Inquisitive dilute ginger tabby male Maine Coon investigates and licks his new 'son'

The title underneath this video on YouTube is, I believe, misleading. It says "Dad saw his Maine Coon son for the first time and was shocked!" I don't see a shocked father but an inquisitive dad who wants to be involved. You see the father licking his "son". And the mother then comes in onto the scene and they recognise each other as parents and then things carry on as normal. The newborn is male because nearly all ginger tabbies are male. There is one remote possibility that the kitten is not the offspring of the cats we see in the video! That's not been mentioned or discussed. But I will presume that they are.

The father's coat is a beautiful dilute red tabby. The mother seems to be a silver tabby and the offspring is a ginger tabby. But the issue is how much involvement does a male domestic cat desire in raising offspring?

That's what comes to mind here but the situation is somewhat artificial. The father in this instance is involved to a certain extent in parenthood. Normally the wondering male cat, the stud, encounters a female and mates with them and then moves off to do his thing within his large home range.

Often there is not much if any involvement by the male in raising young. But sometimes male cats do become involved in raising offspring. They can show a caring quality.

One reason why females join together to raise offspring is to protect them against males committing infanticide which can happen in wild living domestic cats in the same way that male lions commit infanticide.

What I see here is, as mentioned, a male Maine Coon cat who is interested in his offspring and I see harmony between the parents and the 'child' in human terms. It looks very human actually.

Whenever I read a book about the social organisation or the reproduction and development of domestic cats, I rarely see any information about how the male of the species is involved in raising offspring. There is next to nothing on it.

All the males do is have sex with the female and then clear off. All the work of raising offspring is done by female and sometimes females as mentioned join together. 

It is said that sometimes females act as midwives even helping to chew through the umbilical cord and cleanup after birth. Sometimes females offer a babysitting service bringing food for the new mother.

At this time the male is off wandering around looking for another female in heat. That's about the sum total of male involvement. 

So, the homely video of a male and female Maine Coon investigating their newborn offspring is probably a little bit unusual under normal circumstances. It looks as though the owners of the Maine Coon cats have allowed their male and female to breed rather than this being a formal breeding establishment i.e. a commercial breeder. But I could be wrong.

It would, I think be unusual, however, because normally commercial breeders keep their stud male cats in a large cage and away from the females and other males in order to keep them manageable. I don't think you'll see the male and female together like this inside the home unless it is just happening informally. 

For example, the GCCF say:

"A female will require separate quarters within the stud accommodation. A stud either requires separate accommodation – in view of the usual antisocial urine spraying behaviour of the majority of stud cats, or he will need hormonal implants in order to induce temporary infertility..."

It is, despite that long introduction, a charming video but the male cat is not shocked. I don't know where the video maker got the idea from that this male cat was shocked at the sight of his kitten. It is pure inquisitiveness. I am repeating myself.