Your Maine Coon Guide

I am speculating here but I like to do that sometimes to see if I can push the boundaries of what we know. But this form of causation or series of events could happen to a Maine Coon cat and the article starts off with a Maine Coon cross suffering from a rare disease called polycythemia aka erythrocytosis, which was reported on the AVMA website in a recent study. Maine Coon eating dry cat food. The label describes a disease in which there is high concentration of red blood cells in the circulatory system. This makes the blood thicker and less able to travel through the blood vessels. The symptoms are linked to the nervous system: ataxia (balance and coordination problems), weakness, seizures, blindness and behaviour change). Although it can be hard to find the underlying cause of polycythemia, dehydration will naturally make the blood thicker. Dehydration according to the the PetMD website leads to an increase of red blood cells (RBC) in proportion to the fluid level of the blood. The ...

The worst thing about the Maine Coons is their fur ! That's a result of a survey. What the result means is that with a Maine Coon cat you are going to get a lot of fur lying around the home which is entirely normal and which occurs for any domestic cat.  However, because the Maine Coon has a shaggy medium-longhaired coat and because this is a large cat, there's going to be more fur than normal and which is shed when the ambient light increases during the shedding season. Remember, it is the increase in ambient light not the increased heat which is the main trigger for a domestic cat to shed fur. Maine Coon cats are known for their luxurious long and thick fur under which, by the way, can be quite a rangy, slender but large domestic cat. I think it is fair to state that there may not be a specific high quality cat food exclusively designed for Maine Coons to reduce shedding. But you can still choose a high-quality cat food which promotes a healthy skin and coat which can help, i...

Maine Coons do not NEED special food but there is an argument that they might BENEFIT from a special food such as made by Royal Canin, a large pet food manufacturer based in France, which has jumped on the bandwagon of Maine Coon health concerns which have been thoroughly documented on the internet.  Image: Royal Canin (annotated by MikeB). This is the point: Maine Coons suffer from hip dysplasia - a lose joint between the socket of the hip and the ball of the femur; a joint problem. And patella luxation - a knee cap that moves from its normal capping position. RELATED: What can a Maine Coon owner do to help their cat with hip dysplasia ? To use this inherent weakness in this popular cat breed Royal Canin make a product called "Royal Canin Maine Coon Adult dry cat food" which is "especially formulated for adult Maine Coon cats; King Size kibble encourages longer chewing, with glucosamine and chondroitin for healthy joints". So, there you have it: a special cat food ...

As the Maine Coon (MC) is the largest domestic cat breed and as they CAN weigh around 20 pounds, I'll attempt to work out an answer on the basis that the owner has a large MC at 20 pounds in weight. That's convenient for me because I have prepared an infographic which sets out the minimum and maximum cost for ONE YEAR for dry, wet and raw cat foods in the United States to feed a 10 POUND cat. Here it is: So, if we rather crudely double the cost for a MC we arrive at the following. Note: doubling the food intake for a cat double the weight is a bit simplistic but I believe a good starting point. In feeding a Maine Coon, the cheapest dry food for one year, the cost would be twice the $86 (the cost for a 10-pound cat) which makes $172 and for the most expensive dry food it would be $704. Feeding the same MC with the cheapest wet food would using the same double cost produces $892 per year for the cheapest wet food and the most expensive would be $4214. Feeding a raw diet, the cos...

Although the pet food manufacturers do a lot of good work, they tend to be criticised by critical thinkers because understandably their primary objective is to maximise financial profit. It is totally normal in a capitalist society, obviously.  One way for a pet food manufacturer to maximise profit is to extend their product lines. The more products they produce, the greater their sales and profit follows. Image: Royal Canin and Pets at Home. That's why you see foods that are stated to be made for specific cat breeds. Royal Canin Maine Coon Kitten Dry Food is one of them. On my reading of the information accompanying the product on the Pets at Home website (which I presume has been written by a Royal Canin employee) this product has been made for kittens generally . This is bound to be the case as Maine Coon kittens are like any other kitten in terms of their digestion. There is nothing in science which indicates that Maine Coons have weak or sensitive stomachs. They are typical ca...

A Maine Coon (MC) owner on the mumsnet.com website says: "Cat food confusion! Maine Coon (year old)". She believes that her cat needs a MC diet, but in general they don't. Some individual MCs might need a special diet to meet their individual health needs but that applies to all domestic cats. Please read on. Update: Obese MCs are more prone to developing HCM and therefore a diet to control weight would be useful . She has a young Maine Coon (MC) who's bigger than the adult cat next door and wants advice on the mumsnet.com website about buying cat food for her MC. Her cat likes dry cat food as most domestic cats do because the manufacturers add tasty fats to it. It can become slightly addictive. But just because cats like it does not mean that it is good.  Do Maine Coons need a special diet? Image in the public domain. Like most cat owners who've studied cat food I believe that the less convenient high quality wet cat food should be the default food because it c...

This is a problem with a young Maine Coon cat in the UK who is described as being a fussy eater and the owner's veterinarian has put the problem down to an excess of bacteria in the cat's stomach. The vet prescribed a specialist dry food diet called Royal Canin Gastrointestinal . After a short time, the vet said they could go on to Royal Canin Digestive . But if the condition flared up again, they should revert back to the previous diet. The cat has gone off the earlier diet and now is only eating the second diet. RELATED:  Treating Feline Inflammatory Bowel Disease with Fecal Microbiota Transplantation . Royal Canin Digestive a food for cats with sensitive stomachs? Sadly, he has a loose stool i.e. diarrhoea, which is ongoing.  The woman was asking for advice on the mumsnet.com website and I provided it. I am not a veterinarian. I can just provide my opinion and she can take it or leave it. My advice is below.   Do you have any thoughts which can be passed on to thi...

His human caregiver says that 'he always asks for more'. He clearly has his own individual way of asking (see video below). It is very cute. There are a couple of interesting points. Firstly, there is some food left in the bowl so he could have finished the bowl before asking for more.  Why didn't he? In my experience cats tend to leave a bit of food in the bowl even when hungry. It may point to the fact that they have poor near range eyesight and depend on their sense of smell to detect food. As there is very little left the smell is slight. They think the food has run out. Screenshot. He has way of asking for more food. The second point is that he is being fed with Royal Canin Maine Coon dry cat food. So, what is this? Why do Maine Coons need special cat food?  You might have guessed that this is all to do with the Maine Coon's inherited health problems.  RELATED:  Maine Coon Health Problems . They inherently suffer from hip dysplasia and patella luxation. The form...