At Southern Dolls, we have the rare and stunning Mink
and Sepia Ragdolls
in
our family! However, two Mink parents are required to produce sepia
kittens, making them ultra rare. Scroll down for more information on
Mink and Sepia Ragdolls.
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Please visit our
Nursery
page for kitten availability!
(We currently have mink kittens!)
We also have a young retired
mink male who's available!
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Click on the photo
Cosmo is one of our boys and is a stunning blue mitted
mink. He is a large, stocky kitten with great markings and a terrific
Ragdoll personality. He loves attention and is very attached to my
6-year-old son, so he loves children too :). He has made a wonderful addition to our family as well as our
breeding program. He produces beautiful babies!
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Olivia (Seal Mitted Mink w/ Blaze) |
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Click on the photo
This is
"Olivia," one of our mink girls, as you can see, minks have a darker, richer
coat than traditional Ragdolls. Olivia's beautiful with a super sweet temperament
and is an excellent
representation of the Ragdoll breed. Mitted Ragdolls may also have a "blaze".
This is a white marking between the eyes and/or on the nose. There may be a
small amount of white, or a blaze may be present on most of the face. Two common
varieties are the "hour-glass" blaze, and the smallest version, a "diamond"
blaze. Olivia has an "hour-glass" blaze. A Ragdoll with a blaze is
usually accepted in shows. |
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Shelby (Blue Mitted Mink w/ Blaze)
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More photos coming soon!
Shelby is my furry daughter, lol.
She loves to grab my legs for attention and follows me everywhere. She's a
very happy kitty and is always so spunky and just loves life! She loves everyone
and we absolutely adore her! She's pictured
here at a year old and is already a big girl and has gorgeous markings.
Mitted Ragdolls may also have a "blaze". This is a white marking between the
eyes and/or on the nose. There may be a small amount of white, or a blaze may be
present on most of the face. Two common varieties are the "hour-glass" blaze,
and the smallest version, a "diamond" blaze. Shelby has a "diamond" blaze.
A Ragdoll with a blaze is usually accepted in shows. |
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Hayden (Blue Mitted Mink)
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Click on the photo
Hayden has a wonderful temperament
and is an extremely sweet & loving boy! We love him to death & he's just a
big ole baby! He's a very big-boned, heavy kitty & he's not even a year
old yet! We believe he'll be our biggest male we've ever had... with the
exception of Mickey since Mickey's neutered. Hayden isn't producing babies
yet, but we're looking forward to when he does! |
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Keely (Seal Colorpoint
Sepia)
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Click on the photo
Keely will "melt" when you scratch
her neck, and then you will become her best friend, lol. Our kitties are
extremely sweet, and Keely is definitely not an exception. Keely is our only
sepia cat; sepias are ultra rare (more rare than minks). Two mink parents
are required to produce sepia kittens which still isn't a guarantee in any given
litter. |
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Caydle (Blue Mitted Mink)
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Click on the photo
Wow, what can I say about Caydle?
She's a perfect doll, inside and out... which is why we kept her. She loves
attention and is a very affectionate kitty! Caydle is still too
young to have babies, but we're looking forward to when she can.
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Origination...
A mink is not a new breed of Ragdoll, not even a
new pattern, but rather it is a bloodline which can be traced back to the very
first Ragdolls by Ann Baker and other IRCA Ragdoll breeders. Contrary to
some rumors, mink Ragdolls are indeed purebred and the breed is officially
acknowledged by the SBT (StudBook Tradition) and The International Cat
Association. This makes them eligible for cat shows. YES, minks are purebred, SBT and TICA registered
Ragdolls. A look at early pedigrees from the Ann Baker cattery, called
Raggedy Ann, you will see that Josephine (a solid white) carried the mink gene,
and Buckwheat (a solid black Burmese type) carried the sepia gene. This
confirms that minks and sepias can be traced back to the very first Ragdolls.
Most breeders choose to continue
with traditional Ragdolls only and just a few are continuing with these old
lines and breed with Minks.
Click here if you'd like to see the lineage and genotype of the early
Ragdolls.
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Josephine with
kittens
Buckwheat with Kyoto and Tiki |
Genetics and Kittens...
The Burmese gene is cb
which creates a brownish coat for a genetically black cat. The points (face
mask, ears, legs, and tail) are very dark and the rest of the body is richly
warm. The mink gene isn't a separate gene but rather a combination of the
pointed gene and the Burmese gene represented by (cbcs).
When you breed two mink cats together you'll get
the following results: half of the litter will be mink colored, a quarter will be
"sepia" colored (actually this is Burmese color, but they are called "sepia")
and a quarter will be pointed Traditional Ragdolls. This is possible because some
kittens will receive the cb gene from
both parents which will make them a sepia color, some will get the cs
gene from both parents which will make them pointed, and some will get cb
from one parent and cs from the
other, and so they are mink colored. Some breeders will tell you that they
have kittens that are either: 1/4 mink, 1/2 mink, or 3/4 mink... there's no such
thing and it doesn't make sense. Ask them how do they determine how much
mink is in a kitten? This is just a scam to make more money since minks
usually cost more than traditionals... kittens are either 100% traditional, 100%
mink, or 100% sepia.
Temperament...
Do Minks still have the same
characteristics as the traditional variety of Ragdolls? Most definitely! They
are a lovely, large, docile, floppy, people-friendly cat. The Ragdoll cat or
kitten does not wish to be left alone, it is a very social creature. Other than
having different markings, an SBT purebred TICA registered mink Ragdoll
is exactly that, a true Ragdoll!
Physical Characteristics...
So why is this Ragdoll named "mink"? They are
called minks because the fur of this type of Ragdoll is still smoother than
that of the pointed traditional Ragdoll, which is hardly possible, but they
truly feel like a ladies mink stole.
Eye color between the traditional
pointed variety and the Mink Ragdoll is also a
distinguishing feature of each. In the traditional Ragdoll kitten, the eye color
is always blue. The Mink Ragdoll has a gorgeous aqua (blue-green) eye
coloring, resembling those pictures of the Caribbean Sea.
Colors & Patterns...
Mink Ragdoll kittens are born with color, unlike
traditional Ragdoll kittens who are born white. The point color of the mink is much stronger, richer, and
darker than that of the traditional Ragdoll. Mink Ragdolls come in all
the
traditional colors of seal, blue, chocolate, lilac, flame, cream, tortie, and
blue/cream. They are also available in the traditional patterns of a Ragdoll, such as: colorpoint (having no white),
mitted (white mitts on front paws and boots on back legs with white chin and
bib), and bicolor (an inverted "V" on its face, white on all legs, chin and
bib). Any of these patterns and colors can also be marked with the lynx in point
(tabby markings).
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Here's a photo of one of Olivia's
litter of 7 kittens. Minks, sepias, and traditionals were all born in this
litter. Buzz and Mercedes (shown below) were in this litter. They're
only about a day old in this photo, so you can see that the minks and sepias
were born with color and pattern, whereas the traditional kittens were not.
The traditional kittens will slowly develop their color as they get older, and
their patterns will become more apparent. And, the minks and sepias will
also get even darker as they age. |
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Two of our sepia kittens
Blue colorpoint sepia boy (left) &
seal colorpoint sepia girl (right) |
Like the Minks, the Sepia lines
also go back to IRCA breeders. It was Buckwheat who threw in the sepia
gene. At birth, the mink kittens are significantly darker in body color
than their pointed (or traditional) littermates and the sepia kittens are even
darker than their mink littermates. The points of an adult sepia, mink,
and pointed Ragdoll look quite similar, but the body color is really different.
Comparing pointed, mink, and sepia in respect to each other:
~ Traditional (or Pointed) Ragdolls: points are dark
- body coat is very light of color.
~ Mink Ragdolls: points are dark -
body coat color is only a few grades lighter than
their points.
~ Sepia Ragdolls: points are dark -
body color is near (not quite!) the same as the point
color.
Sepia and mink body coat color is a
very 'warm' color. Genetically, Pointed Ragdolls have two point genes (cs,
cs), Sepia Ragdolls have two sepia genes (cb, cb) (also known as the Burmese
genes), and Mink Ragdolls have one point gene and one sepia gene (cb, cs). A sepia gene is not
sex-related, but to get a mink Ragdoll, at least one of the parents need to be a
mink. And, to get a Sepia Ragdoll, both of the parents have to be a mink. A Sepia Ragdoll, when bred to a Pointed Ragdoll will produce 75%
mink kittens and 25% traditional kittens.
Sepia kittens can be seen in the
same colors/patterns as the Minks. The overlaying patterns are the same for the
Sepia, Mink, and Pointed Ragdoll, being either: solid (no white, equivalent to
the color point pointed-variety), mitted, and bicolor.
The eye colors are as follows:
~ Traditional: blue
~ Sepia: green/gold/copper, but also blue(ish) eyes
are possible, odd eyes
~ Mink: aqua (can vary from green/blue to
blue/green)
Reference for "Mink & Sepia
Ragdolls":
www.solidragdolls.com
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This is Buzz, he's a Seal
Mitted Sepia Ragdoll and is Olivia's baby. Sepias have an even darker,
richer coat than minks. They can have copper, green, or gold eyes, and odd
eyes or blu-ish eyes are possible, but not as common. Sepias can only be produced from both parents being
a mink making them ultra rare... Buzz's father was also a mink like Olivia.
Furthermore, not all kittens born from two mink parents are sepias. |
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Can you believe it??? The
next two photos below are of Buzz when he was a kitten! I've told several people the story
of Buzz, so I wanted to share a couple of his baby photos. He was so tiny with
a big head and alien-like body, he stood out from the others! We couldn't
help but to give him lots of attention and baby him to death when he was here
with us. Look at him now! He's one of the prettiest and biggest cats
we've produced, so sometimes you just never know. Dr. Boling, you've done
an incredible job raising this little guy, thank you from the bottom of my heart
:). |
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The following photo is of Buzz as a
newborn. His blaze and color (being a sepia) clearly distinguishes him
from the others, even as of today when looking at the photos. He was too
cute! |
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This is Mercedes, she's a Seal
Colorpoint Mink Ragdoll and is Olivia's baby and was Buzz's littermate. Minks
have a darker coat than traditionals, but you can see that sepias are even
darker than minks. Mercedes also has aqua eyes, unlike sepias, and versus blue as in the traditionals. Sepias, minks, and traditionals can all be born in the same
litter, as was the case with this litter from Olivia. |
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This is Max (he went home with
Mercedes), he's a traditional blue colorpoint Ragdoll and was also a littermate
to Buzz (a sepia) and Mercedes (a mink). As you can see, his color is much
lighter than minks and sepias, and he has blue eyes. This litter was
perfect for showing the differences in sepia, mink, and traditional Ragdoll
kittens... now, I think you have a good idea. If not, please read on, or
feel free to do so anyways :). |
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Here are three photos of our kittens
comparing the difference in looks (body color and eyes) of a blue sepia, mink,
and traditional Ragdoll kitten. The traditional kitten is lightest in
color, the mink is darker, and the sepia is even darker than the mink. All
of these kittens will get darker as they age; full weight and size is not
expected until they're about four years old. There's also a difference in
the eye coloring of all three kittens. It may be hard to tell from the
photos, but the traditional has blue, the mink has aqua, and the sepia appears
to have green eyes in the photo. Sepias can have green, gold, or copper
eyes. |
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1) Blue Colorpoint Sepia Boy |
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2) Blue Colorpoint Mink Girl |
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3) Blue Mitted Traditional Girl |
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Here are three photos of our kittens
comparing the difference in looks (body color and eyes) of a seal sepia, mink,
and traditional Ragdoll kitten. The traditional kitten is lightest in
color, the mink is darker, and the sepia is even darker than the mink. All
of these kittens will get darker as they age; full weight and size is not
expected until they're about four years old. There's also a difference in
the eye coloring of all three kittens. It may be hard to tell from the
photos, but the traditional has blue, the mink has aqua, and the sepia has gold
eyes. Sepias can have green, gold, or copper eyes. |
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1) Seal Colorpoint Sepia Girl |
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2) Seal Colorpoint Mink Girl |
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3) Seal Mitted Traditional Girl |
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Here are two photos of our kittens
comparing the difference in looks (body color and eyes) of a flame mink and a
flame traditional Ragdoll kitten. We haven't produced a flame sepia yet.
The traditional kitten is lighter in color. Both of these kittens will get
darker as they age; full weight and size is not expected until they're about
four years old. There's also a difference in the eye coloring; the traditional
has blue, whereas the mink has aqua. Both flames and minks are rare, so a
flame mink is "ultra" rare. |
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Flame Mitted Traditional Boy |
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I hope this page helped you
to understand the differences between traditional, mink, and sepia
Ragdolls. Enjoy the following photos of some more of our mink and sepia
cats and kittens that we've produced. The first one's name is
"Mac", when he was six months old, isn't he gorgeous? But, I think
they all are :). Thanks so much for visiting, and I hope you enjoyed!
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Seal Colorpoint Mink Girl |
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Blue Colorpoint Mink Boy & Girl |
~If you'd like
to reserve or inquire about a kitten(s) ,
please feel free to
call,
text, or
e-mail
us.~
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Cheryl Bromagen
~ Copyright © 2007-11 GA Southern Dolls, LLC
