Your Maine Coon Guide

2 gorgeous, slate grey Maine Coon kittens. Image in the public domain. A Reddit.com user on the Maine Coon group on that website tells us that she is getting "my boy in a few weeks but was just offered another from a litter that previously wasn't opened". It seems that things have changed and the breeder from whom he is buying the kitten has offered her a second one and is asking whether two kittens are better than one. She added: "Not just for wants, but would it benefit my other kitten long term? I am home 24/7 so my current boy would never be alone." I think the last point is very important. Pretty well all the experts would say that if you are in a position to afford it, and if you have the mindset to look after two cats, then purchasing two Maine Coon kittens is better than purchasing one Maine Coon kitten PROVIDED that you absolutely know that they will get along. You normally don't know whether cats will get along and often times you have to introduc...

It should interest people who want to adopt a Maine Coon in the UK that there are 12 Maine Coon breeders in the country who are members of the GCCF Breeder Scheme. The GCCF (Governing Council of the Cat Fancy) is the number one cat association in the UK. It was established as an independent body in 1910. They declare that the health and welfare of cats bred by their members are at the heart of everything they do. Maine Coon kittens (tabbies). Image in the public domain. I love their faces especially the guy on the right. It is nice to read that. One of their main aims is to encourage responsible breeding of pedigree cats. In light of that objective, they have their "Breeder Scheme". They modified how the scheme worked quite recently, in April 2021. They consulted with the Kennel Club. The scheme lays down minimum requirements that breeders must adhere to if they wish to be members such as the size of the cattery, runs, lighting and heating and suitable requirements for queens...

Pretty Maine Coon with lion cut. Image in the public domain. Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General said this about global warming: "The only surprise is the speed of the change. Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning. The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived." Relative to America, air conditioning is quite unusual in most of Europe. The Washington Post recently reported that only 20% of European homes have air conditioning, and it's rare to find it in schools or offices. I've argued that in some American states such as Texas it would be unfair to have a Maine Coon as it'd be too hot . There are many Maine Coon cats in Europe. And further, July is "virtually certain" to be the hottest month on record globally by a significant margin, the United Nations and a European science agency have said. July's first 23 days averaged a record 16.95°C globally. You might have read about the wil...

Kefir the god cat. Image: Instagram. Yuli Minina lives in Stary Oskol, Russia, and she claims that her now famous Maine Coon cat, Kefir, is the world's largest and I for one can't disagree with her despite the fact that, officially, in 2022, another Maine Coon was declared the world's largest by Guinness World Records. See post below: Maine Coon 'Barivel' is the world's longest domestic cat (2022) Kefir is bigger in my view. Guinness need to update their record! I can't see any other outcome. Kefir was the biggest even when he was a baby! The video is from TikTok which allows downloads. Kefir is almost as tall as Yuli's four-year-old daughter: Image: Instagram. Weighing 12.5kg (27.5lbs) at just one year and ten months old, the giant cat was still just considered a kitten. Yulia explained: "I could not even think that an ordinary baby can become so big. "He not only grew up big in appearance, he is also very smart and always behaves calmly"...

Maine Coon was breathing heavily one day and he was euthanised the next due to sudden sign of heart disease. Maine Coon was put down one day after the first signs of heart disease emerged. Image: Instagram account of northstarvintage. RELATED ARTICLE: Mavacamten is slated as a possible new drug for HCM in Maine Coon cats  - always seek vet advice about these sorts of stories. This story on Instagram shocked me a little. I and many others know that Maine Coons are predisposed to heart disease through inheritance. It is part of the breed sadly. It should not be. It is down to bad breeding. Anyway, a Maine Coon owner posted a glorious picture of their ever so shaggy Maine Coon (never seen a Maine Coon so shaggy) with the following poignant words: Yesterday we learned the hard way that Maine Coon Cats are prone to heart disease. Junior started breathing heavily and what I thought would be a quick and easy trip to the vet became a heartbreaking afternoon as his chest was filled with flu...

Strange huge Maine Coon with abnormally small ears with no lynx tips. Image: Instagram This should be an interesting picture to Maine Coon aficionados. When you look at this enormous Maine Coon who is very impressive it gradually dawns on you, I hope, that there is something dramatically wrong about the cat's appearance if you are into this cat breed and know a bit about the breed standard. The ears are inordinately small on this individual cat and very positively not in line with the breed standard. And it does not matter what breed standard we are referring to because all of them require that the ears are large and triangular and at the tip of the ear flaps there should be tufts of fur sticking out which are called "lynx tips". The phrase as you probably know comes from the lynx wild cat species which has tufts of fur sticking out from the top of their flaps. But just look at this beautiful Maine Coon cat with a very strong muzzle which is in line with the breed standar...

I am or was slightly bemused by this Maine Coon video. She is a beautiful Maine Coon cat and she is kneading a fluffy cover of some sort. The cover is made of a white fabric probably fleece. Fleece doesn't normally come loose.  Maine Coon has the most amazing 'tufted paws' that you'll ever see. Screenshot. I say that because this female Maine Coon has so much fur on her feet that it makes me almost believe that she has picked up some of the fabric from the cover that she is kneading. I don't know but have you ever seen so much fur on the feet of a Maine Coon cat?  We know that the Maine Coon is known to have a lot of fur sticking between their toes. It is one of the signatures of this popular domestic cat breed. But if you look at the video carefully you will see an inordinate amount of it the stuck to her feet which does not seem plausible. I don't see how it can be like that. It seems impossible. But she is a hairy Maine Coon cat! And that is the reason why sh...

Tabby Maine Coon mother and her kitten. Image: MikeB The basic M.O. (modus operandi) or method when you want to purchase a Maine Coon kitten is to visit the breeder from whom you are going to make the purchase. I know that a lot of people don't visit the breeder. They might purchase online and ask the breeder to ship the kitten, sometimes over a long distance. But it is always advisable to visit the breeder. This is a big purchase for the lifetime of the kitten. And if you do buy online DON'T send money upfront unless you are absolutely certain that the seller is not a scammer . So having visited the breeder to select a kitten, the following advice is provided by the Maine Coon Cat Club in the UK: Ask questions Ask questions. Obviously, you will ask them politely but you should ask all the questions that you want to ask and a good breeder will be pleased to provide answers. I am just trying to think about the kind of questions you might ask. You might ask about the foundation c...

In general terms Maine Coons cats have good memories somewhat like the memories of humans. Please read on. The video below is my MikeB. Introduction I am going to rely on a three scientific studies and my personal experiences with my cats to answer the question. The working, short and long-term memory of non-purebred cats will the same as for the Maine Coon. In fact, it would be fair to say that in general random-bred cats might sometimes have better memories than purebred cats because selective breeding if carried to extreme can have a detrimental effect on cognition and memory in my opinion based on personal experience. Medium and long-term memory Maine Coons have good a long-term memory. Perhaps the best and simplest test for a domestic cats long-term memory is to test if they recognise their owner after they've been separated for years. And the answer is yes. There are many stories on the internet of lost cats immediately recognising their owner after years apart. Medium-term m...

Maine Coons are just like any other domestic cat in terms of whether they get on with other cats. They are not a special case with extraordinary powers of friendliness and amicability. Yes, generally (subject to good socialisation as kittens) they have nice, laid-back characters but this does not override the domestic cat's instinctive behaviour to claim a home range and protect it from 'invaders'.   A person who knows the Maine Coon well, Gloria Stephens, a cat show judge and breeder, says that 'most are nothing but sweet'. Not the qualifying word 'most'. She says that her female is calm and collected 'controlling the house with a mere glance of the eye'. A nice character but still a classic domestic cat in overall character. Omar is a good friend to a standard moggie - a dark tortie. Image: Instagram. A new cat to a home would be nearly always be regarded as an invader. The reaction depends on the cat. It might be mild or there may be aggression. T...

This is a quite a cool video from TikTok as it shows us the range of coat types that can surprisingly be seen in kittens when their parents have different coats to their kittens. The video comes from PNW.Whiskers Cattery [ link ]. The mother is white. They breeder says that the mother is black but the presence of the W gene masks the black rendering the cat white. Click this to see a page on cat with white coats . You probably know that there is a good chance that a white cat can be deaf. It depends on various factors. I have a page on that too if it interests you. Click here to read the page . And why are cats with blue eyes deaf? Click this to find out . Note: white cats often have blue eyes. White cats have light-coloured eyes in shades of blue, gold, green, and copper This accounts for the white and black kittens. The 2 ginger tabby kittens come from their father's side as he is a ginger tabby. Ginger tabbies are nearly always males. Here they are. The white kitten at the front...

This is a very complicated area. Some parts of the answer might seem straightforward but the whole issue tricky. And it can't really be simplified. It is about DNA analysis ultimately. But there are some clear connections. Maine Coon. Image in public domain. Norwegian Forest cats I am going to have to criticise the number one website on Maine Coon cats which is Maine Coon Central. It is a horrible site; it is written for 14-year-olds with a ton a waffle to pad out boring pages. I don't want to but they answered the question in the title and the author produced her usual huge amount of waffle and came to the conclusion that the Maine Coon cat is related to the Norwegian Forest Cat. And that is about it. The connection between the two is probably/possibly because there are stories about the Vikings bringing across from Norway longhaired cats hundreds of years before the European settlers emigrated to America. Are Maine Coons and Norwegian Forest cats related ? It is possible alth...

Although unlikely, it is possible that a Maine Coon living in a nice home might become anxious. If the problem exists the causes would be a mixture of a timid character plus environmental circumstances such as the owner's absence or issues between cats in a multi-cat home. Note: Although as mentioned Maine Coons can be anxious it should be relatively unusual as in general this cat breed is made up of pretty laid-back cats. They have solid characters. But bad circumstances can make any cat anxious. Concerned Maine Coon, probably because of the photographer! Image: PetCareRx Here are some tips that might be helpful: Don't force your Maine Coon cat to confront what frightens them. If they are frightened of a particular area such as near the washing machine don't take your cat to that particular area to try and show them that there is nothing to be frightened about. Rather gradually encourage them over a period of time to go closer to the room until they go there of their own f...

This is also a poor question as it is the same as asking, "Cat domestic cats be left alone?" It depends for how long. But the question hints at being left alone for a long time, such as a few days continuously and the answer to that would be no which applies to all domestic cats. I think anyone and everyone would agree with that statement. It feels wrong and it is wrong. To leave a Maine Coon or any cat alone for days would be a clear sign of failure in my view in the relationship unless there are some strong mitigating circumstances such as the cat being a barn cat! The original Maine Coons were exactly that, it is said. Maine Coon Home Alone. Image: MikeB. Cats left alone in an apartment often wait for hours by the front door and become stressed. Theoretically you could leave a full-time indoor Maine Coon alone for three days with sufficient water and food plus a clean litter box so they'd survive provided the ambient room temperature is not excessively hot which it mi...

Theoretically, the answer to the question is yes but please read on and contribute if you'd like to. This is a general discussion because the question demands it. People are asking the question in the title online so I'd better answer it even though to be brutally frank it is a poor question. The first point to make is that the question is based on the premise that all Maine Coons are the same size as the huge individuals we see on the internet and they are not. Image: MikeB The classic Maine Coon as per the breed standard are bigger than the average domestic cat and the biggest domestic cat breed but they are not *that* big. The Maine Coon show cats might disappoint the people who've see the social media monster Maine Coons. Imagination So, you should not visualize Maine Coons the size of a bobcat attacking and devouring a dog belonging to one of the toy dog breeds such as the Pug or Pomeranian! I don't think you were visualizing it actually 😉😎. The Maine Coon is big...

Pets Best Insurance Services LLC, a leading pet insurance business, tells us that, based upon their data in which they tracked 46 cat breeds (quite a small number it has to be said) the most popular cat is not a breed of cat at all but a random-bred cat or mixed breed cat.  In other words, the most popular cat in New York state is a moggy followed by the American Shorthair (a purebred that looks like a moggie!). In third place is the Siamese cat and the fourth most popular cat type in New York state is the Maine Coon.  The others in the top 10 are as follows in declining popularity: Bengal, Persian, Ragdoll, Himalayan, American Longhair and Russian blue. The American longhair is not a cat breed. I believe that there are referring to longhaired moggy cats. Infographic: MikeB What can I take from this? The Maine Coon cat is the third most popular cat breed in New York state which means they are a popular cat which we know.  As a cat breed, it is normally around third most ...

Technically speaking, a Maine Coon cat or any other domestic cat cannot be a 'service cat' in America because only dogs can fulfil that role under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). That said, the phrase will have different meanings in different countries. Only dogs can be service animals in the US under the ADA. Image: MikeB 'Service animal' defined by ADA But essentially, forgetting for the time being the semantics or phraseology, a service animal is one which performs specific tasks for people with disabilities. The phrase "service animal" is narrower than the phrase" therapy animal".  Cats can be a therapy animal and so can service animals i.e. dogs but specifically, in the US, only dogs can be a service animal, as mentioned, because under the ADA " service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. " Service dogs are obviously very highly trained and they...

The go-to book on cat genetics calls them 'rex mutants' or 'rexoid mutants'. Sounds like an alien creature. They are referring to cats with curly coats due to the presence of an inherited genetic mutation. There are some well-known rex cat breeds such as the Selkirk Rex (cat in sheep's clothes) and Cornish Rex. There are others. Surprisingly the Maine Coon can also have a curly coat as the book I mention, Robinson's Genetics for Cat Breeders and Veterinarians , states, "Rexed kittens with a recessive mechanism of inheritance have also been reported in the Maine Coon and colorpoint longhair (Himalayan)." Rexed Maine Coon. Picture in public domain. This is not a good picture in terms of quality but this is unsurprising as photos of this cat are exceedingly rare. The go-to website for information about rexed cats is Sarah Hartwell's messybeast.com as she is the best qualified in the UK (the world?) on cat genetics. She mentions that curly-coated Maine...

Young Maine Coon kitten. Image assessed as being in the public domain. A Maine Coon breeder based in Yorkshire, UK makes some remarks about Maine Coon kitten development which may interest people. This breeder has a connection to Russian, Ukrainian and Latvian Maine Coon breeders. The cattery's name is KleooKet. They say that Maine Coon kitten development will be influenced by the following: Their gender. This is well known. Males grow to be 2-3 kilograms larger than females. If the parents are large their offspring are likely to be large. KleooKet only mention the mother's weight and size influencing the weight and size of the kittens but it has to both parents. Kitten development will lag behind the normal if their nutrition is substandard. A kitten needs to eat whenever hungry. Excellent n utrition is vital for kitten growth . Comment : kittens need a growth formula food because a 'regular cat' (non-Maine Coon) of 9 months of age is basically full-grown and sexually...

In one way I am a little shocked by the conclusions of this large veterinary clinic study but in another way, I am not knowing the range of inherited genetic diseases suffered by the Maine Coon, particularly the heart disease hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Heart disease is bound to shorten lives on average across the breed.  Image: MikeB. These are NOT Maine Coons!! Note: this is a cross-post. I felt the need to do it again with a slightly different emphasis and length. The video below provides you with Ben's assessment based on a well-known study: Longevity and mortality of cats attending primary care veterinary practices in England dated 2015. Link at base of page. The video/study does not tell us why the Maine Coon has a lifespan that is shorter than the average moggie estimated to be 14 years. The issue is why do Maine Coons live relatively short lives compared to many other breeds and non-purebreds. The answer is probably in HCM. For people they say that most sufferers...

I have just written an article about air fresheners which you can read, if you wish, by clicking on this link . Before I wrote the article, I knew that air fresheners were dubious products because their description is misleading. The description strongly indicates that in using them you improve the air quality inside your home. But all you do is mask any odours inside the home and in doing so you inject into the home a myriad of potentially nasty chemicals which can have deleterious health effects upon you and your Maine Coon cat. Air freshener chemicals. Image: MikeB The more I dig around and investigate household products, the more I realise that the businesses which create these products and retailers who sell them are not concerned enough about their potential negative health effects. Obviously, businesses prioritise financial profit but they also have an ethical obligation to protect the health of their customers and their companion animals. There are many household products whic...