Your Maine Coon Guide

The answer to the question in the title comes from Google's AI computer Bard. Here it is. It is flawed. There are errors which I mention below the answer. For those of you who I have never heard of Bard, it is Google's version of an artificial intelligence chat box. You can ask it questions and it provides a good answer, written in good English at the moment.  Fictional depiction of Google's Bard. Image: DALLE E. It is in a developmental stage but it can be used as you can see on this page. It is going to change the way Google presents its search results. It is an attempt by Google in fact to take more control of the Internet in my view and I have questioned whether this development is fair and right in another article which you can read by clicking on this link . Bard's response to the title question Whether or not breeding Maine Coon cats is cruel is a complex question with no easy answer. On the one hand, Maine Coons are a relatively healthy breed with a lifespan of ...

This was a scientific abuse of the Maine Coon in using the cat as an animal 'model' of HCM. A study confirmed that hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in Maine Coon cats is inherited as a non-sex linked dominant genetic mutation. The study found that HCM was inherited with 100% penetrance, meaning that all cats with the genetic mutation that causes HCM will develop the disease.  Image: PDSA. Thank you. Affected cats typically did not show signs of HCM until they were at least 6 months old, and the disease progressed during adolescence and young adulthood.  Mode of inheritence Of 22 offspring from breeding affected to un affected cats, 12 (55%) were affected. When affected cats were bred to affected cats, 4 (45%) of the 9 were affected, 2 (22%) unaffected, and 3 (33%) stillborn. To restate the first sentence of the above para. If a breeder mates a Maine Coon which carries the genetic mutation causing HCM with a Maine Coon that does not carry the gene, around half the kittens fr...

Beautiful pure white Maine Coon looks like he's been hit in the face. What to do? Image: Reddit poster: u/green131313. This post requires the input of sensible and wise cat caregivers please. The sibling of the cat's owner, their sister posted the following on social media (Reddit.com) "Hello this is my sisters cat. It's had redness above his eyes for quite a bit. Her boyfriend has expressed dislike in the cat so wondering if he might be hitting it. There's also swelling to his right eye as you can tell. Does it look like an infection or allergies or do you think the cat is being hit. He also stays in a corner every time the boyfriend comes over too." Well, this would be my advice to the person: The cat can't go back to the sister until the cat has been checked out by a good vet who will be able to decide if he has been hit. On the basis that the vet finds that the cat has been hit, he must be removed from their sister for the cat's safety until the pe...

This is about an abusive TikTok video of the owner bathing and drying her Maine Coon. As a Maine Coon owner, who in their right mind would dry their Maine Coon (who had been placed in a full bath) with a human hair drier knowing that it would terrify her cat which it did? You'll see in the video how frightened the Maine Coon cat is. It is horrible to see. Drying a terrified Maine Coon with a hair drier There can only be one motivating reason why the owner (and video maker) did this: to bloody well make a shitty video for bloody TikTok.  It's got 10.5m views because TikTok run their videos on a loop so they play far more often than on YouTube. It is all fake. Anyway, how can cat abuse be so damned popular? It is perverse. It is so typical of modern-day social media video makers. They sacrifice cat welfare for the sake of getting those precious hits. It is horrible. @minka_cleftpalatepup No drying!! #minka_cleftpalatepup #petoftiktok #animallover #pet #fyp #cat #catsofti...

This is a screenshot of the original screenshot on the website The Truth about Rudycats and Wildblue . As I understand it, Rudycats and Wildblue are owned by the same person. They are part of the same operation. This is part two of a report on the alleged callous and cruel way that the owner of Rudycats (and Wildblue) operate their breeding cattery. Click this link to see Part 1 . There is a lot of discussion by the person who exposed this malpractice (another breeder as I understand it) at Rudycats the cold-hearted way in which the owner (I can't seem to find her name by the way) dealt with new-born kittens. Picture of 4 Maine Coon mothers with their 26 kittens born the same day at Rudycats cattery. Image: The Truth About Rudycats and Wildblue. As you can see in the screenshot above, roughly 26 kittens were born on the same day in July 2021 to four queens. A significant number of these kittens died and in a very long series of screenshots of text messages between the owner of Rudy...

The question in the title is one that is asked on the Internet. People search for an answer using Google. But this question should never be asked, NEVER. In asking the question the person is thinking about whether to de-claw or not. That means the person doesn't really know what declawing is and how barbaric it is.  Don't even dream about declawing a Maine Coon. Image: MikeB It means that the person doesn't know that it is the partial amputation of 10 toes. They don't know that 66% of declawing operations are botched leaving shards of bone in the paw pads causing perpetual discomfort at the very least and excruciating pain at the worst. They don't know about the complications of declawing . They don't know that when veterinarians declaw cats, they are in gross breach of their oath not to harm animals . And they don't know that cats are declawed almost exclusively for non-therapeutic reasons. They are almost never declawed for genuine medical reasons. And th...

This story is about exposing a prolific UK Maine Coon cat breeder as heartless, callous and cruel. This is the first in what I expect to be a series of pages on this story. RudyCats Maine Coon breeders accused of cruelty, fraud and cruelty. Image: MikeB from images on their site. I claim fair use as this is an educational website. Introduction A Maine Coon breeder or a small group of Maine Coon breeders (in the UK I believe) built a website called RudyCats Exposed to expose what they allege is the heartless malpractices of RudyCats (also 'Rudycats'), a prominent UK Maine Coon breeder.  Stay with this page rather than visiting their website at the moment as I summarise the detail of the above-mentioned site. It is very detailed and as such difficult to get a clear overview which is my intention on this page. Personally, I applaud them for their exposé as I think it is important to see behind the glossy veneer that cat breeders present to the world when the reality behind closed...

I will have to keep this brief because I am working off an abstract of a study which is a summary. I've seen similar studies where scientists have used Maine Coon cats to test drugs that are used on people suffering from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). I guess the scientist wanted to see whether these human drugs work on cats and Maine Coons are predisposed to developing HCM. Maine Coons developed severe facial ulcerative dermatitis when used as test subjects for a human HCM drug. Image in public domain. On this occasion they tested a drug called Spironolactone (SPIR) in America. As mentioned, they tested it on Maine Coon cats with familial HCM i.e. inherited HCM. They wanted to see whether this drug improved diastolic function and reduced left ventricular mass in these cats. The conclusion is that it did not work. They tested the drug over four months. For me, a disturbing statement in their summary is this: one third of cats treated with SPIR developed severe ulcerative facial...

CRAVEN DISTRICT OF NORTH YORKSHIRE, UK - NEWS AND VIEWS: Norman is an 18-month-old Maine Coon. He went outside on Saturday morning and returned 27 hours later on Sunday. He managed to get home despite being shot with what is believed to be a doublebarrelled shotgun because of the number of pellets inside him. Yes, he had 25 pellets inside him some of them were quite deep and too difficult to remove. Norman and X-ray. Photo (left) Josie Simpson. Right: veterinarian's X-ray. When his owners saw him they thought he had been hit by a car. They found him on the stairs. They don't know how he managed to get home. When he was touched he cried out in pain. He couldn't walk properly and couldn't move his tail. They rushed him to the veterinary clinic. He was x-rayed and the 25 lead pellets were seen inside him. Josie Simpson is shocked and devastated. They've spoken to the press because they want to raise awareness of the sick-minded people who may be shooting cats in the...

This is so typical of modern society. I am sorry if that sounds negative or depressing etc. But it really is. And we are talking about the UK here. The UK is in a mess, in my opinion on several levels. It is the story of a handsome (all Maine Coons are handsome) red tabby Maine Coon cat that was adopted to help Henry Dancer get through his terminal cancer. Henry was 12 at the time. He succumbed to the cancer about four months after his Maine Coon, Ben, was shot. Ben went missing, got shot and badly injured and returned. Simple story. Sad story. The chances of finding the perpetrator are zero. People who shoot cats, and there are quite a few people like that in the world, don't care if the cat is a moggie or a Maine Coon. If it's moving, shoot it. I suspect that he was shot with an air rifle. They don't require licenses as far as I know in the UK and cats shot by air rifles are quite commonplace . In the USA it would have been a bullet. True.  This is the original stor...