Ragdoll patterns
Mitted Ragdolls
A colourpoint wearing white mittens, boots and a white chin: the pattern most people picture when they think of a Ragdoll.
A colourpoint wearing white mittens, boots and a white chin: the pattern most people picture when they think of a Ragdoll.
A mitted Ragdoll keeps the full mask and points of a colourpoint and adds white in fixed places: mittens on the front paws, boots on the back legs, a white chin, and a white stripe running from the chin down the chest and belly. A small white blaze on the nose is allowed but not required.
GCCF’s breeding policy explains the pattern through a dominant white spotting gene it calls s2: one copy gives the mitted pattern, while a cat with two copies (a “high mitted”) carries so much white that it can look like a bicolour. Mate a two copy mitted to a colourpoint and every kitten is mitted.
TICA is precise about where the white stops: evenly matched front mittens that do not extend above the bend of the paw, with all toes white; white on the back legs going up to and around the hocks and no higher than mid thigh; a white chin; a white stripe from the chin through the chest and the length of the belly; and any blaze kept out of the inner corners of the eyes, the nose leather and the whisker pads. GCCF adds that the nose colour matches the points while the paw pads are pink, and that the back legs must be entirely white at least to the hock. The white chin is the classic tell that separates a mitted Ragdoll from a Birman, which has similar gloves but a coloured chin.
Often mistaken for a Birman? Our Ragdoll vs Birman guide shows how to tell the two apart at a glance.
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.
The white is there from birth, but you cannot see it against a white kitten. As the points come in over the first weeks the mittens, boots and chin stay white while the legs colour around them, and by eight weeks the pattern is plain.
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.