- CFA describes the Birman as a color pointed cat with four pure white feet, and lists lack of white gloves on any paw as a disqualification.
- CFA requires Birman rear gloves to extend up the back of the hock as laces, ideally ending in a point or inverted V and reaching one half to three quarters of the way up the hock.
- CFA describes the Ragdoll as a medium to large blue eyed pointed cat with a large rectangular body and heavy boning, where a mature male's weight not unusually reaches or exceeds 20 pounds (9.1 kg).
- A Ragdoll in the colorpoint pattern is disqualified for any locket or white spot, so a fully pointed Ragdoll carries no white at all, which no Birman may do.
- CFA records the Ragdoll as developed in the 1960s by Ann Baker in Riverside, California, and the Birman as descending from a breeding pair shipped from Burma to France in approximately 1919.
Side by side
| Ragdoll | Birman | |
|---|---|---|
| White on the paws | Optional. The colorpoint pattern carries none, and a locket or white spot is a disqualification in it. | Required on all four paws. Lack of white gloves on any paw is a disqualification. |
| Back of the hocks | In the mitted pattern, white must go up to and around the hocks, extending no higher than mid thigh. | Laces run up the back of the hock, ideally ending in a point or inverted V, one half to three quarters of the way up. |
| Chin | In the mitted pattern the chin must be white and extend into a white belly stripe, or the cat is disqualified. | A white chin spot is a disqualification. |
| Head | Large, broad, modified wedge that is equilateral, with a flat plane between the ears. | Broad and rounded with strong jaws, a firm chin and a medium length Roman nose. |
| Size | Medium to large with heavy boning; a mature male's weight not unusually reaches or exceeds 20 pounds (9.1 kg). | Medium sized to large with substantial boning and good body weight. CFA publishes no weight figure for the breed. |
| Body color cast | Even subtle shading permissible, clear color preferred, with darker color allowed in older cats. | The golden mist, a faint golden beige cast on the back and sides, desirable in all point colors. |
What to look at
- Look at all four paws first. Four white gloves is Birman. No white at all is Ragdoll in the colorpoint pattern.
- If white is present, look at the back of the hocks. Laces running up the hock and ending in an inverted V are the Birman signature and have no Ragdoll equivalent.
- Look at the chin. A mitted Ragdoll must have a white chin extending into a white belly stripe, and CFA disqualifies the pattern without it.
- Look at body outline and size. CFA asks the Ragdoll for a large, long, broad, rectangular body with heavy boning and males reaching or exceeding 20 pounds (9.1 kg). The Birman is described as strongly built, elongated and stocky, neither svelte nor cobby.
- Look at the head. CFA asks the Ragdoll for a large modified wedge that is equilateral, and the Birman for a broad rounded head with strong jaws and a medium length Roman nose.
- Look at the body color for a warm cast. CFA describes a golden mist on the Birman's back and sides, a faint golden beige tint desirable in all its point colors.
Two ways of putting white on a pointed cat
Both breeds are pointed, both have blue eyes, and both are semi longhaired, so the white is where the comparison actually lives. The Birman's white is a fixed requirement in a fixed place: gloves on all four paws, ending in an even line across the front paws at or between the second and third joints, with laces climbing the back of the hocks. CFA calls faultlessly gloved cats a rare exception and judges the cat on all its parts, but absence of gloves on any paw disqualifies. The Ragdoll's white is a pattern choice. A colorpoint Ragdoll has none and is disqualified for a locket or white spot, while mitted, bicolor and van patterns overlay the points with white in progressively larger amounts.
The limp Ragdoll claim, and where it came from
The breed is named for a behavior that CFA itself does not generalize. Its own history of the breed records that Ann Baker, working in Riverside, California in the 1960s, built the breed from a group of domestic longhairs around a foundation cat named Josephine, and that Baker claimed Josephine was so placid she went limp when held. CFA then states directly that this characteristic is not typical of most of today's Ragdolls, and that the claim is the source of the breed name rather than a description of the breed. The written standard describes the Ragdoll as laid back, affectionate and intelligent, and says nothing about going limp when picked up.
What a photo can and cannot tell you
A photo settles this pair more cleanly than most. Gloves, laces, chin color, belly stripe, head outline and body proportion are all visible, and a single standing shot from the side with the back legs in frame usually decides it, because the laces on the hock have no Ragdoll counterpart. Shoot in daylight so white reads as white rather than as a pale point color. What a photo cannot do is confirm the breed. Both patterns occur on unregistered cats, gloving in particular having been traced in the 2014 cat genome work to an allele drawn from random bred populations, and only registration papers naming the parents prove a pedigree.
Related guides
- Is my cat a Maine Coon?: Probably not, and that is the ordinary answer rather than a disappointing one.
- Lynx point Siamese: A lynx point is a pointed cat whose points carry tabby markings instead of solid color.