Your Maine Coon Guide

I have been digging around Google Scholar studies as I like to do sometimes! I was looking for some more information about Maine Coon cats and bumped into a study published on August 21, 2020 which investigated an inherited disease which results in an increased tendency to bleed.  The disease is called 'dysfibrinogenaemia' and it causes 'afibrinogenaemic haemorrhage', which had been previously reported in a Maine Coon cat. The scientists in this study concluded that:  "Dysfibrinogenaemia was identified in clinical cases and their healthy relatives, suggesting that this may represent a hereditary condition of Maine Coon cats. Clinicians should be aware of the increased potential for non-haemostasis in this cat breed and consider assessing clotting function before (elective) surgery." My interpretation of that statement is that some Maine Coon cats might inherit this disease which can cause increased bleeding which, in turn, would interest Maine Coon cat breeder...

Maine Coon breeders can take several steps to minimise the incidence of inherited diseases such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), hip dysplasia and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). In my view, the quality of a Maine Coon cat breeder depends on how energetically they adopt the following strategies which I don't claim is a complete list. As a purchaser of a Maine Coon kitten I'd ask some pertinent questions when meeting the breeder as to how they deal with these aspects of their operation. Genetic testing: the competent and committed Maine Coon breeder will engage in genetic testing. They will in fact prioritise it to identify carriers of specific diseases. They want to know if there foundation cats are free of inherited diseases. If they carry the genetic mutations which create these diseases. And there are DNA tests available for the three diseases mentioned above. These are the major inherited diseases. Breeders will select breeding pairs that are free from these genetic mu...

In the world of purebred cats, the Maine completely dominates in suffering from hip dysplasia. No other breed or non-breed comes near in terms of prevalence. The right hip is more likely to be diseased compared to the left. The disease can make Maine Coons aggressive and lose interest in human attention (presumed due to the persistent discomfort) which is sad as this cat is calm and friendly when healthy and well cared for. The disease was first mentioned in 1974. This article sets out information about a large number of Maine Coon cats which suffer from hip dysplasia. I will present the information in bullet form below: There were 2732 individual cat participating in this study of which 99.9% were Maine Coons (2708). The youngest Maine Coon cat with feline hip dysplasia (FHD) was four months of age. The oldest was 60 months of age. Of the 2708 Maine Coon cats with hip dysplasia, 2548 had non-borderline symptoms which meant it was full-blown hip dysplasia. Hip dysplasia was more common...

Stunning flame coloured Maine Coon. Photo:  Катерина Силантьева. Bred in Russia. What are the ethical standards like in Russia? Any different to anywhere else?  This is a provocative question and a statement that implies that all cat breeders are bad people. This is incorrect and unfair. It is generalizing far too much. Breeders including Maine Coon cat breeders are not bad people. If you met one - usually a middle-aged lady - you'd probably like them and get on just fine. They are just people who normally don't see the problem with cat breeding in terms of the following two overarching issues: When you breed an individual cat such as a glorious Maine Coon kitten which will be bought by somebody, in effect you take away the possibility of adoption of one rescue cat in one shelter somewhere. That is somewhat theoretical but the equation is obvious. A person adopting a Maine Coon cat might have adopted a beautiful, large rescue cat with medium-length hair instead, that's been...

Here are 15 facts about spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in Maine Coon cats. SMA in a young non-Maine Coon. Image believed to be in the public domain and from a study: "Failure of lower motor neuron radial outgrowth precedes retrograde degeneration in a feline model of spinal muscular atrophy." SMA is an inherited genetic disease in Maine Coon cats causing a decreased muscle mass. If two carrier cats, that is cats which are heterozygous to the disease which means they carry one copy of the gene mutation, are mated there is a 25% probability of the offspring being affected. This means that 25% of the offspring will be homozygous to the disease which in turn means that they have two copies of the gene mutation. The disease will be present in them. The disease affects the spinal cord nerves that control the skeletal muscles of the body and legs. The spinal cord nerves die off. The disease is evident at about 3 to 4 months of age. Kittens move with a sway in the rear end. By the ag...

Omar using his enormous length (and therefore height) to go effect to scrump some tasty food from the kitchen counter. Omar is one of the world's largest domestic cats and he lives in Australia. Pic in the public domain. Yes, just like any other domestic cat, Maine Coons sometimes jump on to counters but it depends upon the individual cat. And it depends on their owner letting them and on the cat's health (see below). But there is a difference between the Maine Coon and other domestic cats: their size. I have seen numerous pictures of Maine Coon cats reaching up to kitchen counters to grab some food on the surface. Sometimes they don't need to jump onto kitchen counters to get what they want. The picture below highlights this in an amusing way. The caption is: ' I finally found out who’s been stealing all the steak🙀.' Maine Coons can sometimes reach up to the counter rather than jumping onto it to get what they want. Photo: u/MilosH18 on Reddit.com Athletic by some...