Ragdoll Cats
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40 free Ragdoll Cats trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Ragdolls are among the most popular pedigree cats in the world, and among the youngest: the whole breed traces back to one breeder's experiment in the 1960s. Its origin story takes in tall tales, a falling-out between breeders and a name that describes exactly how the cats behave. This quiz turns the best fun facts about Ragdoll cats into questions. It covers where the breed came from, what its coat colours and patterns are called, how Ragdolls behave at home, the health checks breeders run, and a handful of individual cats that became famous. The early questions are pitched so that children and new owners can enjoy them, while the later ones will test people who know their breed standards. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you finish knowing more than when you started.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Ragdoll breed, developed in the 1960s, takes its name from which habit of the cats?
Going limp when picked up
Going limp when picked up is the trait behind the name. Some breeders have even tried to breed away from it, worried that such extreme docility is not good for the cat.
Q 02Whatever colours they wear as adults, Ragdoll kittens are all born with which coat colour?
White
White is the colour of every newborn Ragdoll. The darker markings creep in over the following weeks, with good colour arriving at around 8 to 10 weeks.
Q 03Which pop star named her Ragdoll cat Benjamin Button, after the film character who ages backwards?
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift names all her cats after fictional characters. Her Scottish Folds, Meredith Grey and Olivia Benson, take theirs from television dramas.
Q 04Ann Baker claimed the first Ragdoll kittens were placid because their mother survived what accident?
Being hit by a car
Being hit by a car sent the cat to a nearby medical centre where, Baker insisted, her genes were altered. Litters born before the accident lacked the famous temperament.
Q 05The extreme docility of some Ragdoll cats gave rise to which false belief about the breed?
They feel no pain
They feel no pain is only a myth. The same placid nature makes the Ragdoll an easy-to-handle lap cat that rarely shows aggression towards other pets.
Q 06Because they trail their owners from room to room, Ragdoll cats are often compared to which animals?
Dogs
Dogs are the usual comparison, and the nickname puppy cats has stuck. A Ragdoll will typically greet its owner at the door and then stay close by their side.
Q 07Frank and Louie, a Ragdoll who entered Guinness World Records, was born with which rare feature?
Two faces
Two faces made Frank and Louie a so-called Janus cat. Such kittens rarely survive more than a day, yet he lived for 15 years, the longest of any on record.
Q 08Linked to the same genes as their pointed coats, the eyes of all Ragdoll cats are which colour?
Blue
Blue is the only eye colour the breed standard allows. Cat-show judges favour the deeper shades, and mark down eyes that are very pale.
Q 09In which US state did breeder Ann Baker develop the Ragdoll cat during the 1960s?
California
California is where it began: Baker worked in the city of Riverside. Every Ragdoll alive descends from the small group of cats she bred there.
Q 10Ragdoll breeders routinely DNA-test their cats for an inherited disease affecting which organ?
Heart
Heart muscle thickens abnormally in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the condition the test screens for. Cats with two copies of the faulty gene are at the highest risk.
Q 11Which Ragdoll coat pattern is named for the pale markings that cover both of the cat's front feet?
Mitted
Mitted Ragdolls must also have a white chin and a matching stripe running down the belly. On the hind legs the white climbs higher, right up to the hocks.
Q 12Ragdoll cats carry the colourpoint gene made famous by which slender breed from Thailand?
Siamese
Siamese cats made the pattern famous, but the gene existed long before the breed was created. It turns up in ordinary non-pedigree cats all over the world.
Q 13Ragdolls with pale feet are often mistaken for which older breed, nicknamed the Sacred Cat of Burma?
Birman
Birman cats are smaller and have coloured chins, the quickest way to tell the two breeds apart. France was the first country to recognise them, in 1925.
Q 21Ann Baker herself described the Ragdoll breed's founding animals with which humble two-word label?
Alley cats
Alley cats was Baker's own description. Her founding female was of no particular breed, and neither were the males that sired the first litters.
Q 22Spurning the established cat associations, Ann Baker took which legal step over the name Ragdoll?
Trademarked it
Baker trademarked it, then set up a registry of her own. Anyone who wanted to breed or sell cats under the name had to meet her stringent standards.
Q 23Ann Baker ran her early Ragdoll programme by contracting breeders under which business model?
Franchises
Q 14Ragdoll cats do not reach their full size and weight until about what age?
4 years
4 years is how long a Ragdoll takes to finish growing. Owners like to say that their cats are kittens that never quite grow up.
Q 15Unlike most cats, which seek out high perches, Ragdolls are known for preferring to stay where?
Low to the ground
Low to the ground is where a Ragdoll prefers to be, rather than at the highest point in the house. The breed is not much of a talker either, greeting people with a soft mew.
Q 16Which household sound are Ragdoll cats said to find so intriguing that many hurry to investigate?
Running water
Running water draws them in, whether it comes from a shower, a bath or a tap. Many Ragdolls also love to drink from a filtered pet fountain.
Q 17The soft, silky texture of a Ragdoll's coat is often likened to the fur of which animal?
Rabbit
Rabbit fur is the usual comparison for the breed's silky, medium-length coat. Shed hairs tend to sit on top of surfaces, where a damp cloth picks them up easily.
Q 18Which breed ended the Ragdoll's run as the CFA's most registered pedigree cat in 2025?
Maine Coon
Maine Coon registrations took it to the top of the CFA list announced in 2025. The Ragdoll dropped to second place after several years at number one.
Q 19The gene that darkens a Ragdoll's face, ears and tail makes pigment only where the skin is what?
Cooler
Cooler skin is the only place the gene's heat-sensitive enzyme can work. The extremities colour up while the warm torso stays pale.
Q 20Which longhaired cat, mother of the founding litters in 1963, is the matriarch of the Ragdoll breed?
Josephine
Josephine is an ancestor of every Ragdoll alive. The line runs through her daughters Fugianna and Buckwheat, who were both mated to a male called Daddy Warbucks.
Franchises under Baker's guidance bred the early cats. As she grew more eccentric, breeders such as Denny and Laura Dayton broke away to win the breed wider recognition.
Q 24Daddy Warbucks, a founding male Ragdoll, shared his name with a tycoon from which comic strip?
Little Orphan Annie
Little Orphan Annie's wealthy guardian lent his name to the founding male. Every Ragdoll descends from his matings with two daughters of the breed's matriarch.
Q 25The deep brown point colour seen on many Ragdoll faces is named after which animal?
Seal
Seal points are a deep brown set against a warm-toned body of pale fawn to cream. Daddy Warbucks, a founding male of the breed, wore the colour.
Q 26Ragdoll breeders use which wild cat's name for points that carry tabby striping?
Lynx
Lynx is the breed's word for tabby-striped points. Show standards ask for distinct dark bars on a lighter background, with a paler thumbprint mark in the centre of each ear.
Q 27A bicolor Ragdoll's dark mask is split by a pale marking shaped like which upside-down letter?
V
V is the letter: an inverted one of pale fur runs up from the nose and between the eyes. The legs and belly of a bicolor are pale too.
Q 28Ragdoll fur sheds and mats less than many longhaired coats because it lacks a dense layer of what?
Undercoat
Undercoat is the woolly insulating layer that most longhairs have. A Ragdoll's coat is mainly long guard hairs, so a comb through once or twice a week keeps it tidy.
Q 29Some claim the Ragdoll's calm nature was passed down partly from which older longhaired breed?
Persian
Persian blood is one claimed source of the temperament. Others put it down to a genetic mutation, or to the instinct that relaxes a kitten carried by its mother.
Q 30Which New York hotel, famed for its literary Round Table, kept a prize-winning Ragdoll in its lobby?
The Algonquin
The Algonquin has kept a lobby cat since the 1920s. Its female Ragdoll was named cat of the year at the 2006 Westchester Cat Show.