Average weight of European male and female Maine Coons was 13.5 and 10 pounds respectively (2011)

This European (Germany and France) study which was published in 2011 may surprise you. It may surprise people who know the Maine Coon cat well or they think they do. 

We are, as I have said before, bombarded with beautiful pictures of beautiful and huge Maine Coon cats. These are highly exotic felines and the only thing you can say about them is WOW, they are enormous.

Nice standard Maine Coon cat. Relatively recent photo. Copyright Helmi Flick.

But, as also mentioned before they are rare. I think we need to keep our feet on the ground. This study does just that although it is about 12 years old.

The chart below actually covers the weights of a range of cat breeds and non-purebred cats. But I am interested in the Maine Coon for obvious reasons. The data is the bottom line both for males and females. To see it a little larger please lick on the image.

The mean or average weight of the 28 male Maine Coon cats weighed was 6.1 kg which is 13.5 pounds.

The mean or average weight of the 22 female Maine Coon cats was 4.8 kgs which is 10 pounds. Although the scientists carrying out the study described the Maine Coon breed as "giant" the average weights that we see don't look that large by today's standards.

Perhaps also as interesting is the average weight of the female Abyssinian cat for instance which came in at 2. 8 kg which is 6.2 pounds. This looks decidedly small by today's standards in the United States.

The chart gives you the full picture. You can regard the mean weight to be the average weight and the standard deviation (SD) is how much the cats in the particular group deviated from the average.

I have a feeling that the European Maine Coons even today, in 2023, are perhaps a little smaller than the American-bred Maine Coon cats. But that said, in Europe and in Russia if you want to regard Russia as part of Europe, they do breed the occasional very large Maine Coon cat.

And there's a difference between the appearance of European and American Maine Coons which you can read about by clicking on this link. 

Maine Coons are the largest domestic cat breed, yes, but they are domestic cats not wild lynx.