Ragdoll Growth Chart: How Big Do These Cats Get?

I’m sure that we all met the popular cuties with blue eyes, the Ragdolls, known for their docile and affectionate nature! Let’s learn a little more about them!

The Ragdoll cat is a large-medium domestic cat, usually long-haired, with a distinctive personality and look. Ragdoll owners are familiar with the fact that this cat has calm nature, enjoying the time in the sun.

According to the breed standard and Cat Fanciers Association, the Ragdoll breed can show six official colors – chocolate, seal, lilac, blue, cream, and red/blaze and patterns of a Ragdoll can be van, lynx, bi-color mitted, and colorpoint. However, each Ragdoll kitten, upon birth, is white soft coated from head to belly.

With a soft medium-length coat, this sizeable muscular breed is described as a relaxed and overall laid-back cat breed. But how big can these cats get? If you’re considering getting a Ragdoll, it’s essential to know about their growth and development. Here’s a quick guide to the Ragdoll growth chart!

Ragdoll Growth Chart

Ragdoll cats are much bigger than Persian, Siamese, and domestic shorthairs, but usually, Ragdoll cats are more petite than Norwegian Forest cats. However, their size resembles the size of the Maine Coons.

Ragdolls reach maturity later than other domestic adult cats, around 3 to 4 years of life. The first 12 weeks of a Ragdoll kitten will be similar to the growth of a domestic cat. However, males are typically larger than females.

But let’s take a look at the Ragdoll growth chart in order to have a better perspective about their size at each period of their life.

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Ragdoll Cat Size Chart

Ragdoll Cat Growth Stages

Now, let’s take a look at the developmental stages of kittens from birth to adulthood so that you can understand the growth and development of your Ragdoll kitten and what to expect and do in each phase.

Neonatal

This period is from birth to approximately two weeks, in which your little Ragdoll cat should have opened her eyes and walked by the end of the neonatal period.

During this period, it’s vital that your Ragdoll kitten is fed only with milk by the mother. While those days pass by, your kitten should have minimal social interaction.

In this period of age, your kitten doesn’t regulate body temperature and doesn’t know how to groom herself. It is essential that the cat receives high-quality kitten formula. You should also be gentle when taking her into your arms.

Early Socialization

Early socialization is from three to eight weeks. During this period, a Ragdoll kitten should start to eat solid food. As it is a sensitive period for social skills, try to play with your cat as often in order to pick up many skills that will help her in the future.

After the kitten develops bladder and bowel function control, you’ll need a litter box. In this period, you’ll have a lot of fun with your kitten since you’ll need to teach your kitten to object play. Kitten’s desire to climb and run is starting to show up, and she’ll be ready for complex learning. Also, scratching and predatory behavior is slowly rising.

Grooming and regulating body temperature is now their job. Baby teeth are starting to show up. Now, the kitten should be fed small meals, ideally would be four times a day; you can try wet and dry food, as long as it is high-quality kitten food.

This is the period of crucial socialization, so make sure to introduce your Ragdoll kitten to other cat breeds, animals, and a variety of people since this will help her have excellent social skills when she grows up. Plus, she won’t be scared.

About the grooming, tooth brushing should be in your grooming plans for your kitten. If you’re interested, click here to find the 7 best cat toothpastes. Also, nails and ears should be examined.

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Late Socialization

During the nine to sixteenth week, your Ragdoll cat is still learning to socialize and play peaks. Social conflict over status may show up.

Now, the cat is curious, and she tries to explore everything around her and starts to lose baby teeth. She’ll love a great tree, so you can choose one right here in our list of the 7 best cat trees that look like real trees!

Adolescence

Up until one year of age, your Ragdoll should have reached her sexual maturity, and if you’re thinking of spaying or neutering the cat, now would be the time for you to do that.

Social play is not as every day in this period as it was, but there is still the will for play. Kittens can be subordinate to bigger cats; however, they’ll fight for status.

During this period, it is expected that the cat is starting to eat high-quality adult food. Considering how precious these cuties are, you should think of getting a microchip in order to know if someone steals her or if she wanders away.

Adult

This is the period when your cat should be vaccinated and taken to regular vet check-ups. Additionally, you should watch over your cat’s food intake and exercise with her encouraging her to be active.

We don’t need to mention that it would be great if you rewarded good and friendly behavior. If your cat has toys that she loves, it is recommended that you circulate and change toys in order to avoid getting her bored.

The essentials like bed and litter box should be replaced accordingly. By watching over a Ragdoll growth chart along with monitoring weight and length, you can notice changes and prevent many health issues.

The grooming should be regular, and to warn you, Ragdolls can shed quite much, so the grooming needs to be done more often than it would be for a regular shorthair.

Adulthood

After your cat reaches seven years and up, you can notice changes in Ragdoll's appetite, and the level of social interaction will be smaller.

However, if some drastic changes occur, you need to consult with your vet about it. Health problems increase with age, so you need to be more aware of your cat’s health.

How Big Will My Ragdoll Cat Get?

We need to take into consideration how big is the average domestic cat. An average domestic cat can grow up from 8 to 10 inches in height.

However, some factors can influence the growth and development of your Ragdoll cat, and now we will look into them:

Wrong Diet

It is a fact that Ragdoll cats are cats with rapid growth rates, and it must be observed with proper nutrition. That usually means that your Ragdoll kitten should eat high-quality food and adequate amounts in order to maintain average growth.

It would be great if you contact the veterinarian since he could watch over your kitten and decide proper diet based on weight and other factors.

Special vitamin supplements can help your Ragdoll cat reach her development spurt. However, the dose of those supplement alternatives for your puffy friend should be determined by the vet.

Kibbles are often the first choice since they are cheap, not because they represent the best of it. However, the best way is to consult with the veterinarian about your cat’s diet.

Genetics

When wondering how big your Ragdoll will be, you should definitely consider the DNA and genetics of the cat and the cat’s parents.

Some cats are naturally bigger, while others are smaller, but the size of your Ragdoll will definitely be influenced by the size and disposition of her parents.

Parasites

Ragdoll growth can be hindered by worms and parasites. Parasites like hookworms, roundworms, mites, fleas, ticks, and tapeworms can prevent your cat’s healthy and proper development and growth.

For this reason, you need to ensure that these parasites are as far away as possible from your Ragdoll cat!

Deworming regularly is a must, and every time you groom your kitten, watch the skin for possible parasites.

Diseases

This is a significant factor that can have an influence on your cat’s development. It is widely known that Ragdoll cats are prone to many health problems, which may affect their development and growth.

Since Ragdoll cats are linked to many health problems, most of them have an influence on the growth of your Ragdoll cat. Since Ragdoll cats have medium to long hair, hairballs are a widespread problem, and the reason behind it is improper and not regular grooming.

If you want to prevent that, you need to groom her regularly, if you don’t, she’ll need to groom herself, and all that dead skin and hair will cause them to scratch and lick the hand she had been grooming with. That leads to hair consumption.

Since cats can’t dissolve their own hair, hairballs happen, and it can cause vomiting and diarrhea. And you know that you cannot eat reasonably well when you're sick. That is also the case with cats, who cannot eat properly, which means their growth will be hindered.

If you notice that your Ragdoll cat is behaving differently than usual, take her to the vet if you want to prevent health problems that can lead to growth being postponed.

The Runt Of The Litter

If you’ve never heard of the runt of the litter, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. What is a runt? A runt is a sibling that is visibly weaker or smaller than the rest of the siblings in one litter.

That little runt has many disadvantages since it’s tiny, and it can have problems with authority and competition when it comes to survival and the rejection of the mother cat.

What we want to say is that if by any chance your ragdoll kitten is the runt, you should not be surprised at the slower growth rate. Usually, the runt of the litter is the kitten that comes last, requiring special treatment and high-quality kitten formula.

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What Is The Average Weight Of A Grown Ragdoll?

The average weight of an adult ragdoll, according to the RFCI (Ragdoll Fanciers Club International is between 12 and 20 pounds. A Ragdoll that has reached her healthy weight should have a well-built and long body without extra stuffing along the rib cage.

Now, we will see the average weight of a Ragdoll cat, both male and female, along with their body length and average height:

The Average Weight Of A Ragdoll Cat

A healthy female ragdoll cat is supposed to weigh around 8 to 15 pounds on average or more. It is around 3.63 and 6.80 kg when we convert it to kg.

A Healthy and well-fed male ragdoll cat is expected to weigh around 8 to 20 pounds (3.6 – 9.1kg)

The Average Body Length Of A Ragdoll cat

Let’s see now how long our Ragdoll cats can be.

A female Ragdoll cat that is fully developed can be long, from 17 to 19 inches. (43 – 48 cm) while males can reach a body length of 17 to 21 inches ( 43 – 53 cm)

The Average Height Of A Ragdoll cat

And lastly, we will see the average height of a Ragdoll cat.

The height of a healthy and fully developed female ragdoll cat is around 7 to 9 inches (18 to 23cm), while male height is expected to be about 9 to 11 inches (23 to 28 cm).

Reasons For Ragdoll Cat Growth Spurts

Constantly changing your Ragdolls’ diet or overfeeding her can stop her growth spurts. These can also happen if your cat has been exposed to a new environment or if she has suffered some disease.

The growth spurts can be expected until the age of four, when they reach their size maturity. However, some of them may be more important or visible for these three reasons:

Changes In The Food Quality

If you feed your Ragdoll kitten low-quality food, don’t be surprised that your cat is not reaching her full growth potential.

Ragdoll growth spurts require high-quality formula on a regular basis. As we mentioned, being the runt of the litter can also affect the growth spurts.

Recovery From A Disease

If your cat had a disease, she was feeling certainly feeling unwell. The recovery from illness can postpone the development and growth for the time being. Your Ragdoll can even lose weight and shrink.

From you, it is expected to provide all the care that the vet advised you to do, and soon enough, your cat will enter the recovery stage.

After you’ve done all the possible treatments and your Ragdoll is free from disease, you can notice a growth spurt like weight gain. That time is usually between 2 and 4 months after the recovery.

Environmental Changes

When you get a Ragdoll, it is evident that the cat has changed the environment since the place of birth, and space for living is two different things. That can lead to a slow growth spurt.

However, it is totally up to you to help your cat get used to her new environment. Since she can notice temperature changes, development is usually a bit slower.

But, as time passes, your cat should get comfortable in her new surroundings, and then you’ll notice the real growth spurt.

What Does The Term “Full Grown” Mean For A Ragdoll?

The term full grown means that the Ragdoll has reached her full size, and that happens approximately around 4 years of age.

In comparison to other cats, it is obvious that they take more time to develop fully. But our gorgeous, gentle giant needs the time to show her full potential.

However, after around one year and a half, the Ragdoll has almost grown to her full potential. From that point on, she grows bit by bit.

How Long Do Ragdolls Live For?

Ragdoll cats reach their full maturity at 4 years of age, but they are expected to live up to 15 years. However, if you don’t feed your proper cat food, and if you don’t take well care of her, that number of years can be lower.

That’s why it is vital that you take this into consideration when getting a Ragdoll cat, or any other cat breed, in fact.

Closing Thoughts

I hope that our Ragdoll growth chart has helped you understand how much and what you need to feed your cat in order to have proper development.

These cats are known to be a gentle, large, and sweet breed of cat that Ann Baker, the breeder, developed in Riverside, California. Ragdolls will indeed show affection and love towards the owner. If you are one of those that likes cuddles, this breed is a perfect fit for you.

The Ragdoll kitten’s weight should be monitored since their metabolism is to change quickly, and it is recommended to play with it for at least 15 minutes a day.

Since they are one of the heaviest breeds, along with the Maine Coon, they need enough space for play and running. That is something you should definitely take into consideration if you think of getting a large cat like a Ragdoll!

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