When Do Ragdolls Stop Growing: The Bottom Line

When Do Ragdolls Stop Growing
When Do Ragdolls Stop Growing

When do ragdolls stop growing is a question that pops up now and then, in ragdoll groups, forums, among others, or even from people who are reaching out to get this beautiful pet.

If you have been asking when do ragdolls stop growing you’re welcome because today we will give you a precise answer.

Ragdolls stop growing exactly around 42 to 45 months of age, at this stage every developmental activity in a ragdoll stops, only then can you say your ragdoll is fully grown or has stopped growing.

Before this age so many things keep changing around a ragdoll, noticeably is the steady increase in the intensity of the coat color, steady increase in weight, a slow increase in height and length. Ragdolls are also very friendly to other pets.

The growth of your ragdoll may depend on many factors which will talk about in just a few seconds.

However, no matter the factor you are looking at ragdoll don’t grow rapidly, they take their time and do their thing at their own way.

Therefore, never you think you can just get a ragdoll and boom you see it grow big in one year or two, this is not the case of ragdolls.

That been said, let’s look at some factors that may affect the growth of a ragdoll.

Recommended; Ragdoll Characteristics, Information, Health, Personality & All You Need To Know

Factors that may affect the growth of a ragdoll

Here are the main factors that may affect the growth of your ragdoll.

Feeding (When Do Ragdolls Stop Growing)

The type of food you feed your ragdoll has a great and direct impact on its growth.

What are you feeding your ragdoll?, did you change the food you have been using?, are you show is the right food for your ragdoll?, did you ask your vet or make proper research about the food you’re giving your ragdoll?

Did you ask the breeder that sold you the ragdoll for the right food?, do you properly close the bag of food?, how times do you feed your ragdoll a day?, are you supplying your ragdoll clean and healthy water?, do you allow your ragdoll to drink from the same water for many days?.

I can go on and on to give you facts on how feeding may affect the growth of your ragdoll. However, there is a special food made differently for ragdoll.

Am not just telling you about this particular food for the sake of it, most ragdoll owners are already using it, and it has been tested and approved as it works fine, you can check the reviews on the product page as well.

The Royal Canin Ragdoll Breed Adult Dry Cat Food is one of the best if not the best. You can get it on Chewy or Amazon whichever one suits you.

Health

This is an important factor that can affect the growth of your ragdoll.

Ragdoll is a breed of cat that is associated with some health issues which any of which can affect the growth.

Oftentimes we create this health issues for our ragdoll lets pick an example, Hairballs which is caused by lack or regular grooming of your ragdoll.

When you fail to groom your ragdoll, your ragdoll will always groom itself because the dead skin or hairs will make them scratch, and lick the same hand they used in scratching leading to the ingestion of their own hair.

When they ingest their hair it forms hairballs because they can’t digest the hair, and this may cause other issues like vomiting and so on.

For the period your ragdoll is sick they may not eat properly with will end up affecting or delaying their growth.

So find time to always see your vet when your ragdoll start acting funnier than usual, if you ignore it then the growth might be affected.

Have you tried to answer this question? Can Ragdoll Cats Be Left Alone

Other Factors

There are other factors, but I will group them into one, and we will discuss it once.

The breeder’s factor is important because you can’t get your ragdoll from anywhere you like and expect it to grow at the same rate as the one from a reputable breeder.

Reputable breeders handle the health of their cats with care, and the know how to identify pure or unhealthy breeds.

However, it is important you check the health status of your ragdoll before going home.

You can check with a vet to be sure you got a healthy ragdoll. What about your environment how healthy is your environment.

Do you have a cat-friendly environment, is the temperature of your environment always hot? A hot environment might also affect the color progression of your ragdoll.

The age at when a cat is spayed or neutered also affects the growth rate.

Do you know that a cat that is spayed or neutered early in life will grow larger than a cat that wasn’t until adulthood? Let’s try and look into other areas that are related to cat growth.

Small ragdoll kitten - When Do Ragdolls Stop Growing
Small ragdoll kitten – When Do Ragdolls Stop Growing

Why is my ragdoll cat so small?

Your ragdoll cat is so small because it is either your ragdoll is the runt of the litter, there is a genetic mutation, sick, been affected by the environment, improper feeding or feeding the wrong food, or that you are not being patients with your ragdoll since ragdolls grow gradual and steady.

The above summary might be hard to digest, Lets throw more light on it. The first to note here is that sometimes the growth of a ragdoll will be gradual and steady, or it can be sudden in few cases.

Impatience

You are been impatient with your ragdoll maybe nobody told you that ragdolls have a slow growth rate and that they take their time to do their thing their own way. Oooooh I have told you now.

Give your ragdoll at least 12 to 24 months and if there is no significant increase in growth then you can start talking to your vet or the breeder.

So why not give your ragdoll more time since you have done everything you are supposed to do at that point the correct way.

Sick or Affected by the environment

Do you think a sick ragdoll will have significant growth rate? Once a ragdoll get sick there will be no more any Homeostasis Balance, and this will automatically pause the growth of the ragdoll, the will internal degradation of cells.

All the above big grammar is just a way to let you understand that your ragdoll cant have normal growth when it is sick. Let’s see a small example;

What if your ragdoll is suffering from a parasite it picked up from your backyard or anywhere around your home? Do you think the parasite will allow your ragdoll grow?

When your ragdoll has parasites, it would suffer from problems with digestion because these parasites feed on your ragdoll.

If the problem persists for long, it would lead to poor growth and development, which is not good for their overall health. So always check your cat and groom them.

When you bring your ragdoll to a new environment give them time to adjust and also create a very good cat environment for them.

Improper feeding or feeding the wrong food

Improper feeding or feeding the wrong food sound like a perfect recipe for getting a small ragdoll, ragdolls at some stage of growth eats a lot and poop a lot too.

The important takeaway here is that when you feed your ragdoll with low quality, improper, or wrong food chances are that your ragdoll remain small and may even get sick.

Now, think of it this way you got a ragdoll that was feeding on industrial or commercial food, and you start feeding it with human food from the very day you get home.

Such a cat will remain small and even get sick. So pay attention to what you feed your ragdoll and always keep clean water.

Let’s now look at the size of a full-grown or average ragdoll so that you see if your ragdoll is heading in the right way.

Ragdoll cat size

Ragdoll size - When Do Ragdolls Stop Growing
Ragdoll size – When Do Ragdolls Stop Growing

Let’s look at the full dimension of an average or full-grown adult ragdoll and see what we are dealing with or what we have been talking about.

Ragdoll weight in kg

A full-grown male ragdoll can weigh around 5.4 to 10 kg, while on average a full-grown female ragdoll can weigh around 3.6 to 7.8 kg.

However, the feeding pattern can affect the weight of both male and female ragdoll.

Ragdoll Height In Centimetres

Ragdoll is a large breed of cat that a full-grown male on average can grow up to 23 – 28 cm, while the full-grown female ragdoll can grow up to 21 – 26 cm tall.

Ragdoll Length In Centimeters

A full-grown male ragdoll can grow to a length of 43 – 53 cm, while on average a full-grown female ragdoll can grow to a length of 41 – 51 cm long. You can refer to this article for more on ragdolls appearance.

Ragdoll growth spurts

Ragdoll growth spurts are something that mostly occurs when you overfeed a ragdoll or when you change a ragdoll food, it can also occur when you adopt a new ragdoll into a new environment, Ragdoll growth spurts can occur when a ragdoll is recovering from a sickness it has suffered from for a while.

Ragdoll growth spurts are what ragdolls typically experience until they are four years old, at which point they have usually reached their mature size.

However, some spurts are more pronounced or more noticeable because of some reasons.

Reasons for Ragdoll growth spurts

Here are the reasons for Ragdoll growth spurts.

It is in their nature

The major reason for the Ragdoll growth spurts is because it is natural and will be constant until the age of four when every growth and developmental activities stops.

Oftentimes if you pay attention to the growth of your ragdoll, you will always notice this growth spruts which is sometimes more visible in the male ragdoll than the female.

Even though these growth spurts are natural, there are still other scenarios which will contribute to the ragdoll growth spurts.

Recovering from a sickness

When a ragdoll is serious sick every growth and developmental activity slows down for that moment, the ragdoll can even look smaller when sick and can also loose weight.

As time goes on you keep giving treatments as recommended by the vet, then when your radgoll is free from such sickness it enters the recovering stages.

During the recovery stages you use all kinds of methods just to get your ragdoll up and running, speaking of which you may even add supplements to its meal.

Then after recovery, every growth activity continues, and since you have increased or stepped up your ragdoll meal during the recovery stages, between 2 and 4 months after recovery you will see noticeable ragdoll growth spurts, even in weight.

Check out: Why Lost Cats Never Return Home Again – 9 Possible Scenarios

Change of environment

When you get a new ragdoll you have changed its birth environment, depending on the new environment the growth of your ragdoll may slow down.

You will be responsible and have to help your ragdoll adapt to the new environment. During this transition stages growth seems to slow down because of environmental factors like temperature etc.

When your ragdoll is fully settled and has blended with the environment with your help of course. At this point there is a clear ragdoll growth spurt.

Change in diet

You may not be seeing the growth spurts of your ragdoll because you are offering low quality food. High quality food is the key to constant ragdoll growth spurts.

Assuming you adopted a ragdoll from a friend who don’t care about what he or she feeds the ragdoll, and then you start feeding the ragdoll with a proper and high quality ragdoll food, do you think you won’t start seeing a great change in the ragdoll growth spurts?

High quality or specially made ragdoll food is directly proportional to good ragdoll growth spurts.

Other reasons such as runt of the litter may contribute to noticeable ragdoll growth spurts.

How long does it take for a ragdoll cat to grow to full size

It takes a ragdoll exactly four years to grow to full size after which every growth activity stops.

At this age, the height of the ragdoll should be around 23 – 28 cm & 21 – 26 cm, the weight around 5.4 to 10 kg & 3.6 to 7.8 kg for male and female respectively. However, growth is slow and steady.

Have you seen; Ragdoll Cat behavior problems – 9 Common Behavior

Cheers!!!

By Jackson Duke

I'm Jackson Duke the founder of allpetspot. I grew up with lots of pets with 15 years of experience living with pets. My love for pets made me start allpetspot, am here to share his experiences with pets.

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