Ragdoll facts

First let me tell you a little about this unique breed of cat.   The Ragdoll was developed by a woman named Ann Baker – the very first Ragdolls where registered in the summer of 1965. There past is shrouded in mystery and we will never know exactly how she developed the breed [there are many stories surrounding their beginning and no one knows which one if any are true].

                Some of the hallmarks of the breed are there size – they are a medium to large cat –the males naturally are bigger then the females and the neutered/spayed kittens usually grow bigger than the kittens left whole for breeding.

                They are what we referred to as a pointed breed – meaning that it has darker color on its  face, ears, legs and tail. The body color is usually lighter than the color points.

                Their blue eyes – all of the pointed Ragdolls have blue eyes.  Naturally the eye color will vary accordingly to the color of the cat – blue colored cats tend to have lighter than the seals –

                Their  coats – the Ragdoll has a medium to long coat with a rabbit type texture – it is a beautiful coat that requires some  care but not like a Persian or some other long haired cats.

                Color & Patterns:

                The Ragdoll comes in several colors – seal, blue, chocolate, lilac, red, cream and tortie.  

                The seal is a dark brown – much like a seal mink – the body color is a lighter color cream to tan and can have shades of darker brown.

                The blue is a dark gray – with the body being a light gray.

                The chocolate is a warm chocolate color – the nose and paws should be a chocolate or pinkish chocolate color.

                The Lilac or Frost is a muted shade of pinkish gray.

                The red and cream where introduced around 10 years ago and are self explaining.

                Naturally with the introduction of red you will get what is referred to as a tortie – that is a red & seal or a blue & cream female – the color will mainly be seen on the face, ears, legs and tail but can be seen muted thru out the whole body.

Patterns:

                The Ragdoll  comes in three patterns

                1. The Colorpoint – this pattern has the darker points on the face, ears, legs and tail and has absolutely no white.

                2. The Mitted – this pattern is basically a colorpoint – with a white chin, white mittens on the front feet and white boots on the rear legs.  The white on the chin must extend from the chin down to the stomach.  The cat can have a white blaze on its face.

                3. The Bi-color – this unique pattern is probably the most recognized as when you look up Ragdoll on the internet this is the pattern most often seen.   It is basically a colorpoint cat with white over most of its body – the white completely covers its front and back legs, chest and underbody. There will be an inverted white blaze on the cats face .

                Lynx – while the lynx is referred to as a pattern it really an overlay as it adds tabby strips to the darker body points on the cat.   It does not change color or pattern just adds the tabby striping.

                 The Ragdoll kitten is born white and it takes several weeks to see exactly what color and  pattern they may be.   The  Ragdoll is  a very slow maturing breed and it cantake up to 3 years for  its full body color to come in.

Pet - show - breeder - what are they talking about !

             These are terms that help us "grade" the kittens.

Not all kittens are created equal - just because it is a pure bred  kitten does it mean it is good enough to be used in a breeding program.  We have a standard for the Ragdoll that when we breed we strive to produce  kittens as close to that standard as possible, and as we all  know when dealing with mother nature just about anything can happen.

            PET - a pet kitten is a kitten that for some reason is determined to be a pet - it can be anything from the placement of the ears, to the color of its eyes, to a spot of white where it shouldn't be that can classify a kitten as a pet. It has no bearing on its health or temperment.

              SHOW - this kitten comes closer to meeting the standard than others in the  litter. It can be classified as a show alter - meaning that the kitten will be spayed/neutered or a breeder/show - meaningthat it can be used for breeding as well as beng shown.

               This is one thing that the cat fancy has done that I like - allowing a spayed/neutered cat to be shown.

                BREEDER - this is a kitten that has been determined to have enough good qualities to be used in a  breeder program.

                   Naturally the price will vary from each level - the pet is the least expensive and the show is higher with a show/breeder being the highest.