Blue Maine Coons have blue noses and red Maine Coons have red noses

This is an interesting little snippet from the CFA Maine Coon breed standard. As you might know the CFA allows a massive range of coat colours and patterns. It's almost an infinite number when you combine them. One of those acceptable coat types is what they call the "Solid Color Class" where they list the following colours: white, black, blue, red and cream.

Blue Maine Coon. You won't get a more impressive looking domestic cat. Awesome. The nose leather is blue! As ordered by the CFA breed standard. The eyes match too. And I expect the paw pads are blue as well. Photo: Pinterest.

Cream is a diluted red, by the way. And blue is a diluted black. So, if you want a Maine Coon which complies with the CFA breed standard, which means that he or she is a high-quality Maine Coon, the nose leather i.e. the end of the nose has to be pink if the cat is white. It has to be black if the cat is black. It must be blue if the cat is blue and brick red if the cat is red. Finally, if the cat is cream the nose leather must be pink (that's a slight mismatch 😊).

And in a nice touch of colour coordination, the paw pads have to be the same colour as the nose leather. In this way you create a picture-perfect Maine Coon cat. 

Black Maine Coon with black nose leather. Correct as per the breed standard. The cat has a bit of rust on the coat. You see this on black cats. I discuss this on another page. Click here if it interests you. Picture in the public domain.

All of this comes together with selective breeding. It must be very complicated to make sure that the paw pads and the nose leather match up to the coat. Perhaps it happens automatically. Perhaps if you breed for a dilute black coat i.e. blue then the nose leather and paw pads follow automatically.

However, if that is the case it would seem unnecessary for the breed standard to state that this must happen!