Cool Things about your Ragdoll
History
Characteristics
Appearance
Care
Myths
Ragdolls vs. RagaMuffins
CFA
Ragdoll Profile
The first thing you may notice when you see a Ragdoll is its size --female Ragdolls generally weight about 4-6 kg (8-15 pounds) and males about 7-10 kg (12-20 pounds), making them about three times bigger than "regular" cats! Ragdoll is the largest cat breed in the world and itīs even mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Records. Ragdolls grow slowly and it takes approximately 3-4 years to reach full maturity.
Expect
for the size, Ragdoll has no physical extremes. Ragdolls are heavy-boned,
muscular cats with broad chests and large hindquarters. The eyes are large and
oval and always blue --darker color is preferred. The ears are large and rounded
and set with a slight forward tilt. The curve profile looks like a "ski
slope" and the tail is long and bushy.
Ragdolls have a very soft, medium-long hair. They usually have longer hair around the neck ("ruff") and on the back of the hindquarters ("britches").
All Ragdolls are "pointed" cats, meaning that their faces, ears, legs and tails are darker than the body. The kittens are born white and their colors and patterns start to show when they are about 10 days old. Ragdolls get darker with age and young cats usually have the biggest contrast between the points and the body color. At the moment there are three standard patterns and four colors, listed below. There are also new, "non-traditional" colors and patterns and more are being developed by crossbreeding with other breeds and old original Ragdoll lines. These include tortie points, lynx points, shaded silvers, cream points, red/flame points, solid colors (no points) and other eye colors. They are still very rare and experimental, lynx point, red point and tortie point being the most common at the moment. Only a few cat associations accept them, but they probably will eventually be recognised more widely.
Standard colors
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Seal Points are deep seal brown. The body color can range from fawn or cream to warm brown. |
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Chocolate Points are light milk chocolate color. The body color can range from ivory to cream. |
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Blue Points are slate blue or silverly blue-gray. The body color is ivory or bluish white. |
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Lilac/frost Points vary from frosty-gray lilac to pinkish beige. The body color is warm magnolia color. |
Standard patterns
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Colorpoint The colorpoint has darker points than the rest of the body. The contrast between the points and body can vary a lot. Strong contrast is preferred. There is no white, though the body color may be nearly white in some Ragdolls. The nose leather and paw pads should match the point color. |
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Mitted Same as above, but has "mitts", i.e. white in front paws ("gloves") and halfway up in back legs ("boots"). Chin and chest are white and stomach has a white strip. Sometimes a mitted Ragdoll may also have a white "blaze" (1) on the nose, which is usually accepted in shows. |
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1) 2) 3) |
1) 2) 3) |
Bicolor Bicolor also has dark points, but the mask has an inverted "V" extending from between the eyes to the muzzle. The body color is white with a "saddle" on the back, which has a white area in the middle. The degree of white in bicolors varies. The nose leather and paw pads are pink. Mid-high white bicolor (1) has a broader "V" on the mask. Sometimes a breakthrough spotting on the legs. The amount of white varies. Mid-high wites can be shown too if they have a good "V" and no white in tail and ears. High white bicolor/van (2) has usually no "saddle" on the back. The "V" on the mask extends almost up to the ears. This pattern can sometimes be shown as a "van" if the cat is marked like a Turkish Van cat. High mitted (3) is a mitted with two mitted genes instead of one. There is often a little breakthrough spotting on the limbs, but otherwise high mitted looks like a bicolor. If the pattern fits the bicolor standard, a high mitted can be shown as a bicolor.
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