Can Maine Coon cats be left alone all day?

No, Maine Coon cats can't be left alone all day, particularly if the cat is confined to the home, perhaps an apartment. However, there are no absolutely right answers. But it would be very poor cat ownership to leave a super Maine Coon home alone daily. 

The question is as much about buying a Maine Coon cat as anything else. When you buy any purebred cat, you have to decide whether you can afford to maintain your cat (about £1000 annually) and whether your life is in a position which allows you to be a proper, generous caregiver.

Maine Coon at home. Image in public domain as assessed.

Not everybody, often through no fault of their own, has a lifestyle which allows them to be a cat caregiver of a decent standard. An important aspect of cat caregiving is being there for them. And having a stable life with a decent home.

Domestic cats live in the human world. Often times it is the cat and the human who live in the home and nobody else. From a cat's perspective their human caregiver is their world. They are everything. They must be there under these circumstances.

I can remember an article about dogs in which an expert said that no dog should be left alone for more than four hours. Agreed. People think that cats are independent. They believe they can be left alone all day. I disagree.

And I take that from personal experience. If you leave a cat alone all day while you work and even perhaps go out in the evening, they are liable to develop idiopathic cystitis caused by stress and other stress related illnesses. They are likely to be stressed which you might not pick up but it'll be there.

Obviously, if a domestic cat is allowed outside and if they have a cat companion, it does change the arrangement somewhat. But you can't let a Maine Coon cat go outside unsupervised through a cat flap while you are at work all day. I don't think that's a good idea because Maine Coons look very impressive. They look expensive and, in the UK, where scamming and fraud is prevalent, there is a possibility that your Maine Coon cat will be stolen.

If they aren't stolen, they might be hit by a vehicle on the road. I just don't see it is feasible to allow a Maine Coon cat to be left alone all day with access to the outside to roam freely. Therefore, they are confined to the inside and therefore there is a great demand upon the human caregiver to entertain and stimulate them.

And therefore (!), I'm back to where I was in the beginning which means that the human should be at home a substantial amount of time to provide these 'services' to their cat companion! With working at home arrangements now more common post-Covid, this will be good for a person who wants to adopt a Maine Coon. However, the working from home arrangement needs to be permanent and solid. 

Imagine working partly from home for 3 years and then suddenly working in the office all day. Your cat would be bereft and confused. And certainly unhappy. Some planning is required.

What I've said on this page would apply to any domestic cat but perhaps more so to a purebred cat including the Maine Coon because they are confined to the home normally.

In my view, the Maine Coon cat has a placid, pleasant temperament which might mislead the owner into believing that they are perfectly happy to be left alone snoozing all day. I don't believe it. Cats are very good at hiding their emotions and all domestic cats want their humans to be around provided of course the human-to-cat relationship is a good one.