The cat breed that is bigger than the Maine Coon

The claim in the title needs to be qualified with some extra words. Here they are. Today, there is a domestic cat breed that is bigger than the average Maine Coon and it has been the case for a while now. 

I have to stress 'average' as there are some enormous Maine Coons, bred to extreme, often by Russian or Eastern European breeders which you might have seen on the internet if you are a Maine Coon afficionado. No domestic cat is larger than those giants.

RELATED: Woman claims she lives with the world's largest domestic cat (she does!!)

F1 Savannah cat 'Magic' with Leone Stucki. Photo: Kathrin Stucki. This was the era when they owned A1 Savannahs.

The average Maine Coon was the largest domestic cat breed on my calculation about 15 years ago. When I made that assessment the Savannah cat was not an accepted breed by TICA or the CFA. It is still unacceptable by the CFA. This can't be because it is a wild cat hybrid as the Bengal is accepted by the CFA and that breed is a wild cat hybrid.

But TICA now accepts the breed and has done for quite a time. We can call the Savannah cat a 'breed' whereas those years ago we could not formally describe it as a breed despite being purebred and selectively bred. 

The first filial (F1) and some second filial (F2) Savannah cats are bigger than the average Maine Coon, even some large Maine Coons. Yes, I would argue that the F1 Savannah is larger than all Maine Coons except for the rare giants.

The F5 Savannah cats are no larger than the typical domestic cat. Savannah cats are different to most domestic cat breeds as their size depends on how many generations from the wild serval they are. The Maine Coon has no wild cat blood whatsoever. The 'filial size-scaling' does not apply at all.

F1 Savannah cat Magic with Leone, Kathrin and Martin's daughter. Photo: Kathrin. 

Referring once again to those years (around 2010) the Guinness World Record tallest domestic cat to the shoulder was a female F1 Savannah cat called Scarlet's Magic aka Magic. I made a video of her. You can see that she was in a different league to your typical domestic at of any breed including average Maine Coon.

The current largest domestic cat is an F2 Savannah as per Guinness again. So the F2s can be very large too.

As you probably know the F1s are the offspring of a serval - a medium-sized wild cat that can be tamed - and a tabby cat usually another Savannah cat. The F2s are two generations from the wild cat.

Here is another F1 Savannah (Titan) on a shopping trip with his owner. He caused a bit of a stir. He is in one of those large outlets so typical of America.

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Please excuse the occasional typo due to preparing these articles at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I don't have a proof reader.