Ragdoll advice

[Ellovera2]

Hi everyone. I'm looking for any advice from ragdoll owners. We're considering a cat and at the moment think they'd be the perfect breed for us. Some questions....

1. Are they really much calmer and docile than your average moggy? We have a large house and a secure medium sized garden but I'm worried a 'house cat' will be climbing the walls to get outside.
2. Linked to the above, tips on good indoor cat stimulation toys/equipment?
3. I've found a registered breeder in a village 2 miles from me which is amazing as I live pretty rurally and the next nearest was 50 miles away! I've read all the advice on buying a kitten from the GCCF. There's a litter due soon. She has sent me pics of mum and dad and once kittens are born and vaccinated etc I'll be able to visit, any other tips about buying? She describes herself as hobby breeder and only has a few cats which live as part of the family.
4. The mum and dad have different colourings. Is this an issue? Advice on what colour they are and whether they look a good example of the breed would be great.
5. Litter tray. Is it worth buying an expensive one or will the basic do? It will need to be up high (perhaps utility counter top) as I have kids I don't want getting to the litter. Will this be ok?

Overall would you recommend the breed?

Thanks for that, fortunately not the same location. Such a shame there's so many dodgy breeders out there!

Thanks for sharing your experience. What a shame about your ragdoll, just goes to show you can't necessarily tell from the parents. How old is he now? Has he calmed at all as he's got older or always been wild?

He is 5 now. Has mellowed a wee bit :)
No obvious reason for his bad behaviour, he isn’t left alone for long periods, he gets plenty attention. No other animals in the house to upset him. Can’t blame it on the baby as he was worse before baby arrived :) He gets fed a good diet of expensive cat food, no additives etc.
He is just wired wrong :)
He seems very happy though, living his best life by terrorising. Sigh.

I have two re-homed Ragdolls. I've had cats all my life, but these are my first ragdolls and they are absolutely brilliant pets. We have a neutered 8 year old male and a speyed 3 year old female. They are sweet, docile, chatty, home-loving. I've been scratched once by the female, the day after she was speyed as she didn't enjoy wearing the surgery vest, but other than that we've never so much as had a raised paw from either of them.

They are happy indoors. They do have access to our garden when we are at home, buy the boy never goes more than a few metres from the back door and the girl goes to the end of the garden a few times a day.

They are a pain with all the fluff they leave around the house, but I'll forgive them because they are otherwise just wonderful. They are a bit dim though, they really do have no attack instincts.

Here they are. Seal-point boy, and blue-point girl.

My ragdoll also meows very very loudly in the middle of the night if he wants to go out. He does still have an indoor litter tray, prefers to come in from outside to use it then go back outside 😵‍💫
He has had me up at 5am every day last week. I can’t ignore, he will scratch doors and generally make as much noise as he can until I comply with his demands.
A cat flap is not suitable for our very ancient, very thick doors.
He stays out all night mostly in the summer though so roll on the warmer weather.

@VivienneDelacroix oh they are beautiful! I absolutely love the seal-point.

The parents we're looking at, I think the dad is a bi-colour and the mum....maybe a blue point? So I guess seal-point is not a possibility? Not an expert on cat genetics obviously!

@Ellovera2 hi, we have a ragdoll boy - tge sweetest cat ever! Before I was a Maine Coon owner and love the breed! But they do need outdoors. We moved a country and are first had a big flat with terrace around on the 2nd floor. So at that time only indoor and maine coon was out of question. We cat sat our friends ragdoll boy cat and we all fell in love!! Do we also got one from the same breeder (in thus country very regulated so not so many inbreeding with official ones).
Ours is very playful, very very kind, follows me like a dog and trainable like a dog. He is our DC (9) best fruend, they wash together, brush teeth, play, do homework..
we have now a small garden and people don't out fences here.. Area redidential and I hoped he will be ok. For 3 months he was learning to cross the small road, but still was lying in tge middle so the cyclists or neighbors could pet him.. I put a fence, 1m but metal see through, so there's no platform to climb, he doesn't but would escape under if he finds a gap. He wants to be friends with every dog or person..which was not safe wo a fence. Only he doesn't like neighbours cats...those ge fights crazy in his garden.
Our friends one has similar personality, and another friend in the UK got now 2 ragdolls ;female after seeing and knowing our cat.
Highly recommend the breed (just be ready they are needy of your attention and want to be next to you like a dog, which we love)

Sorry for lots of typos 🤦🏻‍♀️

And our blue-bicolour friend ❤️

I have a female ragdoll and she is fabulous.
We got her at 12 weeks as she needed to be rehomed due to owner illness.

She can be a bit bitey with me but only when she's hungry and she knows I'm the one that feeds her. She's never even raised a paw at my DH or DS.
She is really affectionate and needs to be in the same room as you ...unless the heating is on as she has a favourite radiator!
We use a cat sitter when we go away as I don't think she'd like a cattery but she's generally fine to be left overnight. She occasionally tries to get outside but it's a half hearted effort!

My DH is not a cat person but he adores her!!

Oh and at night she hides in DS's bed so they can cuddle. It's very sweet.

This is my little madam. Mostly she is soft and affectionate, until she follows me upstairs. Then her personality changes and she attacks my legs and feet really aggressively. She really means it and nothing will stop her. I don’t know her very early life history as I took her on as a favour for one of my dying patients. I suspect she was removed from mum too early so didn’t get slapped down by mum when she bit.

@ElaineMBenes ah that's lovely! Good to hear that you can leave her for a bit. I work from home but we do go on the odd day out so cat might be left for several hours or even an odd night. Happy to get a sitter as well.

@AppleDumplingWithCustard oh wow that's so strange, just upstairs?! That kind of behaviour would be awful for us, especially with 2 kids. What age was she when you got her?

Sounds a bit like me to be fair 🙈

@Ellovera2 ours stayed fine in a house for 1.5 days (long full weekend), but when we go on holiday we take to a cat hotel or friends. With our maine coon we had a person coming every day to play and feed, but ragdolls like company and people. He stays in a hotel with other cats! After 2 days of hissing he is fine a likes spending time in their garden. But he won't tolerate a cat in his garden at home

Oooo favourite pose for our boy - on his back ☺️

We have a rag doll - she’s not as laid back as I’d imagined, though is very affectionate to the point of being clingy. She’s 9 now and walks around the house crying for us and claws to get into (and out of! ) the office when I’m working from home.
She grooms our eyebrows (lovely!) and will sit on rather than near.
When we got her we were told we’d have to cat proof the fences, but she has never tried to get out of the garden at all since we got her.
My Persian was much more laid back.

@Ellovera2 I got her just before her second birthday. She’s now eight. Apart from attacking my legs and feet she is an absolute sweetie. She snuggles next to me and loves sleeping with her head in my hand. It’s baffling. 🤷‍♀️

I recently adopted a half Maine Coon/half Ragdoll boy from a rescue. He is a big placid sweetheart, just coming up to 2! He can be a bit bitey when he plays, but it's not aggressive in any way.

I didn't get him particularly because of his breed although he's gorgeous - I've always had moggies, and already had 2 mogs. One of them has some Maine Coon too. My two girls, both tortie and whites, don't get on, so I hoped that bringing an easygoing boy into the equation might help defuse the tension! Girl #1 doesn't like either of them!! But girl #2 loves our boy and vice versa! They play, wrestle and chase each other! It's adorable. He desperately wants to be friends with girl #1 too and she's not having it!

In a lifetime of having cats, he is definitely the most placid one I have ever had.

@Ellovera2 there are some rescues that will only rehome cats as indoors? All of my three were used to the outdoors - one was a stray, one neglected and the newbie god love him had been rehomed twice, and been in rescue twice, at only 18 months, but he was also used to outdoor access. None of them cares! They're really contented indoors!

They love attention. If you are out in the day consider getting two.

gorgeous cats, no issues with aggression from ours.