Ragdoll patterns
Bicolour Ragdolls
The most white of the three patterns: an inverted white V across the face, white legs and underside, and colour kept to the ears, tail and saddle.
The most white of the three patterns: an inverted white V across the face, white legs and underside, and colour kept to the ears, tail and saddle.
A bicolour Ragdoll carries an inverted white V across the face, white legs and feet, and a white chest, stomach and ruff, with the point colour kept to the ears, the tail and a saddle across the back. Nose leather and paw pads are pink because the white covers them.
GCCF’s breeding policy describes the bicolour through a dominant white spotting gene it calls s4, which expresses more white than the mitted gene: it usually limits itself to the legs and the inverted V, sometimes with white patches on the back. Because the gene is dominant, a bicolour parent can pass the pattern on directly.
TICA asks for a white inverted V that completely surrounds the pink nose leather and does not extend beyond the outer edge of the eye on either side, as symmetrical as possible, with a white chin, and a white chest, stomach and ruff; GCCF describes the V starting on the forehead and covering the nose, whisker pads and chin, with the bib, chest, underbody and front legs white. Extra white on the back does occur; larger amounts are against the standard but affect nothing except a show career. The tell against a mitted cat is the face: a mitted keeps the full dark mask with a white chin, a bicolour’s mask is split by the V.
Every Ragdoll is born white. The breed is fixed for the Siamese form of the colour gene (TYR, the cs allele), which makes the pigment enzyme temperature sensitive: it works on the cooler parts of the body and switches off where the cat is warm, which is why colour sits on the ears, mask, legs, feet and tail and the body stays pale. The same gene is the reason every pointed Ragdoll has blue eyes.
The first colour shows on the ear tips and nose within the first week or two, the mask and tail follow, and by eight weeks the pattern is clear enough to describe a kitten honestly. The points go on deepening for two to three years, and older cats carry more colour on the body; both breed standards allow for undeveloped colour in kittens and darker bodies in older cats. Two everyday consequences: a shaved patch grows back darker, and a cat kept in a cold house will colour up more than the same cat in a warm one.
Colour is not temperament. The kitten in front of you tells you far more than the name of its colour, which is why we price every pure Ragdoll the same, whatever it turns out to be.
Bicolour is the pattern that shows earliest, because there is so little colour to wait for: as the ears and tail darken in the first weeks the white face and legs stay white, and the V is usually obvious by three to four weeks.
We link to the registries’ own standards and to a university genetics laboratory rather than to other breeders, so you can check every claim above for yourself.
Seal pointDark brown points on warm cream
Blue pointSlate grey points on bluish white
Lilac pointFrosty pinkish grey points on milk white
Chocolate pointMilk chocolate points on ivory
ColourpointFull mask and points, no white
MittedWhite mittens, boots, chin and chest
BicolourWhite V on the face, white legs and belly
RagcoonRagdoll × Maine Coon, silvers and tabbiesNo premiums for colour, pattern or sex: every pure Ragdoll kitten here is £850, and our Ragcoons (Ragdoll × Maine Coon) are £600. The waiting list is the way to ask for a colour.