Ragdoll (bad genes)?

Originally Posted by bengalbabe

Oh ok I would have understood if he would have said "because his markings are not perfect he is not show quality". I was picturing him being literally written on by a permanat marker or something

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I wasn't sure, I know when cats mate, the male can get rough with the queen, and she can get sratch marks, so I was thinking some thing like that, or said to be bad (marked by a breeder) or some thing, but permanant marker, thats so funny, LOL thats the only thing funny said in this thread! I can picture that though, instead of big beautiful mitts, they are colored purple! ha!

Originally Posted by StraightCatMan

I was told that a breeder had a bunch of ragdolls and she gave them away but I don't know if they were free or not. This cat can't be a show cat because she has been marked.

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Just curious about this too...why would a breeder give a bunch of kittens away? Even if they are not show quality they are still sold as pets. Something is not adding up here...

Originally Posted by bengalbabe

Just curious about this too...why would a breeder give a bunch of kittens away? Even if they are not show quality they are still sold as pets. Something is not adding up here...

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I don't understand that either, mabey she had been over run with breeders and gave away retired breeders, they probley weren't kittens. Or kittens that didn't sell and got too old. But he said the couple said, so how accurate can it be, the couple could have had a problem with the breeder and trying to discredit her.
I wish that straightcatman gets to talk with these people more and clear up some of these things, and then shares them with us. I would really like to know more about the cat and how he had been and how he is now, and how the introductions are doing are you trying differently as others suggested, a more gradual aproach? Please keep us informed on his progress.

We had aggressive Ragdolls. Their attitude wasn't anything like what you read on breeders websites. As kittens they were OK, but as they grew, if you wanted to do anything with them, like clip nails, or comb out knots, watch out. The Ragdolls wanted to remove your extremities if you were doing anything they didn't like. The same cat would be purring & cudly one minute, & shredding your arm the next. We had one young male, who literally jumped off a couch & attacked my adult son who had came to visit.
My nicest girl, who would curl up behind my back & purr constantly, bite me hard on more than one occasion. Real loving cats.
We had Ragdoll kittens that beat up our other breed. They would run all over picking fights. I had to keep the Ragdolls separated from my other kittens. Nasty little things they were, but they sure could purr.

Originally Posted by bluekat

We had aggressive Ragdolls. Their attitude wasn't anything like what you read on breeders websites. As kittens they were OK, but as they grew, if you wanted to do anything with them, like clip nails, or comb out knots, watch out. The Ragdolls wanted to remove your extremities if you were doing anything they didn't like. The same cat would be purring & cudly one minute, & shredding your arm the next. We had one young male, who literally jumped off a couch & attacked my adult son who had came to visit.
My nicest girl, who would curl up behind my back & purr constantly, bite me hard on more than one occasion. Real loving cats.
We had Ragdoll kittens that beat up our other breed. They would run all over picking fights. I had to keep the Ragdolls separated from my other kittens. Nasty little things they were, but they sure could purr.

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That's too bad two or three of you people had bad expiriences with ragdolls, out of the millions that haven't. I'm glad mine and any one else I know don't have these problems. But, I would have to say that is to be expected once in a while, not every ragdoll is going to have textbook personalities. Just because they are known to laid back there is bound to be a freaky cat in the bunch.
Did your cats have papers? or did they (breeders)breed different breeds? some one I know got a cat, and it had papers, but it wasn't pure bred. The wrong male got her, and she just put the other male as the father and they were registered kittens, pretty bad huh? But some thing like that crosses my mind when I here about these satan ragdoll cats after how mine act, and any one else who owns one knows what I mean about them.

I don't think the aggression being attributed to ragdolls in this thread is breed specific. There are lots of aggressive cats and kittens out there. Breed cats and Moggies.
One of the major things that causes kittens to grow up aggressive or moody is improper socialization as kittens. Breeders are sometimes at fault for this when they allow their kittens to be adopted into new homes too early. Shelters, rescues, pet stores are all also guilty of sending kittens to new homes as early as 6 weeks. These kittens don't go equiped with the proper social skills and they develop behavior problems. Biting, lashing out and scratching is one problem that is exhibited often by kittens who are seperated from mom and siblings too early.
IMO, 12 weeks is the appropriate age to allow kittens to go to their new homes. At this age, they know how to play nice with their siblings, what sort of behaviors mom won't tolerate and most importantly, that people are a source of fun, food and love and are not to be biten, scratched and attacked.

"I have been known to "give away" kittens when there are ones who will require long-term special needs or if other issues prevent me from placing them at normal cost. " - gayef

That is my point exactly. If someone is giving an animal away, they have a reason. Maybe the animal was aggressive. Maybe they had moved and couldn't keep the cat. Maybe they had heard the myth about babies and cats. Maybe they just didn't want the hassle. But whatever the reason, this person adopted the cat without knowing. And sorry, I don't think this is necessarily a breed specific issue.

This sounds kind of harsh but this time of year loads of people adopt animals. Then in a few weeks or months decide they don't want it for whatever reason. The shelters are full of them.

The bottom line is this poor kitty needs a home and someone to care for it. Owning an animal is a responsibility. The original poster had only gotten the cat that day and is considering returning it to the people who didn't want it in the first place?! Cats take time to get to know just like a person and to find their place in a household. I pray that this person will take the time and at least give this kitty a chance to adjust to the trauma of moving day. It might turn out to be a great companion.

"Did your cats have papers? or did they (breeders)breed different breeds?"

They were all registared purebred Ragdolls. I had Ragdolls from 3 different catteries. On 5-gen pedigrees, there were no common cats from one pedigree to the next. The 3 catteries I got my cats from, only raised Ragdolls. One was selling out. I know why she sold out, after I purchased her cat with kittens for $2500. The queen made all her kids sick, but $300 worth of testing on the queen, showed she was the "picture" of health. After she made her 2nd litter sick, I'd had enough of that.
Since I went out of Ragdolls, I've had an amazeing number of people tell me about their shy, timid, aggressive Ragdolls. These pet buyers got their cats from all over. I sold a kitten to a lady in MN, who's last cat had been a mean Ragdoll. I sold a kitten in Nothern Wi. to an older couple. Their grandson wanted a ragdoll which they got from somewhere. They told me the Ragdoll was mean, nasty & biting. I sold a kitten to a lady in Penn. her last cat had been an aggressive Ragdoll. Kitten buyers in IL had a mean Ragdoll. That particular one came from a state inspected cattery, where the kittens were kept in a state licensed building.

My personal opinion on Ragdolls, is they have been overbred. Sort of like cocker spanials who were nice little dogs until people bred thousands of them & they turned into mean attack puppies. I really think the same thing is happening to Ragdolls.

KariBengals is also correct, in that a certain percentage of cats will be aggressive. I don't think she is correct about the age idea unless she is talking about farm kittens. I've never met a pedigreed cat breeder who will sell kittens at less than 10 to 12 wks. Most keep them closer to 16 wks. All pedigreed kittens I've purchased have been from 12 wk to 8 mo. old. I really don't think they left their mothers too soon. Maybe with the attack Ragdoll I had. He was 4 mo. old when I got him, but his Mother already had another litter of kittens. Possibly they separated them at 8 wks or so. Those breeders lived in IL. and only had one pair of Ragdolls. Their 2 Ragdolls were nicely behaved, but then I wasn't doing anything other then petting them. 2 of the other mean ones, I shipped in at age 6 mo. or so. I met another new breeder on the internet in IL. She shipped in Ragdolls from the same place I did. Her Ragdolls were scared, shy & bitters. She also purchased the last 2 cats from the cattery near Dulth MN that was selling out.(the cats pedigrees went to a Ind. breeder) She ended up with the same problems I did. The queen made all her kids sick. She spent money on the vet also, and no one could ever say what it was.

Originally Posted by bluekat

"Did your cats have papers? or did they (breeders)breed different breeds?"

They were all registared purebred Ragdolls. I had Ragdolls from 3 different catteries. On 5-gen pedigrees, there were no common cats from one pedigree to the next. The 3 catteries I got my cats from, only raised Ragdolls. One was selling out. I know why she sold out, after I purchased her cat with kittens for $2500. The queen made all her kids sick, but $300 worth of testing on the queen, showed she was the "picture" of health. After she made her 2nd litter sick, I'd had enough of that.
Since I went out of Ragdolls, I've had an amazeing number of people tell me about their shy, timid, aggressive Ragdolls. These pet buyers got their cats from all over. I sold a kitten to a lady in MN, who's last cat had been a mean Ragdoll. I sold a kitten in Nothern Wi. to an older couple. Their grandson wanted a ragdoll which they got from somewhere. They told me the Ragdoll was mean, nasty & biting. I sold a kitten to a lady in Penn. her last cat had been an aggressive Ragdoll. Kitten buyers in IL had a mean Ragdoll. That particular one came from a state inspected cattery, where the kittens were kept in a state licensed building.

My personal opinion on Ragdolls, is they have been overbred. Sort of like cocker spanials who were nice little dogs until people bred thousands of them & they turned into mean attack puppies. I really think the same thing is happening to Ragdolls.

KariBengals is also correct, in that a certain percentage of cats will be aggressive. I don't think she is correct about the age idea unless she is talking about farm kittens. I've never met a pedigreed cat breeder who will sell kittens at less than 10 to 12 wks. Most keep them closer to 16 wks. All pedigreed kittens I've purchased have been from 12 wk to 8 mo. old. I really don't think they left their mothers too soon. Maybe with the attack Ragdoll I had. He was 4 mo. old when I got him, but his Mother already had another litter of kittens. Possibly they separated them at 8 wks or so. Those breeders lived in IL. and only had one pair of Ragdolls. Their 2 Ragdolls were nicely behaved, but then I wasn't doing anything other then petting them. 2 of the other mean ones, I shipped in at age 6 mo. or so. I met another new breeder on the internet in IL. She shipped in Ragdolls from the same place I did. Her Ragdolls were scared, shy & bitters. She also purchased the last 2 cats from the cattery near Dulth MN that was selling out.(the cats pedigrees went to a Ind. breeder) She ended up with the same problems I did. The queen made all her kids sick. She spent money on the vet also, and no one could ever say what it was.

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Well first things first, I guess. The screen name is "Kai Bengals", not Kari. And I've been a he for my whole life, not planning on changing.
Not your fault for not realizing, just letting you know.

Sounds like you've had a run of bad luck with ragdolls. I don't share your experience. I've seen 100's of these cats at cat shows and none of them are as you describe. We even have a few friends that own them and they are well adjusted cats. So, I guess I can't relate.

Unfortunately, I am correct about some breeders of pedigreed cats letting their kittens go to new homes too early. If you are actively involved in the breeding community and actively attend cat shows, then you should know what I say is correct.

wow. I really don't know what else to say. I have never heard of any of these problems, but of course breeders are only going to put good letters from buyers on their web page and not people who had aggressive ones.
But, please don't get defensive, I had only been asking about the cats comming from catteries with different breeds and having lied on the paper work because i had heard of a few people who had done it, I didn't mean it personally happened to you, I was kind of just saying to bring it to peoples attention that some thing could happen. What I was saying is some one owns mabey siamese and himalayans, for example, and the siamese mated with the himi, when born they looked himi, so the breeder just said that it was the male himi that breed her, and of course the pedigree will say that no one is closely related because she had cats that were from different places, but instead of saying she had half kittens she just filled out the litter registration with the himi as the father. and like i said i didnt mean to make you think i was saying that is what happened and thats why your rags were aggressive, i didnt mean any thing by it , nor would i say you are wrong to have your oppinion, I would never tell some one there expiriences are wrong because i never had them.
although I disagree with them being over bred or would i just say two breeds i didnt like were overbred. rags have only been around since the 60's verses many breeds that have been around hundreds of years. most breeds have been so over bred they dont even remotley resemble what the original breed started as.So there are many breeds that are way more "overbred" then ragdolls. I don't know what its like where you live though, I live in maine and there are not too many breeders around, and any one who has the breed tries to monopolize it, and will not sell kittens to people for breeding, only established catteries, It took me a while to even find some one willing to take me on as a new breeder and sell me "their lines" but, every one is entitled to their oppinion and you have reason not to have them and that is fine, I wouldnt want to try to talk you into raising them any more than i would want you to try and talk me out of breeding them (and im not saying that you voicing your oppinion is trying to talk any one out of liking them, so please dont think im discrediting your oppinion) im not trying to disagree with you, I just never seen one that acted that way, but i had in an earlier post stated that any cat of any breed can be aggresive or have some thing wrong with them. people assume because they heard rags are docile think some one did some thing to one that isnt as they had heard, some cats are just like that.
if you dont mind my asking what do you raise now? are you the one raiseing nfc? im new one the site so i dont know a lot of names or who they are.

My ragdoll is still being aggressive to my small siamese. He tried to attack me today. I think my ragdoll doesn't want to live with another cat. Sigh. I might have to give him up.

The ragdoll still wants to attack the siamese. He is is chasing her everywhere and tries to claw her but my siamese jumps out of the way. Today the ragdoll tried to scratch and bite me. I don't think this ragdoll wants to share an owner with another cat. I was told that this ragdoll was raised with other cats by a breeder until he turned four months and was taken in by woman from whom I received the cat. He's great around me when my siamese is sleeping under the covers and is out of sight. I think he would do well in a no other pet environment. He's too alpha.

If you know who the breeder is, you might want to contact them. Actually the other owner should have; they might have signed an agreement that they would turn the cat back to the breeder in the event of incompatibility. That's a pretty typical clause with breeders...I'm sorry it's not working out.

Well I have plenty of time devoting care to a new pet but I won't endanger my other pets for the sake of this particulary aggressive cat. I may sound harsh but the reason why we take in pets is to give us pleasure as human beings. If I had the choice of choosing my happiness over the happiness of a pet I would clearly choose the former. People need to stop treating animals like they are human beings. They ARE NOT.

Originally Posted by StraightCatMan

Well I have plenty of time devoting care to a new pet but I won't endanger my other pets for the sake of this particulary aggressive cat. I may sound harsh but the reason why we take in pets is to give us pleasure as human beings. If I had the choice of choosing my happiness over the happiness of a pet I would clearly choose the former. People need to stop treating animals like they are human beings. They ARE NOT.

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And people need to stop taking in animals expecting them to be friends in a day or two and then go dump them they they dont want to spend the time it takes. Do more research on how to proper introduce cats before getting one and then dumping it off too. Some people shouldnt have more then one any ways, its just too much work for some people. Now that cat has to pay for two peoples ignorance now. but since he is not an human pleaser go dump him, thats why cats are here to please us.

I have followed this thread with interest. How long have you had this cat? By your first post only a maximum of a week. We keep our cats seperate when introducing them for a minimum of 2 weeks sometimes longer then they need to have brief times of Supervised introduction. You cannot expect them to be friends immediatly. We have had one cat that took 3 months to introduce properly and safely. I personally think you are expecting too much too soon. This cat has been through a lot being shoved from piller to post. If you do not have the time or inclination to work with this cat I think the sooner you find it a more sutable home the better.

I don't have time to act as a referee between two fighting cats. One is good enough for me and if it doesn't like not having feline friends, then too bad. I am the owner and she is the pet. No question about that. I am not dumping the ragdoll. I am returning it to the original owner to be placed in a one pet household where he thrive as a companion. This cat is too territorial and I won't change my rules on its behalf no matter what cat lovers think I should or should wait it out.

Originally Posted by StraightCatMan

Any suggestions? Should I return this cat?

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I think you planned to return the cat from the start. You asked for suggestions, but won't take any of the ones offered. It doesn't make sense to ask for suggestions and help, then become defensive about advice given. Some people in this thread have genuinely tried to help you with this cat.

Originally Posted by Kai Bengals

I think you planned to return the cat from the start. You asked for suggestions, but won't take any of the ones offered. It doesn't make sense to ask for suggestions and help, then become defensive about advice given. Some people in this thread have genuinely tried to help you with this cat.

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I agree completely. I think for the cats sake you need to return it as you dont obviously have the patience or the inclination to introduce it properly.

I wouldnt return it but then again I have a tolerance for animal behavior..

last year I got Zoey she was supposed to be 2-3 yrs old... she was 8 months ... Kandie was 16.5 when an 8 month old Zoey came to live with us ... it took six months for the girls to share the same room... Hissy s advise to put vanilla under there noses did it for us .. they are peaceful though due to age difference they arent playmates ... Good luck ..