Your Maine Coon Guide

This is a report in layman's terms of congenital sensorineural deafness (CSD) in white blue-eyed cats of various breeds including the Maine Coon cat. The word 'sensorineural' refers to the nervous system transmitting sound signals from the ears to the brain to perceive sound. CSD concerns a defect that a cat is born with affecting the nerves that transmit sound to the brain. It is the dominant white gene (W) which can damage the hearing of cats. RELATED:  Why are domestic cats white ? Good chance of suffering from CSD. Image now in the public domain. In all, 122 white purebred kittens and 61 coloured kittens between the ages of 6-21 weeks were examined. The occurrence of CSD in solid white kittens overall was 30.3% with deafness in both ears at 15.9% and deafness in one ear at 14.4% (unilateral). Deafness was more common in white kittens with blue irises. When the kitten had one blue iris the occurrence of deafness was at 44.4%. When both eyes had blue irises the occurrenc...

They are gorgeous, there is no denying. If you are pondering the possibility of adopting (buying) a Maine Coon kitten this little video from a breeder may whet your appetite. I say buy rather than adopt as the only way you'll be able to own a Maine Coon is by buying a kitten or sometimes an adult from a breeder as there are so few available as rescue cats in shelters or clubs. RELATED: The price of Maine Coon cats (a comprehensive discussion) Here we see two grey tabbies and a ginger tabby on the floor. I'd pick the ginger tabby. It is a personal choice but ginger tabbies have a reputation for good characters. I am not sure if there is any science in that but it is pretty good anecdotal evidence on the internet . RELATED: How to confirm that your Maine Coon cat is purebred without pedigree papers (and more) Screenshot from the video above The video comes from a successful TikTok account: Lucki Maine Coons. Link:  https://www.tiktok.com/@luckimainecoons

A person on social media asked: "Why are Maine Coon cats so friendly?" They asked that question with confidence. I can think of a few topics to discuss in response to the question. Socialisation Maine Coon cats are purebred cats. Purebred cats are bred by cat breeders. Cat breeders know that they have an obligation to make sure that their kittens for sale are fully socialised to humans. This means that they will be friendly towards humans from the get go. The breeder achieves this by making sure that the kittens that she has created in her breeding programme are underfoot in her home, meeting members of her family and even strangers. In this way the kittens become acclimatised to being around people. This means that when they meet their new owner, they get along with them and are not frightened of them. That's why Maine Coon cats are so friendly. It is down to the efforts of the cat breeder and socialisation. Unfriendly Maine Coon? Sometimes a Maine Coon cat might not be ...

This is a quite a cool video from TikTok as it shows us the range of coat types that can surprisingly be seen in kittens when their parents have different coats to their kittens. The video comes from PNW.Whiskers Cattery [ link ]. The mother is white. They breeder says that the mother is black but the presence of the W gene masks the black rendering the cat white. Click this to see a page on cat with white coats . You probably know that there is a good chance that a white cat can be deaf. It depends on various factors. I have a page on that too if it interests you. Click here to read the page . And why are cats with blue eyes deaf? Click this to find out . Note: white cats often have blue eyes. White cats have light-coloured eyes in shades of blue, gold, green, and copper This accounts for the white and black kittens. The 2 ginger tabby kittens come from their father's side as he is a ginger tabby. Ginger tabbies are nearly always males. Here they are. The white kitten at the front...

Young Maine Coon kitten. Image assessed as being in the public domain. A Maine Coon breeder based in Yorkshire, UK makes some remarks about Maine Coon kitten development which may interest people. This breeder has a connection to Russian, Ukrainian and Latvian Maine Coon breeders. The cattery's name is KleooKet. They say that Maine Coon kitten development will be influenced by the following: Their gender. This is well known. Males grow to be 2-3 kilograms larger than females. If the parents are large their offspring are likely to be large. KleooKet only mention the mother's weight and size influencing the weight and size of the kittens but it has to both parents. Kitten development will lag behind the normal if their nutrition is substandard. A kitten needs to eat whenever hungry. Excellent n utrition is vital for kitten growth . Comment : kittens need a growth formula food because a 'regular cat' (non-Maine Coon) of 9 months of age is basically full-grown and sexually...

This is a very short note on an interesting topic as it concerns the weight of the Maine Coon which is important to Maine Coon afficionados. Although Maine Coon kittens have a birth weight which is higher than that of other breeds e.g., Maine Coon kittens 115 grams, Norwegian Forest Cat kittens 106 grams, Birman kittens 97 grams, Siamese kittens 92 grams and Persian kittens at 82 grams, the weight of Maine Coon kittens relative to their mother's weight tended to be lower than for the other breeds mentioned. Lithuanian Maine Coon kitten. Image: the breeder. For instance, Maine Coon kittens' weight relative to their mother's weight was 2.3% in this study. For the Norwegian Forest Cat kittens, the percentage was 2,7%, Birmans 2.8%, Siamese 2.8%, Exotic Shorthair 2.9%, British Shorthair 3.1% and Persians 3.2%. Incidentally this tendency is seen in puppies i.e. smaller birth weight for the larger dog breeds. For comparison the study states that the kitten to female mature weight...

"Most cats will generally adapt to indoor housing provided there is sufficient space and that they are accustomed to these conditions from an early age." -  Study: Adaptation of domestic cats to confinement link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2007.09.003  . I would also add that the home of 'sufficient space' should be adapted to some extent to be suitable for a domestic cat such as quiet areas for snoozing and high perches for looking and to allow the cat to climb. Omar a famous full-time indoor Maine Coon. If he goes outside, it will be under supervision of some sort. Image: Instagram The quote is part of the summary of the study referred to. In general people would agree with it. It does not mean that adult cats used to being allowed outside can't eventually get used to full-time confinement.  But cats who've had years of freedom will find it particularly hard and stressful, I'd argue (depending on the cat's character), to accept and settle down w...

The Maine Coon Cat Club provides us with useful advice about purchasing a Maine Coon kitten. I mention some aspects of this advice below. One of their services is to provide a list of kittens available at certain times. They've updated their list on December 18, 2022. Like other people, my mind turns to a Christmas gift of a Maine Coon kitten which sounds fantastic BUT you know you've got to be self-disciplined. Super Maine Coon kitten. Image: Pinterest (modified by MikeB). The old adage comes to mind which is that a kitten is not for Christmas but for the life of the animal. It's very easy to be a little bit self-indulgent and think that I want a kitten NOW and I am going to have one for Christmas. Or my children would like a Maine Coon kitten for Christmas. The best present ever.  But that does not mean you shouldn't buy for Christmas . It is fine provided you have done your homework. Sorry if I sound as if I am lecturing. Note: I don't think you should buy a £1,2...

This is a screenshot of the original screenshot on the website The Truth about Rudycats and Wildblue . As I understand it, Rudycats and Wildblue are owned by the same person. They are part of the same operation. This is part two of a report on the alleged callous and cruel way that the owner of Rudycats (and Wildblue) operate their breeding cattery. Click this link to see Part 1 . There is a lot of discussion by the person who exposed this malpractice (another breeder as I understand it) at Rudycats the cold-hearted way in which the owner (I can't seem to find her name by the way) dealt with new-born kittens. Picture of 4 Maine Coon mothers with their 26 kittens born the same day at Rudycats cattery. Image: The Truth About Rudycats and Wildblue. As you can see in the screenshot above, roughly 26 kittens were born on the same day in July 2021 to four queens. A significant number of these kittens died and in a very long series of screenshots of text messages between the owner of Rudy...

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...

This is a very short video on the TikTok website by 'sir_jacoon'. It has caught the imagination of people because it's been seen about 1/2 a million times which is not bad for TikTok! I'm not sure why it is so popular to be perfectly frank, but it is probably as simple as this: Maine Coon kittens particularly ones with a very strong muzzle and a ginger tabby coat are very popular. And the expression on this kitten's faces priceless. But I don't like to see a kitten who is anxious and this one is. I'm not sure it's a good idea to make a video like this of an anxious little kitten but I understand the reason why because it's going to be popular. One month old ginger tabby Maine Coon kitten is melting hearts. Screenshot. The video is presented twice below: once as an embedded video from TikTok and the same video uploaded to this page. The former is better quality, but it might disappear which is why the other version is here! ✔️👍. @sir_jcoon Guarant...

Maine Coons are like any other domestic cat in that some adults and occasionally kittens are unable to digest milk and some milk by-products because they lack adequate amounts of the enzyme lactase. This enzyme aids in the digestion of milk sugars which is present in all dairy products. The unabsorbed sugar, lactose, holds water in the small intestine. This leads to what veterinarians called "increased motility" and a large volume of stool. "Increased motility" means an increased capability to move which in other words means diarrhoea in layperson's terms. Diarrhoea is the passage of loose and unformed stool. And diarrhoea is a symptom not a disease. Maine Coon drinking milk. This is a created picture as is probably obvious. Image: MikeB. Back in the day, when the cat owning public were less well-informed, they thought that giving their cat cows' milk was a treat. You'll see photographs of this on the internet. Milk is a treat to cats in terms of the tas...

Maine Coon newborn. Image: MikeB A study conducted in France concluded that, out of 15 different cat breeds, a little more than one in five Maine Coon litters had at least one stillborn kitten. The exact figure is 23.4% of the litters. Of the 15 breeds, the Maine Coon was the third worst in this regard. Litters with a stillborn kitten leads to the other kittens being slightly less heavy than if there was no stillborn kitten within that litter (see link below). As expected, despite this, the Maine Coon came out top in terms of birth weight. The Egyptian Mau was the worst in terms of percentage of litters with a stillborn kitten at 32%. For humans living in the USA, one in 160 birth of stillborn. RELATED:  Birth weights of 15 cat breeds compared and other useful information . Image: MikB from data from the study referred to. The number of stillborn kittens in litters appears to be high among the purebred cats but my research on dogs indicates numbers which are not that dissimilar. On...