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In the UK, Maine Coon cats likely to be the most expensive to insure

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I'm going to refer to the experiences of a journalist for The Sunday Times. His name is Ali Hussain and he has had a bad experience with his pet insurer concerning his Labrador dogs. His insurer refused to pay out after a vaccine to the back of the neck caused an abscess requiring treatment. He decided eventually after transferring his insurance to Tesco that they were no better and he should simply save money and run his own insurance policy through personal savings. I have advocated that all along. Essentially insurers make their policies overly-complicated. I would argue too complicated for the average pet owner. And I would further argue, perhaps provocatively, that pet insurers deliberately do this so that pet owners fall into the trap of not being able to make a successful claim because insurance companies know their policies and they pick up on a clause which forbids a particular kind of claim which the owner is entirely unaware of. After that rather negative introduction, I...
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What's it like having a Maine Coon cat as a pet?

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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...
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Maine Coon cats and arthritis

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Maine Coon cats and arthritis. Image: MikeB One website dedicated to the Maine Coon cat tells us that the breed can be affected by the following forms of arthritis based on vet advice: Immune-mediated arthritis  - this is arthritis caused by joint inflammation which in turn has been caused by the cat's immune system going wrong. I will presume that it is an auto-immune disease leading to various symptoms one of which is arthritis. Septic arthritis  - this is arthritis caused by a bacterial infection and the toxins produced by the bacteria which enter the joint cavity via the bloodstream. Osteoarthritis  - this is also known as degenerative joint disease arthritis. Cancerous arthritis  - this apparently is the results of synovial cell sarcomas. These are tumours of the synovial cells in the joint. This is a malignant tumour which can spread to the cat's lungs in 25% of the cases. That looks terribly bad. And it may be painting an overly negative picture of this breed....
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How much is pet health insurance for a healthy seven-year-old Maine Coon in the UK?

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I think that it is interesting to get an online quote from an insurance company for a Maine Coon cat. I may have cheated somewhat because I have told the insurance company that my fictional Maine Coon cat has no current health problems. Therefore, there are no pre-existing conditions. But a seven years old a Maine Coon cat might have pre-existing conditions such as the beginnings of hip dysplasia or HCM as examples. How much is pet health insurance for a healthy seven-year-old Maine Coon in the UK? Image: MikeB It is a great sadness that this wonderful cat breed does have this cloud over its reputation and certainly it affects insurance premiums. If you selected a SAINSBURY'S lifetime insurance policy (a premium policy) which provided for £7,500 of veterinary fees maximum per year, with complimentary treatment at £1,500 and an excess of £99, you would expect to pay £496.92 p annually or £41.41 p per month. Lifetime cover for a 7-year-old Maine Coon. This is a Sainsbury's insura...
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What's the best type of pet health insurance for my Maine Coon?

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The pet health insurance market is complicated. It's hard to know what to choose. Having thought about it, the starting point must be the inherited diseases of this popular cat breed which include spinal muscular atrophy, hip dysplasia, patellar luxation and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. And these diseases can start quite young. And they can be debilitating. Maine Coon pet health insurance discussed. Image: MikeB based in images in the public domain (believed). I wouldn't expect a Maine Coon cat to be involved in many accidents because they will normally be full-time indoor cats and if and when they go outside it will be under supervision. So, the pet health insurance is mainly about managing these inherited health conditions. Some pros and cons of pet health insurance . Four types There are four types of cat health insurance namely accident only, time-limited, maximum benefit and lifetime. Accident I will rule out accident only for the reason stated above.  Time limited "T...
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Maine Coon suffered a badly broken leg in road traffic accident in Scotland

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NEWS AND COMMENT- SKIRZA, FRESWICK, SCOTLAND: Janet Aykroyd and a husband Tim are cat people. They live with seven cats near an exceptionally quiet rural road according to Janet in the far north of Scotland near John O'Groats. They have a Maine Coon male cat called Baxter. On April 19, 2022 their one-year-old Maine Coon was knocked off his feet by a car on that quiet road. He was lucky to survive Janet feels although he suffered a broken femur (hind leg). Baxter. Photos by Janet and Jim. It is a bad break. It was broken in three places with shards of bone displaced. They took Baxter in a six-hour journey to Fife where the veterinarians at Neuk Vets carried out orthopaedic surgery to save his leg. Janet tells us that he has a stainless-steel rod, plate and screws in his leg. The cost of the surgery is projected to be around £4,000. I decided that because they have a Go Fund Me fundraising page with a target of £3,500. The cost so far for the metal rod and steel plate et cetera is...
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Location: Freswick, Wick KW1 4XX, UK
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It costs between £13-£57 per month to medically insure a Maine Coon in the UK for their lifetime

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I have just completed a questionnaire on the Money Supermarket website to obtain a quote to medically ensure against health risks a fictional Maine Coon that I have whose name is Bella and she is about two years of age. I requested the top end medical insurance for her, by which I mean she's covered for ongoing treatments for her lifetime and with a veterinary fee limit of between £3250-£15,000. So, this is a deluxe insurance package. Bella has been spayed and vaccinated et cetera. I've gone for a top end scenario to see what the website comes up with by way of a quote. It may interest somebody. Here are 2 screenshots at the bottom end and top end of the spectrum of premiums: Maine Coon health insurance UK low end prices. Maine Coon health insurance UK top end prices I have some other pages on cat insurance which may interest you. Please click the link below: pet health insurance – PoC (pictures-of-cats.org)
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Nine ways to make sure that your Maine Coon cat is properly insured

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Photo: Helmi Flick You may wish to take out a pet health insurance policy on your Maine Coon cat. Here are nine tips to ensure that the insurer pays out and to make sure that you've not missed something which results in a non-payment on a claim. Make sure that the details regarding your Maine Coon are up-to-date and notify them of any change in circumstances which includes moving home and relinquishing your cat, which is highly unlikely! Your insurer will probably not cover your Main Coon if he or she is used for commercial purposes such as breeding. It may also include the cat being used as a therapy animal. I would certainly check this. Make sure that your Main Coon is within the minimum and maximum age limits for qualifying pets under the insurance policy. If you're concerned about cover for dental health matters then check the policy because not all pet insurance policies cover this aspect of health i.e. it is not always included as standard. Pet insurance policies have a 1...
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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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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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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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No part of a Maine Coon cat should be exaggerated

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It is interesting to read that the premier cat association, the CFA (Cat Fanciers' Association) - the cat association which really dictates (with TICA) how Maine Coons should look - makes it clear that no part of the cat should be exaggerated, and the cat should be "well-proportioned and balanced".  In other words, any form of extreme appearance such as a particularly heavy muzzle or particularly large ears with extra-long lynx tips are not going to be seen as advantageous in terms of winning cat shows or in terms of having an ideal appearance. As soon as I read that no part of a Maine Coon should be exaggerated, I immediately thought of the extremely large, extreme-bred Maine Coon cats that often come from Russia. These cats have very heavy muzzles.  Lion-faced Maine Coon with exaggerated features. Image in public domain now. In fact, their heads look like the heads of lions. I get the impression that breeders have selectively bred their cats over years to look like male...
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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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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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2 top Russian Maine Coon cat breeders which ship internationally

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I am writing this from the West; specifically, near London, UK. There will be quite a few people living in the West who'd like to adopt a Maine Coon cat and they would like to adopt one from a Russian breeder because they do have a certain style.  I sense, although I don't have hard evidence to support this feeling, that the top Russian breeders of Maine Coon cats might be superior to breeders from other countries.  I am putting aside Putin's invasion of Ukraine when writing this article. Some people might object to dealing in anyway with a Russian business on account of that barbaric and illegal invasion. We should remember that Russia has quite a strong cat fancy. They like their cats and they love their purebred cats particularly the Maine Coon. It is in fact a cat breed which is quite naturally suited to the Russian way of life and climate. There's lots of space in Russia with a relatively low population and therefore there are going to be houses with large grounds ...
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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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Difference between Maine Coon and domestic long hair

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The difference between a Maine Coon cat and a domestic longhaired cat comes down to the fact that the former has been artificially bred (selective breeding) whereas the latter has usually procreated according to natural selection. Natural selection is random breeding and therefore the domestic longhair is a random-bred cat whereas, selective breeding produces a purebred, pedigree cat registered with a cat association.  Difference between Maine Coon and domestic long hair. Infographic by MikeB. And because each individual Maine Coon cat is registered with a cat association, if they are in genuine Maine Coon, their appearance should comply with the association's breed standard . The breed standard tells breeders what their Maine Coon cats should look like in order that they can win cat show competitions if they want to enter their cat into these competitions. And so, as the appearance of Maine Coon cats is moulded to the guidance of a breed standard (see a section below from the...
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