Your Maine Coon Guide

There is a high potential for matting in this superb Maine Coon. I know that the coat needs to be shaggy to meet the requirements of the breed standard so they look like genuine barn cats of the late 1800s but this guy needs ongoing maintenance of a serious kind: daily grooming by their human caretaker is probably a must to avoid mats forming. Once they form and take hold, they are hard to remove. Proactive action is far easier and more successful. Maine Coon's trademark shaggy coat. Needs human intervention of the grooming kind! Photo: Reddit. The important thing about grooming your cat is to be gentle. And the best care is proactive. Far easier. And commercial grooming parlours might not that good as they are unregulated and you don't know what is happening.  Will your cat be scared and traumatized? Is he safe? Are there dogs at the parlour as well? How do they dry cats? Are there safety controls? I would not use a grooming parlour as there have been some terrible stories ...

Maine Coons are domestic cats like any other domestic cat. Yes, they are more glamorous than some other domestic cats but in terms of their behaviour there is not one iota of difference between a Maine Coon and a moggy which you can adopt from a rescue centre. Nobody asks whether a moggy is dangerous because they are domestic cats. So the same answer applies to Maine Coons. They are not dangerous in any way. Maine Coon. Silver tabby. Photo: Pixabay There is one caveat which applies to all domestic cats. If a domestic cat is badly provoked by a person for whatever reason then they may retaliate aggressively. They may attack that person and they may injure the person. Under those circumstances a Maine Coon could be described as dangerous but the victim would be the author of their own injuries. It will be extremely rare for a person to provoke a domestic cat but I have seen it and I have seen a well-behaved domestic cat turn very aggressive. You don't have to provoke a cat purposeful...

Another good example of the size of the bigger Maine Coons. Photo: Reddit.com This is a good photograph from the point of view of comparing size because it is from above and so we can see the full length of this almost totally black Maine Coon with white boots. The cat looks bigger than the child which is possible because I've seen Maine Coons which are positively enormous. I'm sure breeders of this cat go out of the way and bend over backwards to breed the biggest Maine Coon that they can. It's a challenge. They're not meant to necessarily be as big as this, as far as I know. That wasn't the initial objective under the breed standard. The standard does not say that Maine Coons must be enormous. In fact, the Cat Fanciers' Association breed standard, in the opening paragraph provides an overview of the cat and there is no mention that this cat should be very big. It is reproduced below (great cat though): "GENERAL: originally a working cat, the Maine Coon is...

CFA breed standard - COAT: heavy and shaggy; shorter on the shoulders and longer on the stomach and britches. Frontal ruff desirable. Texture silky with coat falling smoothly. That shaggy coat. Photo: whippedcreamcheese / Reddit The coat is meant to be shaggy under the breed standard. I think we can agree that this individual meets the Cat Fanciers' Association breed standard. It's a little bit wild but I guess with a brush and a smoothing he or she will meet the standard perfectly. I think that you will find that the requirement for a shaggy coat is the cat associations' respecting the history of this cat as a barn cat in the state of Maine in the 1800s. This is essentially a shaggy-coated semi-feral cat working cat refined over a hundred years and more through selective breeding. But at its heart is still that barn cat with a shaggy coat to keep it warm during chilly Maine winters in a draughty barn. Note: the CFA like their Maine Coons more refined than TICA who like the...

There are two outstanding, if one can call them that, health conditions associated with Maine Coon cats. These are inherited conditions due largely to selective breeding for appearance but not always as certainly the causes of hip dysplasia are unclear to the experts as far as I can tell. I'm not going to blame the breeders or be critical of them but all purebred cats can develop inherited health problems because of selective breeding which is another way of describing inbreeding to various degrees.  Maine Coon. Author: brenkee / pixabay.com Patella luxation and hip dysplasia can sometimes be found in Maine Coon cats. One condition can occur with the other. In patella luxation , the kneecap of affected individuals tends to slide to the inside of the leg rather than remaining in its trochlear groove. The signs are quite mild normally and include occasional lameness and a reluctance to jump. Sometimes there is intermittent "locking" of the 'stifle' followed by exten...

In case you didn't know, allogrooming means mutual grooming. It looks like what it is, namely an act of friendship. It's like a woman giving a man a cuddle and vice versa. Cats cuddle each other too! The nice thing about this video is you're looking at 2 really good-looking Maine Coon cats with very attractive ginger tabby coats. It is actually the first time that I have seen Maine Coons grooming each other which is rather strange since I have watched many thousands of videos and seen many thousands of still images of Maine Coons.

WELL, APOLOGIES ALL AROUND . I had two videos on this page of the same event: a cat falling through the ceiling of a restaurant in Asia somewhere, but both of the videos stopped working which I totally expected!!   Anyway, here is another similar event. It is not a restaurant, but Chinese guys are eating and a cat falls through a false ceiling in exactly same way. Clearly domestic cats find their way into these false ceiling which are constructed to house the lighting and wiring because it is warm thanks to the lighting!   Expect this video to stop working one day too 😉👍😢.  This is not about Maine Coons. Sorry (another apology). The reason why the video is here is because the Google adverts on this site seem to make more money :). This video does not render that well sometimes. It looks squashed.  It shows a grey tabby-and-white cat falling from what appears to be the ceiling of the restaurant onto a table of a diner minding his own business.  The cat...

Update : This is written about 4 days later. Cats flick water from their water bowls because they are interested in it as a novel substance. That sounds bizarre but I believe it is true. They are playing with it as a toy almost. Well, we don't really know the answer to the question in the title. In the video I argue that cats like to flick at the water in their water bowls so that it ends up on the floor or countertop where they can lick it up as if they are licking water from a puddle outside. Perhaps they are trying to make the situation more natural for themselves. Perhaps they miss muddy rainwater from the outside and are trying to replicate it artificially. One problem with tap water is that it is chlorinated. Even a tiny amount of chemical in water can be slightly offputting for a domestic cat. This is why you often see them drinking what appears to be filthy water outside when there is clean water to be had inside the home. It's all about chemicals and processing water...

I had to refer to "domestic cats" because there are tigers and lions in the Bronx Zoo which are definitely larger than a very large Maine Coon. Here he is: NYC's biggest domestic cat. Samson is four feet long and weights 28 pounds. This puts him in the same weight zone as the wild ocelot .

There are two reasons why a Maine Coon cat might or might not get on with dogs. The first concerns selective breeding. This is a friendly cat breed but then again all of them are. But if breeders selectively breed for a particularly friendly character and socialise their cats then they will get along with dogs more so than others potentially. Maine Coon in The Netherlands. Photo: Dani. The second factor is socialisation which I have referred to above. If a breeder of Maine Coons allows the kittens to share plenty of time with a family dog during their early years i.e. the first 10 weeks of life lets say, then they will forever get along with dogs. The primary reason why a Maine coon cat might get along with dogs is because they are socialised to dogs. And this aspect of rearing a cat applies to any breed or random bred cats. It doesn't have to be a cat who is a member of a cat breed to benefit from socialisation. MAINE COON PERFORMS DOG-LIKE TRICKS So if a website says all Maine...

It is always instructive if you're interested in the cat fancy to compare the appearance of purebred cats from about 1900 to the present day. The cat fancy started in the late 1800s so it had been going on for a relatively short time when these photos were taken of early purebred Maine Coon cats. On this page you'll see three photographs two of which are from the late 1800s and 1901 of Maine Coon show cats of that era. The top photograph shows a Maine Coon born in 1884 who died in 1901. His name was Leo and he lived with a Mrs Persis Bodwell Martin of Augusta, Maine. He had a good life. His appearance is described as 'competitive' (in terms of cat shows) from The Book of the Cat. The picture below shows another Maine Coon looking like a standard medium-longhaired cat today. The pictures show cats that have the appearance of standard random bred cats by today's standards. There appears to be be hardly an inkling of Maine Coon in their appearance if ...

This is a super-shaggy, very large, grey/brown tabby, Maine Coon cat and very impressive he is too.

It is unfair to generalise about all the cats of one cat breed because within that group of cats there are individuals who are different from the rest. Although perhaps through selective breeding there's probably a tendency for individual cats of this cat breed to "not constantly demand attention, preferring to hang out with their owners. They do not necessarily want to be held...". Zak. Photo by me. A super charming and sweat cat. The quote comes from Gloria Stephens in her book Legacy of the Cat . She knows the cat breeds extremely well and was a specialty judge for the American Cat Fanciers' Association in 1971 and has been an all-breed judge for the American Cat Association. Personally, I have never lived with a Maine Coon for a long period of time. However, I have lived with a charming Maine Coon cat, Zak (see above), for 14 days in Dallas and I would confirm that although he was a beguiling and lovely cat I never saw him on a lap although he came on...

No, the Maine Coon is not the biggest cat but the biggest domestic cat excluding the high filial wild cat hybrids such as the F1 Savannah cat which are nearly always bigger, by the way. The Maine Coon weight can be exaggerated as we often see very large individuals. The average weight is something around 19 pounds for larger cats and it varies between males and females of course. Dutch Maine Coon bred by Dani. Photo by Dani. This is a nice natural Maine Coon. I'm being precise because if you refer to "biggest cat" you are really referring to all the cats on the planet which includes the wild cat species. But through selective breeding the Maine Coon has evolved into being the biggest domestic cat . This was not always the case. Let's remind ourselves that this very popular cat breed started off in around the late 1800s as a farm cat in the state of Maine, USA. They were shaggy, long-haired barn cats. They were attractive and at the beginning of the c...

The photographer is Robert Sijka (per the photo). This is another Maine Coon with a human expression. It is not an overtly human expression but you can definitely detect the human face in this cat. For some reason, the Maine Coon is predisposed to looking like a person. They can certainly be selectively bred to look that way. The photographer is excellent as well. I seen his work before and he takes outstanding photographs of cats of this breed normally. This is an all-white cat and therefore he may be deaf because the dominant white gene which causes the hair strands to be devoid of pigmentation can also affect hearing. The eyes are a pale blue which is typical of white cats but sometimes they are a more deeper blue than this. Altogether a fabulous looking cat. Imagine owning this cat? Anyone visiting your home would be stunned and all you would talk about would be this beautiful, magnetic creature.

Maine Coon with impressive ruff. Photo in public domain. The breed standard for the Maine Coon includes this impressive ruff: COAT: heavy and shaggy; shorter on the shoulders and longer on the stomach and britches. Frontal ruff desirable . Texture silky with coat falling smoothly.  Well, this cat certainly meets the CFA breed standard to a T. The ruff is gorgeous. It is said to be desirable and therefore you won't see this feature in all Maine Coon cats or to the same extent, let's put it that way. This is why I selected this cat for this website. He/she is particularly impressive. Please explore this site for more information and pictures on the Maine Coon, a most desirable cat companion.

  Lotus another huge Maine Coon. Photo? This Maine Coon is at the very top and of the scale for Maine Coon size despite the fact that this breed is the biggest domestic cat breed on the market . That is if you exclude the wild cat hybrids such as the F1 Savannah cats which are bigger . This is such an impressive cat and I'm sure the friends of this woman talk about her cat all the time. He is a kind of status symbol although I'm not saying that she is concerned about that. He just is. And I'm sure that when she has guests they talk about this cat all the time. His presence is so all-encompassing you can't help but notice him. I don't know a thing about him other than that he is enormous. It's almost certain that he's in America but he looks to me like he may have been bred in Russia because Russia take this cat breed one step further than other countries. They breed them bigger, with bigger muzzles and they even breed them with human faces .

That's a fair question and I have the answer. Firstly, the photograph of a Maine Coon mother and her kittens by Helmi Flick shows you very nicely what a tabby Maine Coon looks like. The tabby coat is probably the best for this cat breed. Maine Coon "Star" and her kittens. Photo: Helmi Flick with her express permission. This breed is an American cat and the Americans are proud of it. It is a big, tough, outdoor, cold-country cat similar to the Norwegian Forest cat and the Siberian cat. The three go together and some people have difficulty in distinguishing between them. If you look carefully there are real differences. The Maine Coon was a barn and farm cat. They were selectively bred and refined to create this beautiful and highly popular breed. There are many myths and legends about how the Maine Coon came about but the simple truth is that they are refined barn cats originally from Europe, imported by settlers into the east coast of North America. The winner of the firs...

This Maine Coon's appearance has a hint of the tiger. The coat reminds me of the tiger's and the relaxed way the cat is lounging adds to the impression. The face is definitely tigerish. This is a super-looking Maine Coon with a grey, striped tabby coat. A very relaxed and confident face. There is a cat breed which is designed to look like a tiger and you may have heard of it. It is the Toyger a.k.a. the toy tiger . The appearance of the Maine Coon is protected by the cat associations because breeders cannot outcross their Maine Coon cats. Outcrossing means breeding with cats of a different breed or random bred cats. This tends to dilute the appearance and takes the appearance away from the breed standard but it is incorporated into breeding to ensure the health of the cat. The tiger and the Maine Coon are almost identical in all respects except for their size and differences in appearance . You probably know by now that the original Maine Coons were barn cats in the 1800s in...

Why is this cat breed called "Maine Coon"? That's the question. There are two possible answers. There are various hypotheses for the origins of this breed. One of them is that a certain Captain Coon, an English sea captain (ostensibly a Chinese bloke), frequented the shores of Maine in his trading seagoing vessel. And, he loved cats!  A Maine Coon bred in The Netherlands. Photo by Dani. He had his little feline army on board. Whenever he went ashore some of his cats managed to follow him where they fraternised with the local strays and domestics. The offspring founded the long-haired cat population of North America and the Maine Coon cat. In that story you have both elements of the cat's name namely, "Maine", a reference to the state of Maine on the east coast of America and "Coon" a reference to Captain Coon who brought the cats to America in the first place. There is another far-fetched possibility in that at one stage some people thought that...