Your Maine Coon Guide

This is a very short note based upon a study which I'm currently reading on the cat breeds. In one part of the study they assessed breed differences in respect of sociability towards cats, sociability towards humans and activity/playfulness. The Maine Coon performed as follows: Sociability towards cats: the Maine Coon is in the bottom four under this criteria. It is below average in terms of sociability towards other cats. How does one interpret that? On a strict sense one must be driven to the conclusion that Maine Coon cats are less likely to make friends or be friendly with other domestic cats in a multi-cat home. I don't see this trait having a big effect on caregiving. Another possibility is that this breed may be more hostile than average towards strange cats coming onto their home range. Sociability towards humans: the Maine Coon cat does slightly better under this heading as they are near the midpoint of all the breeds in terms of sociability towards humans but a litt...

Nothing better than seeing a Maine Coon on a lead in a public place. Image: in the public domain as assessed. Please read the article careful to get the true meaning. Thanks. The headline to this article is based on a study I have used to prepare an article on cat breed personality ( click this to read that article ). It is a good study which also refers to previous studies. In it the scientists refer to the Maine Coon. I'll quote what they say about the Maine Coon: "In previous studies, Maine Coon [11,19,47] and Burmese [19] have been ranked among the breeds showing the most touch sensitivity/owner-directed aggression, and they also scored high in our study." The numbers are references to earlier studies. Ignore those. But what they say is interesting and I have not seen this kind of language before in describing the character of the Maine Coon. Before I discuss it I should say that anyone reading a scientific study should exercise a bit of caution because not all of wha...

The question is asking whether you can expect your Maine Coon cat to keep the mouse population down inside and around your home. I reluctantly have to say that the question is little bit misguided and I'll explain why as I see it. Are Maine Coon cats good mousers? It depends on the individual cat more than anything else. Image: MikeB The Maine Coon cat, as we know, is a domestic cat. They happen to be the largest domestic cat breed but that doesn't change in any way the fact that, in general, they have the personality of a typical domestic cat. And with respect to being keen predators, all domestic cats are pretty keen about chasing rodents because it is in their DNA. They inherit this desire. It's all instinctive. But, the desire to hunt mice varies somewhat from individual cat to individual cat in the general domestic cat population and it will vary somewhat within individual Maine Coon cats. So, the answer to the question is Maine Coon cats, in general, will probably be...

Both the Maine Coon and Ragdoll cat breeds include individual cats who are very affectionate. In fact, all cats of these breeds are bred to be affectionate. The cat breeder has that duty and they achieve it through socialisation and through careful breeding using good foundation cats. Breeders select foundation cats for their appearance and their personality. Appearance is more important than personality for breeders. Affectionate Ragdoll. Image: MikeB So, the cats inherit their personality but it is also coloured by the environment in which they live and their life experiences. Therefore, each individual cat from either of these two breeds will have slightly different personalities which means that some will be more affectionate than others. All should be affectionate but some more so than others as mentioned. If you rescue a Maine Coon cat which would be rare you take a bigger chance on their personality because they might have been through a traumatic time with their previous owner ...

A person on social media asked: "Why are Maine Coon cats so friendly?" They asked that question with confidence. I can think of a few topics to discuss in response to the question. Socialisation Maine Coon cats are purebred cats. Purebred cats are bred by cat breeders. Cat breeders know that they have an obligation to make sure that their kittens for sale are fully socialised to humans. This means that they will be friendly towards humans from the get go. The breeder achieves this by making sure that the kittens that she has created in her breeding programme are underfoot in her home, meeting members of her family and even strangers. In this way the kittens become acclimatised to being around people. This means that when they meet their new owner, they get along with them and are not frightened of them. That's why Maine Coon cats are so friendly. It is down to the efforts of the cat breeder and socialisation. Unfriendly Maine Coon? Sometimes a Maine Coon cat might not be ...

Maine Coon kittens should have good characters. Image: MikeB The question on Quora.com is asking whether Maine Coon cats are easy to get along with. I've got a couple of particular thoughts about that which might help but you won't get a clear-cut specific answer to that question if you understand Maine Coon cats well and the cat fancy well as I do. 1. They are all individuals The first issue is this: all domestic cats are individuals and so any breed specific traits have to be seen through the lens of their own personality and character and how their experiences have moulded them and how their inherited genetic have also moulded them (nurture and nature).  It is therefore difficult to state that all cats of one breed have a certain character because they don't. The individual character of each cat cuts across that question. The better question would be, when talking to a person who owns a Maine Coon cat to asked them if their Maine Coon is easy to get along with. And even ...

I am taking a simple philosophical approach to answering the question in the title. If you disagree, please comment. In order to answer the question properly, I think I have to start off with the definition of the word "stubborn" because I think we need to figure out whether this word only applies to people or to people AND cat!  I say this because sometimes we anthropomorphise (humanise) our cats and we expect them to behave like little humans because they are seen as members of the family. That's great and it's normal but we need to keep an eye on that aspect of our relationship. The word "stubborn" means: having or showing dogged determination not to change one's attitude or position on something, especially in spite of good arguments or reasons to do so. There are two elements to that definition (1) and unwillingness to change's mind and (2) in the face of good arguments or reasons. Taking number 2 first; this can't apply to Maine Coon cats b...

If you love cats living with a Maine Coon cat is great. They have an impressive appearance and an attractive personality. Please read on... If you asked a hundred different people living with a Maine Coon cat what it's like you will probably receive a hundred different answers because each of those individual cats will have their own character. And this is the point: Maine Coon cats are like any other domestic cat in many respects.  You could say that 90% of a Maine Coon cat's character is the character of the domestic cat while the remaining 10% will be the character selectively bred into Maine Coon cats by breeders. And the overarching factor is, as mentioned, each individual cat's character. Image copyright Helmi Flick. I'm not going to describe the general domestic cat character because this page really is about the Maine Coons cat character; at least partly because another aspect of living with a Maine Coon cat is their size. A third major aspect is their shaggy co...

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...

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.  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 ...

This might sound a little frivolous, perhaps even stupid please hear me out. We know about guard dogs. In developing countries, a lot of people keep dogs as guard dogs. It may be the main reason why they have a dog.  Guard dogs are also popular in developed countries. Dogs are favoured over cats in this role because they (1) are servants of their master, the pack leader and alpha dog, the human caregiver and (2) they are generally larger and stronger than domestic cats. The dog has an instinct to bark at the door when a stranger arrives as they presume it to be a hostile invader of their pack.  Subject to a few extra conditions, I can see both points 1 and 2 being overturned by the Maine Coon!  Warning: Guard Cat. Image: MikeB We all know that the domestic cat, including the Maine Coon is not a pack animal. They won't defend the group of which they are a member. However, regarding the Maine Coon character I can defer to my favorite reference, Gloria Stephens (Legacy of th...

In human terms it is sexist to select one sex over another and I feel slightly uncomfortable doing it but this article should interest people who are thinking of adopting a Maine Coon cat (MC). 2 reasons why female Maine Coons are better than males. Image: MikeB HCM If you are thinking of adopting you probably know by now that the MC is predisposed to several inherited diseases, one of which is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). It is a serious heart disease and ultimately a killer. It can start at a very young age . A breeder says that a cat predisposed to HCM should be tested for the disease yearly. How do you check ? This disease is present in the general domestic cat population and in other breeds at a higher prevalence e.g., the Bengal cat at around 15% of all Bengal cats. It is also present in humans at 0.2% prevalence (1 in 500). However, 30% of Maine coon cats have a genetic mutation that makes it likely that they will develop hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Cats in general are mo...

Image: MikeB The words of the title come from social media. It is written in the first person. I'll recite the story in the third person. This is a story about a woman who lives with two Maine Coon cats. One is a female tortoiseshell who has 'catitude'. I think you know what I mean by that. Tortoiseshell cats are known to have a certain personality which is independent-minded. They know their own mind and will do their own thing. It is a slightly obstreperous attitude but I think a very nice one as well. And the other Maine Coon cat that this woman lives with is a male. If he gets too close to his female 'friend' (love) she attacks him but he never fights back. He just sits up on his hind legs with his front legs up in the air as if about to box. He is a sweet boy in the long tradition of sweet boy Maine Coons! And I think he loves and accepts her cantankerous personality. He may even like her character. On one occasion the woman was leaving her home to take the fem...

I have gleaned a bit of information about the Maine Coon character and hunting desires from a study which actually looks at the character of domestic cats both non-purebred and purebred to assess whether it affects how keen they are to hunt birds and mammals.  Maine Coons and Bengals are less neurotic than other cats. This is a generalisation based on a study. It does not mean that all Maine Coons and Bengals have the same character. Image by Warren Photographic with the background added. I will quote what they state in the study verbatim and I think people who want to adopt the Maine Coon cat might find this useful. Although this is valid research and useful it is the findings of one study. But that said they did survey 2,508 cat owners in France. A good number. "Bengal and Main Coon cats also demonstrate lower levels of neuroticism than other cats. These findings are in agreement with organizations of cat owners and breeders, which report that cat breeds differ not only in morph...

 A woman on social media is asking for help. It's quite a strange question. She has two Maine Coon cats, one male and one female. Their ages are 12 months and 9 months respectively. The male cat is calm and fine. The female is aggressive whenever she tries to brush or pick her up.  She hisses, growls, swats and nips her owner. She can't handle her cat and is at her wits end. She is asking for advice as to what to do next. Annoyed MC. NOT the cat in question!! This is probably a male Maine Coon. Image: YouTube. I must say I find this peculiar because an adopter buys a Maine Coon cat from a breeder or that is the normal route unless somebody has given you one or the cat has been owned previous to you. If you buy a Maine Coon cat from a breeder, they should be fully socialised and ready to be integrated into their new home. That is the duty of the breeder. They should spend a considerable end of time achieving a well socialised kitten. This cat appears to be unsocialised to a cer...

The title is a question on Reddit.com. I think it's a good question as it goes to the heart of domestic cat character and the Maine Coon cat character. My interpretation is that the kitten is a dilute ginger tabby with a bit of white. He is, of course, beautiful and he is definitely purebred. You can tell that by the very distinctive appearance. My first Maine Coon cat. Very independent. Does not like being held and only snuggles at night. Image: u/dinokith on Reddit.com The adopter is concerned that her cat is not friendly enough for her. She is the type of cat caregiver who wants their cat to sit on their lap and lie next to them in bed et cetera. Some people don't like that too much and they prefer a cat which is more standoffish. You will see many different descriptions of the Maine Coon cat (MC) character on the Internet. Some authors state profusely that Maine Coon cats are wonderfully friendly and so on. They don't differentiate between individual cats which I think ...

People ask Google why the Maine Coon cat is so friendly. Is it really true that they are extra friendly? Clearly internet authors are saying that they are. My go-to reference book on the personality of the Maine Coon is one written by a former cat breeder and show judge, Gloria Stephens.  She lives with Maine Coon cats. I don't think that you could get a better reference than her. I prefer book references to the internet because on the latter authors tend to race off copies of what they've seen without really questioning it. Are Maine Coons as friendly as some people claim? Image by MikeB at PoC. Gloria Stephens Gloria Stephens tells me that they are 'people orientated' which implies that they are friendly but 'they are not over-dependent'. They don't constantly demand attention "preferring to hang out with their owners". And she says that they don't necessarily want to be held but they like to be near the person they love. And they form close ...

I will start this discussion by saying that the UK has its own celebrity, super-sized, Maine Coon cat who is enormous, weighing 24.3 pounds at only 12 months of age. His name is Murphy, and he lives in Worcester, and he is 41 inches long. He's become a media star as you might expect and has been featured in the Mail Online. Here he is: Placid-faced Murphy carried by his owner in an unnatural way. Image: Emma Trimble SWNS. But the photographs of Murphy on the Mail Online website indicate to me that he has a very placid temperament. The key to this discussion is that I have seen many Maine Coon cats featured on social media and in the news media being handled in ways which might provoke slight irritability and discomfort in the domestic cat, but it never happens with the Maine Coon. Every time you see a Maine Coon cat being handled like you see in the photograph on this page (incorrectly) they look totally relaxed and placid. I suspect, by the way, that this lady was asked to hold t...

Well, there is nothing in the literature about this ever popular at breed which states that they are endemically shy. So, the answer is NO . There wouldn't be anything in books on this breed about shyness because the Maine Coon is selectively bred, and breeders want to sell their kittens.  They want to create kittens with great characters and confident cats sell better than shy cats because they are more likely to interact with people and instigate interactions with their owner. People like that and when a cat starts an interaction they last longer. It is all good for the relationship. Sweet looking slightly shy female Maine Coon. Image in the public domain. That does not mean that some Maine Coon cats might be shy as this in an individual cat trait. There are going to be some shy Maine Coons in the general population. The reason will be the same as for humans: an inherited trait and/or how they were raised and socialised. You can normally tease out a cat with shy character over ti...