5 reasons why you think your Maine Coon is small

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The first reason why you believe that your Maine Coon is small is because you may have a misapprehension as to how big they are. There are quite a lot of individual Maine Coons which are not that big but we are less likely to see them on the internet. The breed standard does not state that they have to be big. A lot of the Maine Coons that we see on the Internet are indeed very big. They are outstanding but rare. The average Maine Coon is bigger than the average domestic cat but they may not be as big as you think they are.

Can Maine Coons be small?

Clearly a classy Maine Coon
Clearly a classy Maine Coon which matches the breed standard. Photo in public domain.

Another reason is because your cat is a female. Sometimes female Maine Coons can be about the same size as regular domestic cats.

A third reason would be that your cat is not a purebred Maine Coon. There are a lot of 'Maine Coon mix' cats on the market. A lot of the cats that you see on adoption sites are described as 'Maine Coon mix' but in truth they are just medium-longhaired random bred cats (moggies). The person advertising the cat is trying to drum up some business and interest by putting the words "Maine Coon" into the advertisement. So these small Maine Coon cats were not Maine Coon cats at all (sometimes). Some Maine Coon mix cats are genuinely one generation from a true Maine Coon but that doesn't make much difference because either a Maine Coon is genuine or it is not. If it's a Maine Coon mix it is a random read cat and a moggy.

A fourth reason might be that your Maine Coon is still growing because it is said that Maine Coons reach their full size after about four years. They are slow developers and therefore you may have to wait a little longer before you can assess your cat's true size. That said, the really big Maine Coons are still pretty enormous even when they are quite young. You can tell quite quickly whether your cat will develop into one of those humongous examples of the breed that we see on the Internet.

A fifth reasons? One website states that a reason why a Maine Coon might be too small is because they aren't eating enough or that their food does not contain the right nutrients. I would disagree with this really. It is unlikely, highly unlikely, that a true, purebred Maine Coon bought from a cat breeder is going to be underfed or their diet will lack the essential nutrients for growth. It is just not feasible to envisage that kind of situation arising. It could only happen if the owner is incredibly negligent and has no right to be the caregiver of such a splendid purebred cat.

Why are Maine Coons so big?

Normal-sized Maine Coon cat
Normal-sized Maine Coon cat. Photo copyright Helmi Flick.

Gloria Stephens in her book Legacy of the Cat does not even state the average size of the Maine Coon, which I think is wise. Its should not be emphasised in my opinion. It can lead to breeders pushing selective breeding to extremes which is not a wise thing to do. Neither, incidentally, does Dr. Desmond Morris mention the size of this cat in his book Cat World.

The weight of Maine Coons varies between the weight of a standard domestic cat at about 10 pounds at the bottom end of the weight range to around 25 pounds. Sometimes, exceptionally, they can be heavier, weighing somewhere in the region of 30 pounds. I would not expect there to be more than a handful of Maine Coons on the planet which are this heavy.

Perhaps the most important factor here is to know that your cat is a purebred Maine Coon. If you bought the cat from a breeder you will have papers which prove their pedigree and the cat will be registered with a recognized cat association. Then you can expect your Maine Coon cat companion to reach quite a good size. But if you don't have this documentary evidence of pedigree then you have to guess that they are a purebred Maine Coon by appearance which is a dodgy way to assess pedigree. In fact it really won't do unless the appearance is outstanding and is obviously compliant with the breed standard as per one of the recognised cat associations.

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