Are Maine Coons active?

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In an absolute sense Maine Coons have a medium activity level which means that they are neither lazy and inactive or very active according to a former president of the Cat Fanciers' Association and a show judge, Richard Gebhardt. But there are factors which have an impact on activity levels and they are as follows:-

Maine Coons have average activity levels
Maine Coons have average activity levels. Photo in public domain (modified by MikeB).


The environment affects a cat's activity level. I would argue that sometimes, and I stress sometimes, full-time indoor Maine Coon cats might be forced to be relatively inactive because their owner might not be around much and the environment in which they live is not what experts call 'enriched', meaning things to do in it. 

I said that Maine Coons should not be allowed outside (unless in an enclosure or on a leash) and therefore the only way to stimulate activity would be to engage with your cat regularly and have an enclosure attached to the home (a catio) where a cat can experience to a certain extent the outside. So, the environment in which they live can affect activity levels, which perhaps goes without saying.

Another factor I've already mentioned in passing, namely how interactive their owner is. Or is there somebody else in the home who stimulates activity through play? Or there might be another cat which the Maine Coon gets on well with. This might also stimulate activity.

Perhaps a less important but another factor might be the climatic conditions. If the owner lives in a very hot environment. let's say in Texas and they don't have air-conditioning (does everyone in Texas have air-conditioning?) Maine Coons might be relatively inactive because they are medium-longhaired cats and they will become hot and lethargic.

Obviously, health impacts activity levels. If there is an underlying illness of some sort then a Maine Coon will be less active and a condition comes to mind which is hip dysplasia. Maine Coons are predisposed to this condition as it is inherited and it does reduce activity levels because they have difficulty doing the athletic things cats enjoy. Health therefore has an influence.

My personal experience of interacting with a couple of Maine Coons for 10 days, who were both full-time indoor cats incidentally, is that they were less active than I thought they would be. However, this may have been due to the fact that they were not, in my opinion, brilliantly cared for. They were somewhat ignored and mooched around the house. Once I interacted with one of them, who I really liked, he was more active. I think this was an example of the environment having an impact rather than an inherent predisposition to inactivity.

The conclusion is that Maine Coons are middle-of-the-road in terms of activity levels, all things being equal.

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