History
The Ragdoll breed was developed in California by Ann Baker in the 1960s. Ragdolls are medium to long haired cats with a soft, silky coat, full tail, and blue eyes. They are muscular and large, and have a very docile temperament. Ragdolls are lapcats who love human attention. They are intelligent, affectionate, and relaxed. They have a tendency to go limp when held, which brought about their name.
Patterns
Colorpoint
Colorpoints have no white. The points of the cat – ears, nose, paws, and tail will be darker than the rest of the body.
Mitted
Front paws, chin, and belly are white. The ears, tail, and nose will be darker than the rest of the body.
Bicolor
The basic bicolor markings include a white inverted V between the eyes, which extends into the chin, chest, front legs, and back legs up to the knee.
Colors
Ragdoll kittens are pure white when they are born. Their color begins to come in when they are around 10 to 14 days old. These colors will gradually increase in intensity, with full color being achieved by age 4. There are 6 recognized colors, 2 of which are incredibly rare. The colors are Seal, Blue, Red (previously called Flame), Cream, Chocolate, and Lilac. Seal and Blue are the most common colors.
Variations
Lynx – Lynx have tabby points, pencil lines on the face and white eye liner. This variation in point color is caused by the agouti gene which “turns on” the tabby striping, or barring. It can be found in all pointed colors, with the stripes being most obvious in the darker point color.
Separate and distinct from the three Ragdoll patterns, which are distinguished by the placement of white, lynx points are available in colorpoint, mitted and bicolor.
Mink – Mink ragdolls are born with full color instead of being white at first. They are rare, as compared to traditional ragdolls. Minks come in the traditional pointed colors, but appear richer in appearance. There is very minimal contrast between the point colors and the warmer areas of the body. The eye color of the mink Ragdoll is normally aqua, which is a greenish-blue. As with other ragdolls, minks will continue to darken as they age. Another unique feature about minks is that they retain baby soft fur even as adults.
Tortie – Torties have calico-like markings. Because the gene responsible for red is carried on the female (X) chromosome, torties are always female in normal cats; when the gene is active on one X chromosome but not present on the other, normal pigment (seal or blue) will be formed as the skin cells multiply, resulting in the characteristic patches of color. Each tortie is unique – no two will be identical. Torties are available in all patterns: colorpoint, mitted and bicolor.