Ragdoll is a masked breed. This means that their pigmentation is temperature sensitive, and develop best where it is cold on the body, that is, the face, ears, paws, legs and tail. These areas with extra pigment are called "points". A masked cat always has blue eyes. They are born white because it's warm inside the uterus and then they develop the color slowly and it is said that it is not fully developed before about 3 years of age.
Ragdoll colours
There are 10 different Ragdoll colors that are approved originally they were four; seal, blue, chocolate and lilac.
January 1, 2005 the red variants of Ragdoll colors were approved (and also the tabby pattern) so they are relatively new. This contributed to a bunch of new color opportunities; red, cream, seal tortoise, blue tortoise, chocolate tortoise and lilac tortoise. Tortois occurs in genetically intact cats in females only. All Ragdoll colours can occur with or without tabby.
Description of how the colors look like:
- Seal - dark brown, almost black.
- Blue - grey.
- Chocolate - light brown.
- Lilac - light greyish brown.
- Red - orange.
- Creme - light orange.
- Seal tortoise - seal and red combined.
- Blue tortoise - blue and creme combined.
- Chocolate tortoise - chocolate and red combined.
- Lilac tortoise - lilac and creme combined.
The Tabby Pattern means that they are "striped" in color. They have white "eyeliner" around the eyes and rings around the tail.
The "Ragdollklubben" has a great colour gallery where you can see pictures of Ragdolls with different colors and patterns.
Ragdoll patterns
As for patterns, there are three approved ones; colourpoint, mitted and bicolour. They are divided according to the amount of white in the fur, and were the white is located
Colourpoint
Only masked, no white anywhere on the body. The points are darker than the rest of the body, a good contrast is desirable.
Mitted
White on the forelegs, at least all the toes should be white and the white should preferably go up to the wrist. White on the hind legs at least up to the hock. White chin and a white unbroken streak that runs down from the chin, between the forelegs and all the way across the abdomen to the tail. A small white blaze is permitted.
Bicolour
Vitt upp och nedvänt V i ansiktet, vitt på fram och baktassarna (helst hela) samt hela buken. Vita fläckar på ryggen får förekomma.
FIFÉ EMS-codes
Fife has a system to briefly describe the breed and appearance of pedigree cats. This is called EMS (Easy Mind System). The EMS-code consists of the specifik code of the breed - three letters (Ragdoll is RAG) + color - a letter + white pattern - two digits or nothing for colourpoint + tabby - two numbers (if this pattern exists). The cat's specific EMS-code is listed in the pedigree.
The codes are:
| Colour | EMS-code |
| Seal | n |
| Blue | a |
| Chocolate | b |
| Lilac | c |
| Red | d |
| Creme | e |
| Seal tortoise | f |
| Blue tortoise | g |
| Chocolate tortoise | h |
| Lilac tortoise | j |
| White pattern | EMS-code |
| Colourpoint | none |
| Bicolour | 03 |
| Mitted | 04 |
| Pattern | EMS-code |
| Tabby | 21 |
| Example | EMS-code |
| Seal colourpoint | RAG n |
| Blue tortoise bicolour | RAG g 03 |
| Lilac tabby mitted | RAG c 04 21 |