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Ragdoll Colors
IFe standard recognizes Ragdolls in SEAL POINT, BLUE POINT,
CHOCOLATE POINT and LILAC POINT (championship status for the reds/flames and tabby/lynx pattern since 2005).
Seal
and Blue
Though the most important colors are SEAL
- body beige to cream or pale fawn
- points deep seal brown
- chest, bib and stomach lighter in
color than body
- nose leather and paw pads dark seal
brown
and the pastel shaded BLUE
- body bluish white, cold in tone
- points blue-grey without brownish
tinge
- chest, bib and stomach lighter in
color than body
- nose leather and paw pads blue-grey
pictures
of Ragdolls in seal and blue
Chocolate
and Lilac
Regarding the real existence of CHOCOLATE
- body ivory
- points milk-chocolate
- often mask on face is not fully
developed
- chest, bib and stomach lighter in
color than body
- paw pads and nose leather cinnamon
and LILAC
- body glacial white (magnolia)
- points frosty grey with a pinkish
tinge
- often mask on face is not fully
developed
- chest, bib and stomach lighter in
color than body
- nose leather and paw pads lavender
pink
the breeder's opinions are very
controversial.
hould you ever happen to see a lilac or
chocolate Ragdoll, let the owner of this cat show you why the
cat is lilac or chocolate. Just a lighter shade of color does
not make a genetic lilac or chocolate. In fact, there are
several people (including us) who payed up to a quarter more
than the normal price for a kitten because of its "rare
color" - only to realize much later that these cats are
actually blue or respectively seal. And either it just took
longer than usual until the cat's final color was developed,
or their color did have a lighter shade.
specially Bicolor Ragdolls are often registered as chocolate or lilac, though
they are in truth genetically seals or blues.
Reasons are:
12 week old seal bicolor
and seal mitted kittens |
- as the Bicolor's paw pads and nose
leather are pink ("without color") you
cannot use them for color determination.
- bicolor kittens in general look a lot
lighter than their mitted or colorpoint siblings.
Ragdoll kittens are born white. The development of
the point color starts on the coldest body parts like
nose, ears and paws. As bicolor kittens have an
inverted "V" in mask and white legs, it
always takes longer until the first color on the
"not-white" areas appear.
More reasons why seal/blue is often
mistaken for chocolate/lilac:
- like all other breeds, Ragdolls often
have different shades of color. For example, certain
lines tend to have darker or lighter points/body
color.
- sometimes it is just a certain
undesirable brownish tinge in blue-points giving the
Ragdoll breeders much troubles - such a brownish
tinge can be easily mistaken for the required "pinkish
tinge" in lilacs.
- the skin pigmentation can be very different in pointed breeds. A well pigmented skin - see for example the Mitted kitten on the picture above - gives a dark inner and outer ear, while a less pigmented skin - see the Mitted's Bicolor litter brother - gives the appearance of a pink inner ear and also a by far lighter looking back ear (the light skin is shimmering through the colored hairs).
robably so-called polygenes (groups of genes that act together to produce hereditary characteristics) are responsible for such color differences.
n all these years I have never personally seen a true chocolate or lilac Ragdoll, but I am very happy that I am able to present you some photos of chocolate/lilac Birmans or British Shorthair colorpoints compared to - an alleged - "lilac" Ragdoll.
Besides, I was so lucky as to get some wonderful pictures from Gerda Stapel, a Ragdoll breeder from Australia, of her officially licensed chocolate and lilac outcross program.
here are a handful of Ragdoll breeders, mainly from the USA and Australia, who started to outcross to other breeds like the Birman, the Himalayan or the Balinese in the mid 1990's to bring in (or to re-introduce?) the chocolate gene. Among those breeders are even some who specialized in "chocolate" and "lilac" Ragdolls for many years until they realized that their cats were in fact just seals and blues. Unfortunately, oftentimes incorrect pedigrees have never been corrected.
uch an outcross program is a long and stony way - though it is relatively easy to bring in the color, it often takes several generations and many years of hard and determined work until the correct type is achieved and stabilized. However, as you can see from the pictures of the cats born in the "Dancingmist" and "Icedolls" catteries, it was worth all the trouble. The chocolate/lilac coloration is unmistakable and the type gets better from generation to generation.
f you want to learn more about Gerda Stapel's chocolate/lilac program, please visit her website.
his is our Kirsty, purchased as lilac mitted
Ragdoll in 1990. However, several international show judges soon
certified that she is no lilac but blue, and so we had to re-register
her. Indeed, the color of her body, the points and the slate
grey nose leather, confirm her true color.... By the way,
that's also proof that the colors of Kirsty's parents are
not correct, too. Chocolate (Kirsty's father) x lilac (Kirsty's
mother) can only produce chocolate or lilac, but never blue!
.S: There is an DNA color test available in the meantime, so just for fun I let one of Kirsty's 15 year old sons DNA test for the chocolate gene in 2007 (how sad that 16 year old Kirsty went over the rainbow bridge in 2006). The result turned out as suspected - Ciara's Navarro-Jardian is not a carrier for the chocolate gene, though he should have been, provided that Kirsty *had* been lilac.
 |
|
his picture shows two 12 week old British
Shorthair Colorpoint kittens
left: lilac point
right: blue point
photo: by courtesy of IG-Ragdoll |
 |
|
3 year old chocolate point Birman male
photo: by courtesy of IG-Ragdoll |
(Dancingmist Chocolate Daisy) |
 chocolate point girl (outcross program 2nd generation). Regarding type you can still see her Balinese ancestors, but the color is clearly true chocolate
photo: G. Stapel
|
ere the breeding aim is almost achieved - lilac bicolor male and lilac point female, unmistakably with Ragdoll type:
(Icedoll's Ventura, lilac bicolor; photo: G. Stapel) |
(Dancingmist Desiree, lilac point; photo: G. Stapel) |
|
left: tail of a blue point kitten
right: tail of a lilac point kitten
photo: G. Stapel |
