DNA Testing

DNA tests are very good for finding out HEALTH information only. Breed ancestry results spread misinformation. The DNA testing industry is not regulated for cat ancestry, in fact, different DNA tests/companies can actually give radically different result. This is because all cats have a common ancestor. Therefor there is no DNA testing to verify purebred Ragdoll. There is no DNA ancestry testing to verify any purebred cat. Especially breeds that have been created more recently, within the past 75 years. Ragdolls are a fairly new breed. This is not long enough for genetically robust differences to exist. For all cat breeds there is a common ancestry where it then branches off. You will find with almost all purebred cats there is variation and some common ancestors. Ragdolls were created in the 1960's by Ann Baker. She initially mated a feral long haired white cat with a mixed breed Persian “type” cat. This pairing created a beautiful, blue eyed, pointed cat that collapses in your arms. This was the very beginnings of the Ragdoll. This is too recent to have an accurate test result for Ragdoll, as Ragdolls themselves were created from mixed breeds. It’s not that the tests aren’t reliable, it’s that cat DNA isn’t as diversified as dog DNA. Dogs for example, have been domesticated as far back as 35,000 years. Cats have been companions for just as long however not divided into different "breeds". The oldest "breed" was about 8,000 years ago. (numbers vary depending on resources) Compared to dogs, all cat breeds are still quite close. Some have only been around a few decades. So instead of breeds being clearly defined after hundreds of thousands of years of diversifying from other breeds, the cats are all pretty similar mixes with different characteristics expressed. When you compare 35,000 years for dog breeds to 8,000 for the older of cat breeds to only 60 years for Ragdolls. Technically they are just long hair moggies that were bred from a stray cat and mixed for a few decades until we have what we have now. So, what defines them as Ragdolls is that the lineage that can be traced back to the first cat the breed started with. A DNA test could show a “purebred” ragdoll as a lot of breeds because not so long ago the breed was still getting crossed with others to refine it. Basically take with a grain of salt whatever DNA ancestry says. It boils down to this; according to TICA and CFA, Ragdolls are a blue eyed pointed cat with a pedigree that traces back to the origination of breed. We at Sunshine Ragdolls have TICA and/or CFA pedigrees for every one of our breeders. All of our kittens represent the breed standard, are sweet and docile, come with TICA registration papers. and will collapse in your arms!  We breed for health, personality, and beauty. In that order. 

 

Kind Regards, 

Sunshine Ragdolls