyes half open and realise they are still asleep. :1orglaugh

Ok cool, no problem then...

I've grown real attached to this little guy, and after loosing my 13 year old cat to reasons unknown I'm a bit paranoid.

Hes right now sleeping in front of my keyboard! He LOVES the GFY banner adds and sig flash adds, I think hes become a major Legendary Lars fan and may be the first cat to become an affiliate, just think of all the niche traffic he could send!

Keta, do you have an LCD? My cats didn't seem to be interested in my CRT, but they love watching the LCD. I think it's because cats don't have persistence of vision like humans do, so a CRT screen updating 60 times per second will just look like a strobe light to them. LCDs are static.

My cats like to watch:

- car racing
- tennis
- that clip with all the funny cat videos

Rowan we only have one LCD monitor and he is constantly playing with the CRT monitors...

Not sure about the strobe theory as he does seem to go for the places where there are movements and If I'm playing Star Wars Galaxies he plays and if my wife is playing a game he folows the objects. I would say he can see CRT just fine...

:)

But then again for all I know he see's something like a portal to another dimension or something...

I brought one of my cats to the vet for that once. I thought she was sick... but the vet said it was just that.

Makes me feel less like a nutcase that other people have thought that something was wrong :)

they actually have 3 sets

The reaction is called "menace" and both dogs and cats have a third eyelid although it is not a true nicitating membrane like fish and reptiles have.

we had a cat when i was a kid that you could peel open an eyelid and he wouldn't wake. i could also do the same thing with my younger brother. the cat had that funny membrane...my brother didn't.

my girlfriend has developed those eye membranes over time to protect her from the nut facials :thumbsup

you fuck! i was gonna post that

It's easy to see the membrane if you're trying to force the eyelid open (Like to give the cat eyedrops, not just to torture the critter :) ) as it's trying to close the eye and the membrane is the only part you can't hold back with your fingers.

Can't see how you could own a cat for 13 years and not notice...

Well I was thinking about this and I did notice but it was more in the corner of my older ones eyes, with the kitten its much more noticable.