Your Maine Coon Guide

Maine Coon cat caregivers who are really switched on and concerned about their cat's health might want to know a little bit more about diabetes mellitus which can affect domestic cats including the Maine Coon cat. It is not a disease which is directly inherited but which is the result of a lifestyle in much the same way that it affects humans. It is rare. Dry cat food Notwithstanding that statement, some cats are probably genetically predisposed to getting Type II diabetes. One well-known veterinarian who wrote a book called YOUR CAT, Elizabeth M Hodgkins DVM, believe that being overweight in cat is not a cause of diabetes mellitus. She argues that a cat contracting Type II diabetes and being overweight has a common cause; a root cause. And that cause, she believes, is dry cat food which is high in carbohydrates. She believes cats on dry cat food are predispose to hypoglycaemia and she has treated diabetic cats with wet cat food and nothing else and they have entered into remission...

Mitten-paw and patty-foot. Image: MikeB based on images from the study mentioned in the article. Here's a short note with some information about polydactylism in Maine coon cats. Polydactyly definition: I think I might start off with a definition of polydactyly. It is usually defined in relation to humans where it means "a condition in which a baby is born with one or more extra fingers." It means, therefore, that a cat is born with more than the normal number of toes and it can affect both hind and forepaws but normally affects the forepaws. High prevalence : there is a high prevalence of polydactylism in Maine Coon cats. We don't have an exact percentage of Maine Coon cats that are polydactyly but it's probably around 40% or 4 in 10 cats have more than the usual number of toes. Variable appearance: what I mean here is that, in scientific language, the "phenotypic expression of polydactyly showed great variability". The word "phenotypic" mea...

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...

You may have heard of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) in Maine Coon cats. It is one of those inherited diseases, several of which affect the Maine Coon, and as indicated in the title the muscles of the back become weakened which interferes with their normal activities such as jumping and walking.  These are not Maine Coons. Image in the public domain (believed). The cause is due to a loss of neurons in the first few weeks of life. The weakness becomes apparent at 3-4 months of age. Kittens walk with a strange gait and their hocks nearly touch the ground. The hock is the area from the end of the foot to the first part of the leg. RELATED: 15 facts about spinal muscular atrophy in Maine Coon cats. There should be no difficulty in diagnosing SMA being present in a Maine Coon cat. The disease is inherited as an autosomal (non-sex-linked) recessive mutated genetic trait. Genes come in pairs. If a Maine Coon cat has one copy of the mutated gene and one copy without the mutation they are re...

In layperson's terms, we know that it's possible to screen Maine Coon breeding cats, foundation cats and the parents of kittens plus the kittens created at cat breeders for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in order to prevent the creation of Maine Coon cats who are predisposed to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and therefore to reassure purchasers of purebred Maine Coon cats that their purchase will not show signs of the disease quite soon after purchase and have a shortened lifespan as a consequence. By 'screening' I mean testing for a mutant gene that causes the disease. When a Maine Coon breeder says that they screen their cats and kittens for the disease that they sell to clients, should a negative test result totally reassure the client that their purchased kitten will not develop HCM? That is the $64,000 question. The answer to that question is clearly NO , sadly. My research clearly indicates that a Maine Coon cat screened as negative for HCM may still develop this...

The Maine Coon x Siamese mix is a popular cat. Or at least it is discussed a lot on the Internet. But these are informal hybrid cats. They are not accepted by the Cat Fancier's Association (CFA), the premier association in the American cat fancy.  It is just breeders or individuals experimenting it seems to me. They like the idea of a hybrid of a cross between them Maine Coon cat and a Siamese cat. And it is quite a nice hybrid. Lynx point Siamese x Maine Coon hybrid. Image: Reddit.com user: u/chance_tyler11 However, it is a hybrid which is rejected by the CFA breed standard. You will note a couple of references to the pointed cat coat of the Siamese in the CFA breed standard which indicates this rejection. RELATED: Lynx point Siamese . Disqualification Firstly, in a paragraph concerning Maine Coon cats that should be disqualified at cat shows it refers to both the kinked tail and crossed eyes . In other words, any Maine Coon cat with a kinked tail or crossed eyes will be disquali...

I think that it is always useful to go to science to examine the behavioural traits of any single cat breed. In this instance, a Finnish study titled: 'Breed differences of heritable behavioural traits in cats', looked at 5,726 individual cats through a questionnaire given to their owners.  Ginger tabby and white Maine Coon chilling. Image in public domain. Maine Coons participated in study as did other breeds and non-purebred cats. They were looking at whether selective breeding of Maine Coon cats and other breeds controlled to a certain extent the cat's character. And they found some correlations between genetic inheritance and behaviour. I have always said that in any chosen breed you can't say that all the individual cats are going to have the same character. That is impossible and it doesn't make sense. That's because there are two influencing factors: inherited character and environmentally altered character through experiences. Also, there are many breede...

There are several issues to discuss when responding to the question in the title. It appears that some people think that all Maine Coon cats have extra toes. This is incorrect.  Huge white polydactyl Maine Coon. Image: Pinterest. Not all Maine Coons are polydactyl Sarah Hartwell in her website is one of the few providers of information on polydactylism in Maine Coon cats to state that "historically, the polydactyl made up 40% of the original unregistered Maine Coon population". Note that she says "unregistered". These are Maine Coon cats which were not registered to a cat association. I take that to mean that these were not officially Maine Coons and perhaps she is referring to the Maine Coon before they became a purebred, pedigree cat (see below as well).  Falling percentage It's quite a high percentage which has been dramatically reduced since the Maine Coons became a registered purebred cat because, for example, the Cat Fanciers' Association does not reco...

Under the Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA), the Maine Coon coat should be heavy and shaggy, shorter on the shoulders and longer on the stomach and britches. A full-frontal ruff is desirable, and the coat texture should be silky with the coat falling smoothly. That's the breed standard. Cream Maine Coon with shaggy fur. Image: Pinterest. A study published in October 2021 (see full citation at base of article) which is quite recent, found that the gene which causes long hair in cats can be heterozygous or homozygous and this affects the "longhair phenotype in about 3% of these cats". That's a reference to Maine Coon cats. Heterozygous means "having two different alleles of a particular gene or genes" while homozygous means having two identical alleles. It's a tricky subject to discuss but research indicates that hair length in domestic cats varies a lot, and this variation is due to mutations of the recessive gene known as the: fibroblast growth factor ...

The dilute tortoiseshell is a 'faded' tortoiseshell coat. It is as if all the bright tortoiseshell colours are faded and muted. It is a very popular coat type although relatively rare compared to the standard tortoiseshell coat.  Dilute tortoiseshell Maine Coon. Photo by Robert Sijka. Purely in terms of appearance of any object, the slightly worn and used look is attractive to a lot of people. I can think of many products which look better used than when brand new. The black Leica rangefinder camera comes to mind (I used to be a professional photographer). Well, the dilute tortoiseshell coat of a domestic cat is a bit like that 😎😉. Some people like it and some don't like it as much as the brightly coloured original. You may know that this appearance of diluted colours is due to a mutant form of the genes which normally ensure that the pigment granules are deposited evenly throughout the hair strands. In the "mutant form" the pigment granules are enlarged "a...

We know that the Maine Coon is predisposed to polydactyly. The Maine Coon cat breed is famous for cats having more than the usual number of toes. In fact, it wasn't until very recently that the polydactyl Maine Coon was accepted by The International Cat Association (TICA). Polydactyl Maine Coons are not accepted by the Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA) as at the date of this post. Polydactyl MC. Image in public domain. RELATED:  Polydactylism was deliberately bred out of the Maine Coon . A study report on SAGE Journals regarding: 'Genetic heterogeneity of polydactyly in Maine Coon cats', concluded that "polydactyly in Maine Coon cats is inherited as an autosomal dominant trait with incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity and this trait is characterised by genetic heterogeneity in the Maine Coon breed". RELATED:  Polydactyl cat record holders 2022 . It might be helpful the break that information down a bit if we can. "Polydactyly" is another wor...

A brand-new study published on June 16, 2022 which researched inherited diseases linked to a wide range of purebred cats and including non-pedigree cats, is proving useful. It is the largest DNA-based study of domestic cats to date according to the scientists. In all, 11,036 individual cat were genotyped. They included 10,419 pedigreed cats and 617 non-pedigreed cats.  DNA testing. Image: Pixabay. They were looking into the "distribution and frequency of known disease, blood type and physical trait associated genetic variance across cat breeds". I interpret this to mean that they were investigating inherited diseases in purebred cats and comparing that with non-purebred cats. I might oversimplify their stated objectives but it needs to be simplified. However, I am able to, I hope, simplify it having read hundreds of studies over the years. I'm going to go over some inherited diseases concerning the Maine Coon cat as reported by this study which may interest cat breeders a...

Scientists screened 3757 cats from different cat breeds in America including 2744 Maine Coon cats for a genetic mutation called MYBPC3-A31P, which the scientists say has been identified in the USA in a colony of Maine Coon cats suffering from autosomal dominant hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). I'm not sure whether this is THE genetic mutation which causes HCM and Maine Coon cats. It probably isn't. The genetic mutations causing HCM in domestic cat is a complex subject. But let's say that this is at least one genetic mutation which alters the creation of muscle fibres in the heart causing the heart wall to thicken leading to this inherited health problem. Young Maine Coon with human face. How healthy is she/he? Photo as per bottom-left on image. Note: I am not suggesting that this cat has HCM or has been poorly bred. The results of the study pointed to the fact that this mutation is only found in Maine Coon cats with a prevalence of 41.5%. They found one exception which...

The answer to the question in the title is, no , because some Maine Coons have an "M" on their forehead but not all Maine Coons. This is because not all Maine Coons are cats with a tabby coat. Although the Maine Coon perhaps looks its best with a tabby coat, the cat associations allow a wide range of coat colours and patterns under their breed standards. Tabby Maine Coon with the classic M Mark on the forehead. This varies tremendously in this design so don't expect a perfect M! Photo: Helmi Flick. The question in the title almost presupposes that all Maine Coon cats are tabby cats, which, as mentioned, is untrue. A lot of people prefer the Maine Coon with a tabby coat because this is a rugged, barn cat in terms of its history. So you don't want to make the cat look too pretty.  That is the theory. This is meant to be a solid, substantial and now refined purebred cat but the history of this cat goes back about 400 years to the barn cats of the state of Maine in t...

This is a ginger marble tabby Maine Coon. As most ginger tabby cats are male cats I have decided that this is a male cat. In fact, about 80% of ginger tabby cats are male because females have to inherit two copies of the "ginger gene" ( O ). Red classic tabby male Maine Coon cat. Photo in the public domain The marble or classic tabby is also called the "blotched tabby". The geneticists or breeders write down the genotype as A-B-D-mcmc . It differs from the mackerel or striped tabby with the addition of the mcmc allele. The ginger tabby is sometimes called the red tabby. To the best of my knowledge, breeders normally refer to these cats as 'red'. The reference to "ginger" is normally a layperson's description as is marmalade or yellow - see link below. RELATED:  Orange, red, yellow, ginger or marmalade cats . Once again, the pattern may be either mackerel, blotched, spotted or ticked tabby. The hair strands of the coat are coloured by minute...

This is a nice photograph of a very large Maine Coon (yes, another wonderful-looking cat companion). What struck me immediately was the chiselled appearance of the smoke coat down the right foreleg of this cat. You can see the white parts of the hair strands below the dark tip. This to me is the classic smoke appearance. The top part of the hair strands are dark while underneath there is light coloured fur. The smoke coat and how it is created is very evident in this photograph of a beautiful Maine Coon cat. You can see the white under colour and the black tip. The photograph is from Twitter. I've lost the name of the contributor; sorry. The title explains how the smoke appearance is created as described by the authors of the book:  Robinson's Genetics for Cat Breeders and Veterinarians . They also state that: The action of I in producing white undercolor is clearly seen in this variety. (The symbol I is for the inhibitor gene). You might also see ghost tabby markings of ...

Here is another Maine Coon tortie snap, crackle and pop portrait of a mother and child 👌. Robert Sijka photograph of tortoiseshell Maine Coon and kitten. I say 'snap, crackle and pop' because the tortoiseshell pattern and colours produce this highly textured feel to the photo. It is almost as if you can touch the fur. I took the liberty to enhance the image a bit for the internet. I did this because when good quality digital photos are uploaded to a website, some of the quality goes missing normally. You lose some detail and sharpness. This is because built in software can lower the definition to reduce the file size to ensure that the image loads faster. I also feel that you have to make sure that you keep the images bright so they can be 'read' more clearly. Visitors want to see the subject matter. I have many pages of tortoiseshell cats. Below are a couple if you are interested: Male Tortoiseshell Cat Acts like a Masculinized Female Rather Than a true Male Rare m...

This is another cracker of a Maine Coon kitten from Russia. There is the hint of a human face which adds a bit of glamour and glitter to this cat. Ginger tabbies always look good and if you believe it, they always have nice characters too (subject to being raised properly underfoot). The breeder is Viktoria Vyacheslavovna Terskaya who I believe is Russian or who lives in one of the former Russian satellite states. This is a typical European Maine Coon well bred in terms of appearance . I have no knowledge whatsoever of the cat's health. That's an important topic which is often overlooked. But Maine Coons have serious inherited health conditions to which adopters need to pay attention when buying. ASSOCIATED PAGE: 15 facts about hip dysplasia in Maine Coon cats Male ginger tabby Maine Coon kitten dazzles. Photo: Viktoria Vyacheslavovna Terskaya. I can see that the photographer has used ring flash for the photo. You see the reflection in the eyes. This lighting is soft and shadow...

This is an unusual-looking Maine Coon. It looks like a black smoke coat but the white spotting gene has created the white ruff (like a lion's mane) and the blaze down the middle of the face. The muzzle is very large in line with the modern trend for European Maine Coons. Maine Coon with an unusual coat and pattern. Photo: Pinterest.

I'm going to refer to what I think is a rare inherited condition in Maine Coon cats. I'm referring to it because Sarah Hartwell in her website messybeast.com refers to it and her website is a good authority. Merosin muscular dystrophy apparently can affect all domestic cats including Maine Coons and Siamese cats. The symptoms are progressive hind-limb weakness from 2-5 months old. Maine Coon kitten. This kitten did  not have merosin muscular dystrophy. Photo: Helmi Flick. Online, there is a study concerning a follow-up to a Persian-mixed cat that suffered from merosin deficient muscular dystrophy. It began at six months of age and progressed over the next three years. The cat had difficulty walking at eight months of age and died at the age of five years and three months. The cause of death was acute respiratory disorder. This individual was born in an inbred colony. A related cat showed similar clinical signs. The study confirms that it is rare as only a few cases of this...