Are Maine Coon cats good with babies?

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In general terms Maine Coon cats are probably better than your average domestic cat when it comes to their reaction to a new baby in the home and interactions thereafter. This is because when you buy a Maine Coon you normally know what you are getting in terms of personality whereas with say a rescue random bred cat there is less predictability in respect of character. 

Are Maine coon cats good with babies?
Image: MikeB

And Maine Coons are considered to have calm and fairly phlegmatic characters. There are many videos of owners showing off their super-large Maine Coon cat to the video camera and the cats take it all in their stride with no wriggling or expression of agitation. By-and-large this is a calm breed of cat which makes them very suited to being good with babies.

The reason for this is that Maine Coons are bred through artificial selection. The word 'selection' is the operative one. It means that breeders select foundation cats who have the correct appearance for a Maine Coon as per the breed standard AND a good character to ensure that they are good companions.

This cannot be a science. It is not stamping out nuts and bolts in a factory but there is a degree of control over the end result which means that we can generalise about a Maine Coon's character and therefore their suitability to adapting to the introduction into the home of a new baby.

The conclusion is that of all the domestic cats, random bred (moggies) or purebred (all the breeds), the Maine Coon should be in the top bracket in being 'good with babies'.

With that good news introduction, it is common sense that the 'owner' can do quite a lot to smooth the way to good Maine Coon-baby interactions.

RELATED: 90% of mums think that the risk is too great to allow your cat companion into the bedroom at night if you have a newborn child in a Moses basket next to your bed.

First introductions

Cats are inquisitive as we all know and they check out stuff by smelling it. Judging by what I've seen first introductions between Maine Coon and baby means gingerly approaching and sniffing! 

They key for the owner's standpoint must be supervision of interactions at all times to assess the cat's mood and behavior around the new member of the family. That's common sense. But I'd expect a very predictable and untroubled introduction.

Subsequent interactions should be the same. As mentioned, the consensus is that Maine Coons are good with babies.

Character

Common sense also tells us that each cat has their own character, specifically in terms of confidence versus timidity. How a cat reacts to new things is never entirely predictable in all ways. Supervision by the owner is the answer.

RELATED: Is cat litter hazardous to toddlers?

Routine and change

Cat owners can do things to make the changes more acceptable. Cats are creatures of routine and rhythms. A new baby breaks them to a certain extent and the mother may reduce their interactions with the cat. It might be useful to make the changes gradually to allow the cat to acclimatize.

A nice high hiding place for the cat is always useful and it may be used more than normal in the early stages depending on the cat's character.

Bringing home an item that smells of the new baby before the baby is brought into the home may help as the cat can sniff it and get used to the news smells to come.

Help

If there is more than one human in the home it might be useful if the second person engages in more Maine Coon caregiving before the babies arrival to avoid the reduced interactions by the baby's mother in caring for her baby and therefore taken away from caring for her cat.

RELATED: Cat snuggles up to baby: beautiful and mutually beneficial (supported by science).

Scents

There'll be lots of new stuff in the home. This is a good thing for a full-time indoor cat - and most Maine Coons are full-time indoor cats - as it is stimulating for them. It breaks up the boredom.

You might rub a cloth against the cheek of your Maine Coon to pick up cheek pheromones and rub the said cloth on the new items to make them more 'friendly' to the resident cat although I don't see this as a major issue.

Covering the baby basket/pram

You can get nets to go over baby baskets to stop the cat getting into it.

Old wives' tale

The old wives tale of cats sucking the breath from babies is just that. It is fiction in case you had thought about it.

RELATED: Origin of Cat Sucks Baby’s Breath.

Ongoing supervision

More common sense: ongoing supervision is necessary until you feel confident and relaxed about your Maine Coons behavior in relation to the baby. And as they grow up there will come a time when the toddler will need to be instructed in how to handle and interact with the family cat. This is very important in order to avoid scratches. Even the calm Maine Coon has limits on tolerating unpredictable and rough disrespectful handling.

Kids being scratched by the family cat is a major reason for relinquishing cats to shelters. That's unfair as the problem is down to poor parenting not bad cat behavior.

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