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Can a Maine Coon kill a dog?

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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...
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Some dog breeds are predisposed to polydactylism like the Maine Coon

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Polydactyl paw of a dog. Screenshot. One aspect of the Maine Coon that helps to make it a famous cat breed is that it is predisposed to polydactylism. This almost totally benign genetic mutation was more common in the past than it is today as the breeders (some or all?) have selectively bred it out of their breeding lines as it disqualifies cats in CFA cat shows but not TICA cat shows where they have a special polydactyly Maine Coon (MC) category.  Back in the day when the MC was a barn cat say in the early-mid 1800s I bet there were a lot more polydactyl MCs. I questioned whether certain dog breeds experienced the same genetic mutation and Ben the Vet on TikTok tells me that there are. He does not specify dog breeds but a quick internet search found the following breeds predisposed to the genetic mutation: Norwegian Lundehund The Great Pyrenees The Beauceron Akita Anatolian Shepherd Rottweiler Jindo The Catalan Sheepdog Shiba Inu The Estrela Mountain dog Australian Shepherd Kor...
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Are Maine coon cats good with dogs?

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Maine Coon cats generally are not bred to be great with dogs if that is what you are looking for. However, if the Maine Coon (MC) breeder from whom you buy a cat has a dog or dogs and she makes sure that her MC kittens mix with the dogs and play with them and sleep with them etc. they will be good with dogs in their new homes. This is because they will be socialised to dogs.  Ernest and Hemingway I have a page on a Maine Coon called Earnest in a very close relationship with Pitbull Hemingway. Here is the picture and click this link for the video and story . Maine Coon loves his dog companion and vice versa. Screenshot. Socialised to dogs and vice versa And socialisation is the way to ensure that MCs get on with dogs. It all starts in the first precious weeks of live when kittens can learn that dogs are fine, and they will relate to them as other cats and as part of their family. So perhaps if you are thinking of buying a MC and you have a dog, you should ask your selected breeder ...
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Are Maine Coon cats good with dogs? It depends on 3 things.

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A lot of websites are answering the question as to whether Maine Coon cats are good with dogs, and it is a question which looks at half of the issues that need to be dealt with. There are two players, the cat and the dog. There's no point having a cat that gets on well with dogs if the dog they live with does not get on well with cats. 😎. That's the first point. And, further, whether a cat gets on well with dogs it is normally not breed specific. It is about individual cats. This is not something that you can guarantee that breeders breed into the kittens that they create. By this I mean it is not something that is always created through inheritance unless the breeder has selected a foundation breeding pair of Maine Coon cats both of whom are known to have characters predisposed to getting on with cats and a supressed prey drive to chase cats. That's the second point. Are Maine Coon cats good with dogs? It depends. Image: MikeB A dog friendly cat and vice versa is normall...
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Maine Coon and 2 Malamutes adjust to the presence of a baby in their lives

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Milo, a Maine Coon, and 2 Malamutes have adjusted in their own ways to a different way of life because a new baby has been introduced into their home and the family. The humans call the family their 'pack'. They are referring to a pack of dogs or wolves and I guess that when you introduce a baby into the home there is a potential to disturb the pack which is why the leaders (alpha dogs) i.e. the humans, are happy that it has worked out well. "Milo, the cat, he was petrified." Milo, the Maine Coon, was the last to get on board. He was initially fearful of the new baby whereas Nikko was very keen to get involved. He was inquisitive and keen to sniff and look at the new baby. The other Malamute (I've forgotten their name) was also pretty keen. Firstly, having read some horrendous stories of dogs attacking babies, I'm always a little bit edgy when I see large dogs around small babies but these parents are very organised and I am sure that they know what they ar...
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Do Maine Coons like dogs?

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Maine Coons like dogs if they are socialised to dogs just like any other domestic cat. By "socialise" I mean that they have been raised with dogs during the first seven weeks of their life. That's the basic, standard method of ensuring that any domestic cat gets along with dogs throughout their adulthood. In fact, socialisation is at the root of all domestication. Without a newborn kitten being socialised to people and other pets they would end up being feral cats. Domestication has to be 'trained into them' through socialisation. Maine Coon is irritated by a snappy little pain in the bum terrier. Screenshot from video below. The video shows a Maine Coon who is socialised to dogs and a dog who is socialised to domestic cats in general: So, in this regard Maine Coons are no different from any other domestic cat either purebred, pedigree and random bred. When they're young they have to be familiar with dogs. They have to be around them, interacting with them, le...
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Do Maine Coons get along with dogs?

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The question is not great in my opinion because it presupposes that some cat breeds get along with dogs and some don't. That is incorrect or at least misleading or inaccurate. Maine Coons are domestic cats and like any other domestic cat, purebred or not, whether they get along with dogs or not depends whether they are socialised to get along with dogs. The question is whether the breeder of the Maine Coon in question socialised her kittens to get along with dogs during their first 7 weeks of their lives. That rule applies to all cats including any breed of cat. Confident and relaxed Maine Coon gets along with dogs. Photo in public domain. Any website which purrs about all Maine Coons being great with dogs is bullshitting. They are feeding information to people that they want to hear. And they want Google to rank their page highly so they get hits. That said the other factor - but much less of a factor - as to whether a cat gets along with dogs is whether they are confident, lai...
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Do Maine Coons get on with dogs?

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There are two reasons why a Maine Coon cat might or might not get on with dogs. The first concerns selective breeding. This is a friendly cat breed but then again all of them are. But if breeders selectively breed for a particularly friendly character and socialise their cats then they will get along with dogs more so than others potentially. Maine Coon in The Netherlands. Photo: Dani. The second factor is socialisation which I have referred to above. If a breeder of Maine Coons allows the kittens to share plenty of time with a family dog during their early years i.e. the first 10 weeks of life lets say, then they will forever get along with dogs. The primary reason why a Maine coon cat might get along with dogs is because they are socialised to dogs. And this aspect of rearing a cat applies to any breed or random bred cats. It doesn't have to be a cat who is a member of a cat breed to benefit from socialisation. MAINE COON PERFORMS DOG-LIKE TRICKS So if a website says all Maine...
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The extreme Maine Coon face

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This is an example of extreme breeding. This is a Maine Coon but this cat is an extreme and rare example of this breed. This is not the way they look normally. This face is almost like an aggressive robot with the piercing eyes and the huge muzzle.  Or like a lion's head. The head looks enormous and very heavy. It looks unreal. But it also looks very impressive.  And purchasers like impressive-looking domestic cats. But this not the face of a Maine Coon that wins cat show competitions as it does not fit the breed standard as accurately as the more moderate winners (see below).  In fact, the CFA standard is clear in that the cat should have a balanced appearance although this cat was not bred under the CFA breed standard as I understand it (see below).  Click here for more on the kind of MC which wins at shows . Maine Coon selectively breed to have an extreme face. Image in the public domain. And the Maine Coon is meant to be a large cat, the largest domestic cat b...
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Maine Coon Size - this is a huge one!

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  Enormous Maine Coon with a head bigger than the person holding him. Pic: in public domain. Maine Coon size is very important to both breeders of this cat and the public. I sometimes think that the public is more obsessed with Maine Coon size than the breeders are. The bigger the Maine Coon the better. There is a fascination about it and I confess that there is nothing much more impressive than a huge Maine Coon. They've been bred like this through selective breeding but please remember that they weren't always like this. The original Maine Coons were regular farm cats in the state of Maine in 19th-century and before. They were robust, rugged, medium-longhaired moggy cats but impressive nonetheless. Their impressiveness led to breeders deciding to breed them which in turn led to the breed being accepted by the cat associations and then to win cat shows and become perhaps one of the most famous breeds in the world. The breed standard for the Maine Coon as provided by e.g. Cat F...
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Average lifespan of Maine Coon cat

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How long do Maine Coon cats live for? What's the average lifespan? Do they live shorter lives than the average random-bred family cat? These are difficult questions to answer accurately. In fact, I don't think we can answer them accurately because nobody has been counting. Nobody has a database or carried out a full-blown survey and therefore you will read anecdotal evidence i.e. statements by breeders or people who think they know the answer and these answers get repeated on the Internet. I am not sure that they are accurate. Picture of a Maine Coon who looks like a middle-aged man. Photo: Pinterest. My research indicates that people believe that Maine Coon cats live between about 10 and 15 years old. Some may live longer than that and some may live shorter lives. One well-known Maine Coon, Rubble, lived for 31 years and was at one time the oldest domestic cat in the world. But there will always be exceptions and this article is about the mean or the average although these ...
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Comparison of a black smoke Maine Coon at 6 weeks and 6-years-of-age

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This is a cross-post as the image is so damned good. It is amazing because the cat is amazing. To put the same cat at different stages of their life in the same photograph is a nice idea especially with this Maine Coon (MC) who has an amazingly heavy face. It is so mightily masculine to be almost unbelievable. He has a priceless expression on his face too. Very serious compared to the innocence of his face when he was 6 weeks old. He looks a bit coy when 6 weeks old and a slightly grumpy middle-aged man when 6 years old. Comparison of a black smoke Maine Coon at 6-weeks and 6-years-of-age. Image in pubic domain. No doubt he is huge too. You get a clear sense of that in the image. There is a serious and less impressive side to this image. It's the backstory that people don't really want to read about and discuss or in fact do anything about: heart ( HCM ) and joint disease. The bigger and heavier the MCs are the more predisposed to heart disease they are. Here is the posts on...
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Are Maine Coons illegal in some countries, states or territories?

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One Maine Coon website asks if Maine Coons are legal? My initial response was that it is a bizarre question (second thoughts below), but I'll answer it in my way. I say that it is a bizarre question because the Maine Coon is an entirely domestic cat by which I mean NOT a wild cat hybrid and therefore there is no reason whatsoever to declare it illegal in any jurisdiction unless that there is some other fanciful reason to ban the cat (there might be - see below). Are Maine Coons illegal in some countries, states or territories? No, to the best of my knowledge. Image: MikeB I know of no jurisdiction anywhere in the world that bans Maine Coons which makes sense. Conversely a similar sized domestic cat, the F1-F2 Savannah, is illegal in many jurisdictions (states, territories and countries) because it is a wildcat hybrid. The cat has some wild cat DNA which some legislatures consider to be detrimental to human health and welfare and to the conservation of wildlife (if the cat escapes t...
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Tortoiseshell Maine Coon with split-face

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Maine Coon with "split face". Photo: Screenshot. This is a very impressive Maine Coon. As you can see she is a tortoiseshell and as you probably know almost all tortoiseshell and calico cats are female. There are a few male tortoiseshell cats (and this might be one of them). Their sex is caused by a genetic aberration because the genetics of tortoiseshell cats dictates that they are almost always female. About one in 3000 are male as I recall. Also, it is not that unusual to see this extreme pattern on the face which creates the appearance of a "split-face". This is not what is called a "chimera" but a normal variation of the tortoiseshell pattern. Sometimes you do see what some people call "two-faced" cats with this sort of face due to a sharply defined pattern down the middle of the face. But the genetics behind that is different to this normal tortoiseshell variation. This is a particularly extraordinary looking Maine Coon cat. Not all Maine C...
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5 Maine Coon transformations from kitten to adult (video)

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Maine Coon kitten and his adult self. Photo: Robert Silka. This is a series of photographs by the very famous Maine Coon photographer: robert_sijka. I think he presents his photographs too dark as there is not enough information in the photographs for my liking but he takes great photographs of great Maine Coon cats. In this series he photographs a kitten and their adult version. Each individual cat is a wonderful example of the Maine Coon breed. I can count five examples. In my experience, these Google Blogger videos only work if you click the centre play button and then, immediately afterwards, the play button bottom-left! It sounds bad but the short video is worth watching.
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Eerie picture of a Maine Coon sitting like a human on a chest of drawers

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This is a slightly scary picture according to those who've seen it. One social media user said it was the devil and "If I walked into a room and saw that, I would assume some shit is about to go down". There is a ghostly stillness and sinister feeling about the image. 'Eerie' is a better description. This attractive cat appears to be completely at ease and comfortable sitting on top of a chest of bedroom drawers. The lighting from below (deliberate?) enhances the eerie effect. It seems possible that this is a photo-edited image but if so, it has been done with great skill. However, I don't think this is Photoshopped. Rethink: to be honest, the more I look at the picture, the more I feel that this is a photo-edited image. It is just too unnatural to be real. Although some domestic cats get themselves into some very strange positions. Maine Coon calmly sitting just like a human on a chest of drawers. Picture source unclear. Image deemed to be in the public d...
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Picture showing a Maine Coon as big as a child

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Another good example of the size of the bigger Maine Coons. Photo: Reddit.com This is a good photograph from the point of view of comparing size because it is from above and so we can see the full length of this almost totally black Maine Coon with white boots. The cat looks bigger than the child which is possible because I've seen Maine Coons which are positively enormous. I'm sure breeders of this cat go out of the way and bend over backwards to breed the biggest Maine Coon that they can. It's a challenge. They're not meant to necessarily be as big as this, as far as I know. That wasn't the initial objective under the breed standard. The standard does not say that Maine Coons must be enormous. In fact, the Cat Fanciers' Association breed standard, in the opening paragraph provides an overview of the cat and there is no mention that this cat should be very big. It is reproduced below (great cat though): "GENERAL: originally a working cat, the Maine Coon is...
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Should Maine Coons wear collars?

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Should Maine Coon cats wear collars? It's a question posed by the owner of the website Maine Coon Central and I think the question is not a great one to be perfectly frank but it does just about need to be addressed which is why I am writing this article. Maine Coon cat wearing a collar. Photo by Warren Photographic (modified by MikeB) and used with his express permission. You could ask the same question about any domestic cat that goes outside. Cat collars normally contain an identification tag. Cats that go outside might get lost. The ID tag can help them be reunited with their owner without recourse to having to scan for a microchip. The thing is though that it is probably exceptional for a Maine Coon cat to be allowed to go outside unsupervised. Quite rarely people take them outside on a harness and lead to allow them to explore the outside and be mentally stimulated. However, under these circumstances you don't need a collar with an ID tag for obvious reasons (unless they ...
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