Your Maine Coon Guide

This is an example of extreme breeding. This is a Maine Coon but this cat is an extreme and rare example of this breed. This is not the way they look normally. This face is almost like an aggressive robot with the piercing eyes and the huge muzzle.  Or like a lion's head. The head looks enormous and very heavy. It looks unreal. But it also looks very impressive.  And purchasers like impressive-looking domestic cats. But this not the face of a Maine Coon that wins cat show competitions as it does not fit the breed standard as accurately as the more moderate winners (see below).  In fact, the CFA standard is clear in that the cat should have a balanced appearance although this cat was not bred under the CFA breed standard as I understand it (see below).  Click here for more on the kind of MC which wins at shows . Maine Coon selectively breed to have an extreme face. Image in the public domain. And the Maine Coon is meant to be a large cat, the largest domestic cat b...

  Another big one! Maine Coon 'Blizzard'. Photo: Twitter. Well, Blizzard looks a lot bigger than 17 pounds but he is being held by a young girl which makes him look larger and he is nearer the camera. He looks enormous though and they say that Maine Coons develop slowly and can take years to reach adulthood and their full-size so I would expect Blizzard to end up being around 25 pounds or more. It looks as though he's a silver tabby of the classic tabby variety.

Marty was a black Maine Coon cat whose home was the Mount Washington Observatory which is situated at the US Northeast's highest peak at 6,288 feet. He lived there for a dozen years as the Observatory's mascot cat. There were plans for him to retire from his mountain home in early 2021. He was loved and a special companion to the staff at the Observatory. The Operations Manager Rebecca Scholand said that he had to succumbed an "unforeseen illness". They issued a news release last Monday. Marty. Photo: Mount Washington Observatory Mount Washington Observatory has Arctic-like conditions. A quarter of a million people visit it every year under normal circumstances to sample the peak's extreme conditions which rivals those of Mount Everest and the Polar regions. They have accommodation there which is described as cosy so tourists can stay overnight. No doubt Marty was a familiar sight to the tourist as well. I would expect that he lived inside a lot of the time bea...

By photographer Robert Sijka. Great work. This is one of those Maine Coons with a human face and it happens to be a young one who looks wise beyond his years. It's like looking at a human child who has grown up too quickly and will no doubt become a star at something because they are always talented. It's like looking at Mozart but a feline version! The photographer is superb and he has taken many beautiful photographs of Maine Coon cats. Of course, he has been successful in sourcing some wonderful animals. Perhaps he knows a fantastic breeder who has created a long line of beautiful Maine Coons. I don't know but his photographs have been published widely on the Internet. Always adopt from a shelter :)  . I know I am praising a cat breeder and suggesting that you only adopt rescue cats but that is the nature of this: I love great looking cats but my heart is tender for rescues. The latter always wins.

This is one of those Maine Coons with a human face which are bred in Russia by a Russian breeder. The breeder’s name is Tatiana Rastorgueva and her business is: Cattery Catsvill County. Her website is: MCOON.RU. The picture below is by her I suspect. In this instance a young Maine Coon has a funny human face. This is a young cat with the face of an older human and the human is probably a man. I see a male human face in that cat face! This is confusing. A few months ago I wrote about Maine Coons with human faces so I have a page on this which you might like to read . It is all about selective breeding. No doubt this breeder decided to create a breeding line which produced cats with human faces. It may have happened accidentally by which I mean she probably bumped into a Maine Coon which she thought looked a bit like a human, bought their cat and then selectively bred that cat with another to gradually, over time, create a whole family of fascinating-looking Maine Coons. They are extreme...

Photo: Helmi Flick You may wish to take out a pet health insurance policy on your Maine Coon cat. Here are nine tips to ensure that the insurer pays out and to make sure that you've not missed something which results in a non-payment on a claim. Make sure that the details regarding your Maine Coon are up-to-date and notify them of any change in circumstances which includes moving home and relinquishing your cat, which is highly unlikely! Your insurer will probably not cover your Main Coon if he or she is used for commercial purposes such as breeding. It may also include the cat being used as a therapy animal. I would certainly check this. Make sure that your Main Coon is within the minimum and maximum age limits for qualifying pets under the insurance policy. If you're concerned about cover for dental health matters then check the policy because not all pet insurance policies cover this aspect of health i.e. it is not always included as standard. Pet insurance policies have a 1...

Don't pick up a Maine Coon like this, please. I realise that the reason is to show off the length of this cat but it is wrong particularly for a big, heavy cat. It'll place too much strain on the certain parts of the body such as the spine and the shoulder joints. Below the Maine Coon picture is another showing how to pick up a cat. This is how you pick up a domestic cat. The illustration by Kattaddorra, a cat lover.

CFA Maine Coon standard for tail -- TAIL: long, wide at base, and tapering. Fur long and flowing . Well, a magnificent tail. Fully plumed as they say in the cat fancy. This Maine Coon is a calico - tortoiseshell-and-white - which is why the tail has those super highlights across it. People understimate the value of a good tail on a domestic cat to enhance attractiveness! :) They are important and the Cat Fanciers' Association breed standard recognises this.

The CFA breed standard for legs and feet of the Maine Coon includes the phrase "well tufted" for their feet: LEGS and FEET: legs substantial, wide set, of medium length, and in proportion to the body. Forelegs are straight. Back legs are straight when viewed from behind. Paws large, round, well-tufted . Five toes in front; four in back. Well, here is a nice photograph (which I have presumed is in the public domain) of a glorious grey/silver tabby Maine Coon with well tufted feet.

This is a video of a beautiful Maine Coon (calico - tortie-and-white) who is exploring the water in a lake for the first time. His gentle owners apparently wanted him to experience water in this way. I think it's a great idea. You can see him (I am presuminng that this cat is a male for the sake of convenience in writing this article) pawing at the water as if to test it and play with it. The substance is novel to him and he's not quite sure about it. He gingerly goes into the water for the same reason. It's all brand-new to him. His entire life has been spent on dry land and here he is half-immersed in the liquid.  Screenshot from video below It gave me the idea that when Maine Coons play with the water in their water bowls they're doing it because they are interested in it and they're a bit unsure about it as a substance . Yes, they drink it instinctively but as a substance in its own right they are unsure about it and therefore they are testing it and playing wit...

This photograph is published here with Warren Photographic's written permission. He is a specialist animal photographer. I'm not altogether sure that this sweet, little black kitten is a Main Coon but I don't know because they develop into an adult Maine Coon appearance. I am one day late because Halloween was yesterday but just about within the limit of justifying publishing the picture today, the day after. It's a nice picture particularly as the cat is black. We all know the inherent dangers for black cats at this time because of superstitions over witchcraft. Yes, it is still possible that somebody, somewhere is practising witchcraft, a throwback to the Dark Ages when there were real witches who were killed out of the superstitions of ignorant Christians. I say "real" witches. In my opinion they weren't real at all because witchcraft doesn't really exist. But that's another topic.

The CFA breed standard makes the Maine Coon "ruff" desirable: COAT: heavy and shaggy; shorter on the shoulders and longer on the stomach and britches. Frontal ruff desirable . Texture silky with coat falling smoothly. It is interesting that it should be a "frontal ruff" whatever that means! It must mean that the ruff is predominantly at the front. The word "ruff" comes from the human clothes of Western, Central and Northern Europe from the mid-sixteenth century to the mid-seventeenth century. The picture of the Maine Coon on this page illustrates the ruff for this breed. Picture in the public domain It is a bit shaggy but Maine Coons should have shaggy coats. The ruff develops gradually. The picture below is of a human ruff. You can see the similarity! Cat breeders also refer to the term "britches" to describe the longer hair around the upper part of the hind leg . Johannes Verspronck  -  Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem.

Heterochromia iridum means odd-eye colour in layperson's language. There are two cats in the picture as you can see. Both are totally white and both have odd-eye colour. They have the classic odd-eye colour which is one is blue and the other is gold-yellow. The cat in the background is not a Maine Coon in my view. If she is then she does not have the right type i.e. appearance to be a show cat because the muzzle is not strong enough and the ears are no lynx tipped. The cat in the foreground is very much a Maine Coon. Odd-eye colour is very common in all-white cats whether they are purebred or random bread. This is because the dominant white gene which removes pigmentation from the hair strands also removes pigmentation from one of the eyes leaving that eye blue. It is also claimed that inbreeding ("a lack of genetic diversity ") predisoposes animals to this condition. The blueness is caused by the refraction of light through the eye rather than by pigmentation in the ey...

CFA breed standard for ears: EARS: Shape: large, well-tufted, wide at base, tapering to appear pointed. Set: approximately one ear’s width apart at the base; not flared. "Well-tufted" means lynx tips. The word "lynx" is a reference to the lynx wild cat species which has tufts of hair coming out of the tip of their ears. The breed standard demands it. The CFA standard for the muzzle is equally clear: MUZZLE/CHIN: is visibly square, medium in length and blunt ended when viewed in profile. It may give the appearance of being a rectangle but should not appear to be tapering or pointed. Note the "visibly square" description and "blunt ended". It is should not be pointed as is the case for the Norwegian Forest cat which is often confused in appearance with the Maine Coon. Here is a great cat who meets the CFA standard: Photo: Reddit.com.