Ragdoll Ancestry

How Do We Know A Ragdoll’s Ancestry?

We do extensive testing on all of our breeding cats for the purpose of having the healthiest purebred ragdolls as possible. We run more tests than any other breeder we’ve ever met.

We get our testing done through IDEXX (samples are sent to them from our vet who takes the samples and sends them in) as well as UC Davis and Wisdom Panel. However, we do not run a ragdoll ancestry test on them.

I consider myself a purebred American, yet my ancestry is German, English and a myriad of other things. In this sense, no Ragdoll is a “purebred” because this breed was started in the 60’s from “alley cats”. Therefore, it might be conceivable that some of the DNA would date back to something other than a “ragdoll”.  (You can read more about the history of the ragdoll here.) The following comes directly from the breeding experts at Wisdom Panel:

“We do not know of an ancestry DNA test on the market that can confirm a pedigreed cat is 100% Ragdoll, or any breed. The way our ragdoll ancestry DNA testing works is by comparing a specific cat’s genetic information to a reference database of cats with known breed ancestry, and seeing where they match. While our database is extensive and our comparison algorithms are very accurate, with where the science of DNA testing is currently there is no way for this testing to be 100% accurate 100% of the time without a reference sample from every cat in the world. Because this is where science is at at this point, we have not included ancestry testing in the product specifically designed for breeders, and discourage the use of ragdoll ancestry testing by breeders and owners of pedigreed cats to verify or refute the breed status of a particular cat. We would refer any breeder or owner to pedigree information provided by a registry or breed club.”

Ragdoll Ancestry

Our breeding cats come from legitimate, ethical breeders with real registration papers. We are able to register our kittens with TICA and CFA (CFA being more challenging to register with due to their stricter adherence to Ragdoll standards than TICA). 

While no ethical ragdoll breeder can guarantee their kittens to be of 100% purebred ragdoll ancestry, we do everything possible on our end to guarantee that those who adopt from us receive a pedigreed ragdoll who is extremely healthy for the long haul.