Marcello's eyes too small?

[alpacassei]

I've noticed that in comparison to my other hybrids, Marcello's eyes are a lot smaller. He's a mottled red eyed argente and he's almost completely blind. I'm not sure if his blindness is caused by there being literally 0 pigment in his eyes (I know with humans and other animals, it would cause vision problems because it's a form of albinism which affects usually affects the optic nerves, and the lack of pigment causes a lot of glare) or his eyes are underdeveloped and that's why he's blind, or both?
Also, I don't know if it's relevant but he's huge! Almost twice the size of my smallest hybrid, Stephy!

I've also read somewhere that animals carrying the eyeless white gene (which he does because he's mottled) can have smaller eyes but I can't find the source right now
It's hard to tell because of the lighting in the photos but his eyes are almost transparent, pale glowy red (far reder than my albino Russian's eyes) which I've also read in another thread is caused by the eyeless white gene??

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Stephano and Francisco for comparison

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[cypher]

Marcello's eyes don't look particularly small in the photos, WW & Campbells have different eyes so a hybrids eyes could be closer in appearance to one species rather than the other & not all your hybrids will appear the same, even from the same litter.
I think black eyes against a white coat are always going to appear bigger too just because they stand out so much more.

I don't know that much about genetics but I wasn't aware the eyeless white gene applied to Russians, I've only heard it mentioned in relation to syrian genetics but I could easily be missing something!

[Hamsterita]

I don't know much about genetics either but yes, I heard about the ruby eyed mottled gene that can cause white litters without eyes. Anyway without being an expert (or better, being a newbie) he looks ok to me. Maybe he's partially blind for other reasons, he doesn't fit the description of a hamster that suffer that condition (he's not white, he has eyes...) but I don't know if the gene could affect in other ways.

Anyway I wouldn't worry too much about that because if you don't plan to breed him I don't think that at this point it would matter that he had the gene.

[alpacassei]

Originally Posted by cypher

Marcello's eyes don't look particularly small in the photos, WW & Campbells have different eyes so a hybrids eyes could be closer in appearance to one species rather than the other & not all your hybrids will appear the same, even from the same litter.
I think black eyes against a white coat are always going to appear bigger too just because they stand out so much more.

I don't know that much about genetics but I wasn't aware the eyeless white gene applied to Russians, I've only heard it mentioned in relation to syrian genetics but I could easily be missing something!

That's good, thank you!! I worry about my hamsters a lot...

Stephano's eyes are actually dark red, they used to be brighter when he was a baby but now they're dark Ruby that looks black in a lot of lighting

Yeah, red eyed mottled hybrids and campbells carry the gene I'm not sure about whether other colours or coat types carry it though. There's also a similar gene in guinea pigs.

[alpacassei]

Originally Posted by Hamsterita

Anyway I wouldn't worry too much about that because if you don't plan to breed him I don't think that at this point it would matter that he had the gene.

As cute as his babies would be, I definitely don't have the time or money for breeding