Mitted Ragdoll

What mitted means

A mitted Ragdoll has the full colored mask of a colorpoint, colored ears, a colored tail and colored legs, with white added in fixed places: the front paws, as if the cat had dipped them in milk; the back legs, white to the hock or higher, like boots; the chin, white; and a stripe of white running from the chin down the chest and along the belly. Some carry a white blaze on the nose, from a thin line to a broad stripe. The nose leather is the color of the points, not pink, because the nose sits in the mask.

Seal mitted and blue mitted

A seal mitted is a dark brown-masked cat with white paws and a white chin, and it is the pattern that most resembles a Birman. A blue mitted is the same in slate gray, and is one of the most searched-for Ragdolls in the United States, more so than the blue colorpoint. Both have the deep contrast of a full mask with the softening of the white chin, and both look, to most people, friendlier than the colorpoint for it.

Mitted, bicolor, or high mitted?

Look at the nose. Pink nose in a white V: bicolor. Colored nose, white chin: mitted. Colored nose, colored chin: colorpoint. A high mitted is a mitted whose white has run so far up the legs and face that it passes for a bicolor, and it is a breeder’s distinction, not a buyer’s.

How the white arrives

The white is present at birth: a newborn mitted already shows white paws against the pink skin, and the chin and belly stripe are visible in the fur within days. The color arrives afterwards, on the same timetable as every other Ragdoll, ears first, then tail, then mask.

Why mitted matters to breeders

Because the mitted gene behaves differently from the bicolor gene, and a breeder who wants clean bicolors has to know which cats carry which. Bicolor to mitted gives both. Mitted to mitted gives mitted, colorpoint and high mitted. It is the reason a serious breeder can tell you what a litter might be before it is born and cannot tell you what it will be.