Why do breeders create Maine Coons with big, square muzzles? What's the purpose?

What's the purpose? Why do Maine Coon breeders go out of their way to create cats with abnormally large and "square" muzzles. They are unnatural. They are more like dog muzzles.

Why do breeders create Maine Coons with big, square muzzles? What's the purpose? Image: MikeB.

Not common

The first point to make is that Maine Coon cats with these kinds of extreme and heavy muzzles are relatively rare. They are quite common on the internet (social media) but on the ground in the "real world" - among the Maine Coon pets - they are much less common. One can be misled by the internet.

And the Maine Coon show cats are not like this. They will have heavier than usual muzzles but not the type that we see on social media. The show Maine Coon have slightly heavier and squarer muzzles than normal because they should look natural (see below).

Standard guides and encourages

But the reason why breeders focus on the muzzle as a defining appearance aspect is because the breed standard indicates that the muzzle should be like this and the guidelines encourage them to exaggerate their selective breeding. To overdo it. To impress and to ultimately (for some breeders) please customers who buy their cats.

But, I'm sure the majority of Maine Coon cat breeders don't really do it to sell more cats. They do it because they are involved in selective breeding. They like to mould their cats like moulding clay to produce an ornament to show off. That's the fun of it.

Breed standard (CFA)

They start with the breed standard which is open to discretion. It is often quite loosely written although for the muzzle it is fairly precise. The breed standard provides some basic guidelines. For instance, in respect of the Maine Coon muzzle it says the following:

MUZZLE/CHIN: is visibly square, medium in length and blunt ended when viewed in profile. It may give the appearance of being a rectangle but should not appear to be tapering or pointed. Length and width of the muzzle should be proportionate to the rest of the head and present a pleasant, balanced appearance.  - CFA breed standard for muzzle and chin.

Should be 'balanced' but sometimes the muzzle is not

It is interesting because as you can see it does say that it should be visibly square and blunt ended but it also states that it should be proportionate to the rest of the head. It should be balanced in proportion to the head. It should not be sticking out of the scull like a foreign object. 

And some of these Maine Coon cats have muzzles which do look almost as if they are doing that. They are like appendages stuck onto the face. I would argue, therefore, that these cats do not follow the breed standard guidelines which is why they shouldn't perform well at a cat show.

We don't see these extreme cats cat shows. We see more modest-looking Maine Coons as is strongly evidenced by the winners of cat shows.

Breeders do it for fun

Ultimately, breeders create Maine Coons like this because they have fun doing it. They like to go a bit beyond the breed standard to try and impress themselves and people involved in the cat fancy. I don't think they do it particularly to win cat shows for the reasons stated above and to sell more cats because there are enough customers to buy their cats in any event with normal muzzles.

Distinguishing the Maine Coon from the Norwegian Forest cat

One last point. You will see that the muzzle should not be tapered or pointed. This, I believe, is a reference to the Norwegian Forest cat's muzzle which is tapered and pointed. I think the cat associations go out of their way to ensure that the Maine Coon cat can be distinguished from the Norwegian Forest cat. 

They do look somewhat similar and therefore it is important that the selective breeding ensures that they look as different as possible within the restrictions imposed upon them by the fact that they quite possibly come from the same origin.

The cat associations ensure that each breed can be clearly defined and are separated from the other breeds otherwise it would be impossible to identify a particular breed. The cat breed marketplace if you like is quite crowded. It has probably reached saturation point and probably did so many years ago.