Ragdoll hair question

[catessa]

I have been looking at the ragdoll cat and wondered if there is a breeder here who could answer a question on the coat?

I see online that they have coat length genetic tests now and ragdoll is one of the cats listed with the long hair genes but the photos I see of them show such different looking coats. I read a breeders site that says they are not long haired?

Does the ragdoll come in different coat lengths or is it a long haired cat? Are there different lengths of long hair like in people?

If its a real purebred ragdoll would the gene test have to come back as not short haired?

Thank you. I really want to understand more about the ragdoll breed.

 

[p3 and the king]

I'm not a breeder but I have 2 Persians... Persians are the ones that have the smushed in faces and the super long coats... Some of them.  My Piper has a super long and thick coat.  Very fluffy.  My Phoebe has a semi long coat and no where near as thick.  Just like people nationalities, cat breeds can look and vary from cat to cat so one can have a super long and luxurious coat while another, often from the same litter, not so much a long and luxurious coat. 

I don't know what your talking about with the gene tests?  But if you're asking if a semi long coat was bred to a long coat, what would the kittens look like?  According to biology, the semi long coat is more dominant so 3 out of 4 kittens would possess the semi long coat.  But that is not always the case.  The math and science are not always correct. 

More often than not, I think breeders try to breed the more perfect specimens and not give breeding rights to the semi long coats or "pet" specimens.  Even then, genetics are a funny thing and not all the kittens may possess the long luxurious coats... Some will be "pet" quality only. 

This does not make them any less purebred.  No less special or beautiful... They just aren't "show quality" is all. 

 

[missymotus]

They are a long haired cat,  some might use the term semi-long or something like that.

Genetic tests for longhair are usually done in breeds like Aby's which are used in Somali programs, or British which are trying to eliminate the longhair carriers from a program - or at the least identify a carrier for countries that allow BLH's.

In Ragdolls there are different coat types, density and length related to the lines and outcrossing which occurred to get the non-traditional colours.

So some with have a low maintenance easy care coat and others will have a more Persian type coat that requires more grooming.

To guarantee you're getting a Ragdoll you need to purchase from a registered breeder, you will then get all the paperwork and registered pedigree proving it's a purebred Raggie.

Also make sure the breeder you're dealing with does all the necessary genetic tests for the breed such as HCM and MSPM

 

[orientalslave]

Genertically cats are either long-hair or short-hair - there is one gene involved.  Long-hair is the recessive version so all long-hair cats have two copies of it.  So, two longhair cats will only every produce longhair kittens.

However there is a huge variation in fur length and texture within those two categories and there are lots of other genes (polygenes) make those differences.  For example, Orientals should have a fine silky very short close-lying coat (my boy has fur about 1cm long), British Shorthair have a longer coat which should have a crisp texture.  Cats described as having 'medium length' fur are almost all short-hair cats with a slightly longer coat.

I live in the UK and have never heard of a short-hair ragdoll.  I don't know if someone in the US has decided it would be 'cute' to produce a short-hair version, and that is what you have come across.  However the both the GCCF and FIFE breed standards call for a semi-longhair cat - that is to say a long-hair cat that's not a Persian. 

Confusing I know, and the cats in the GCCF semi-longhair section vary hugely in coat length and texture.  Those cats are: Birmans, Turkish Van, Somali, Maine Coone, Ragdoll, Norway Forest and Siberian - the last one is provisional status at present so no titles being awarded at present.  Ragamuffins and the Kedi are in assessment.

To add, there are also SLH cats in other sections!  LH Selkirk Rex in the British Shorthair section,Tiffanies and LH La Perms in the foreign section, Oriental LH in the Oriental section and Balinese in the Siamese section.

Finally, there is a SH cat in the Persian section - the Exotic!

 

[catessa]

Thank you all for the information. I was looking at gene tests for cats and saw there were four different mutations in the short hair gene that create long hair.
The page at catdnatest that I was reading was confusing me.
I found another one at the University of California that says:

Cat hair coat colors, patterns and texture are determined by the combined action of several genes. One gene – fibroblast growth factor5 (FGF5) – determines hair length. Short hair is a dominant trait determined by the wild-type form of FGF5. Long hair is a recessive trait. Four mutations in FGF5 have been identified that are associated with long hair in cats. Long-haired cats can carry two copies of the same mutation (homozygote recessive) or have two different mutations, one on each chromosome (compound heterozygote). Three of the mutations are fairly breed specific, while the fourth is present in all long-haired cat breeds and crossbreds, as follows:

Mutation 1 (M1): present in Ragdolls

Mutation 2 (M2): present in Norwegian Forest Cats

Mutation 3 (M3): present in Maine Coons and Ragdolls

Mutation 4 (M4): present in all breeds of long hair cats, including Ragdolls, Maine Coons, and Norwegian Forest Cat.

 

[orientalslave]

It's interesting that there are four variations of the recessive version of the gene.  However the effect is the same - a cat is shorthair (one or two wild-type versions of the gene) or it's longhair (two mutated versions).  I also found that you can have a cat tested for which versions of the gene it carries:

http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/services/cat/CatLongHair.php

I see online that they have coat length genetic tests now and ragdoll is one of the cats listed with the long hair genes but the photos I see of them show such different looking coats. I read a breeders site that says they are not long haired?

Hopefully you are clear now that Ragdolls are longhaired only.  But it would be interesting to see the photos of apparent s/h Raggies, and that breeders website.

 

[northernglow]

It's interesting that there are four variations of the recessive version of the gene.  However the effect is the same - a cat is shorthair (one or two wild-type versions of the gene) or it's longhair (two mutated versions).  I also found that you can have a cat tested for which versions of the gene it carries:

http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/services/cat/CatLongHair.php

I have actually tested Kuura (my BSH stud) with that exact test. (He's not a longhair carrier [unfortunately..

]).