Your Maine Coon Guide

The Maine Coon cat, it is said, can be predisposed to chronic kidney disease (CKD). Most elderly cats can develop CKD and it is one of the most common old-age health problems which can lead to a shortened lifespan or perhaps euthanasia at a veterinarian's if the condition is sufficiently advanced. I take my information about Maine Coons, Abyssinians and Persians as being perhaps predisposed to developing CKD from a veterinary website called Shallowford Animal Hospital. It's based in North Carolina, USA. Bearing this in mind, it's useful, I think, to mention a recent development in the treatment and prevention of CKD which comes from Japan. Image: MikeB under license. Doctor Toru Mikazaki, and immunology specialist at the University of Tokyo discovered, according to the NEXT SHARK website, a 'protein apoptosis inhibitor of macrophage (AIM)' which helps the kidneys flush out toxins using immunoglobulin antibodies. He believes that AIM is present in the blood of many a...

This is a remarkable study for its conclusion. It was conducted in 2010.The scientists evaluated a population of 127 cats who'd been treated at the Royal Veterinary College Queen Mother Hospital for Animals in the UK between 1997 and 2005. The cats included some purebred cat including Ragdolls. They concluded that "Overall median survival from date of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy diagnosis at the Queen Mother Hospital for Animals was 1276 days".  This is saying that cats taken to this animal hospital for diagnosis and having been diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) lived for a further 3.5 years.  Comment: a very short time. Clearly the age of the cat when diagnosed is a factor which dictates the length of time that they have to live.  Younger cats lived longer after being diagnosed with HCM. That's pretty obvious and HCM can affect young cats around 4 months old. That said, we know that Maine Coons and Ragdolls are just 2 breeds with a history of HCM. The...

Well, this video is from the respected and loved (💓) Ben the Vet. He is good. He's very sensible and honest. It can be hard to talk about the cat breeds in a very honest way and not dress things up as a lot of website do.  My style to present truthful information as best I can in the interests of buyers. They need to know what to expect. I don't like the video 😓. But the information is useful I hope.  This is Zak, a Maine Coon that used to live with Helmi Flick a cat photographer. I took the picture in my bedroom at her house. Handheld. He's cute isn't he? Great cat. So nice. He looks like he has a nice character and he did. The pic was taken around 15 years ago so he must be dead by now. RIP. The video says that the average life of the random-bred cat is around 14 years. The Maine Coon lifespan is 11 years according to this video which I am sure is based on a study that Ben has read. There are a lot of studies on the cat breeds and many on medical issues and touching...

I'm able to access the full report by a group of scientists who looked at the mortality of life-insured Swedish cats both non-purebred and purebred. They compared the mortality rate for two periods of time, one more recent than the other (1999-2002 compared to 2003-2006). They published a chart showing the percentage of cats who died by the age of five, by the age of 7.5 years, by the age of 10 years and by the age of 12.5 years. RELATED:  Comparing Maine Coon, Norwegian Forest and Siberian Cats . Maine Coon In the earlier period, 41% of Maine Coon cats survived until 12.5 years of age and beyond. In the second more recent period, 54% of Maine Coon cats survived until 12.5 years of age. The increased lifespan is probably due to an increase in taking out an insurance premium (usually expensive). Birman For the Birman the percentages were 58% and 68% respectively. In other words, over the more recent period, 68% of Birman cats lived to 12.5 years of age and beyond, which as you can s...

I have a feeling that the popularity of the Maine Coon over the past few years has forced up the price. I did a bit of quick research and found one breeder charging $2,200 for kittens and a visitor to this site paid $3,500. Here is their comment: Thank you too Michael. Agree about Mr Vivo hypothetical price. As for current USA prices... in March I paid 3.5K, the cheapest I found (later) was 2.7K, but I only researched the Florida breeders at the time. They might be cheaper in other states. - Ciprian M. Historically and for quite a long time the typical price, to the best of my knowledge was around $1,500. In fact, if you go back around 12 years the price was around $500! Note: Please tell me what you paid for your Maine Coon recently! Of course, there is general inflation over the years which results in higher prices. And inflation generally has been a big issue after the Covid pandemic but it is pretty clear to me that Maine Coon prices are rising faster than inflation.  As t...

In one way I am a little shocked by the conclusions of this large veterinary clinic study but in another way, I am not knowing the range of inherited genetic diseases suffered by the Maine Coon, particularly the heart disease hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Heart disease is bound to shorten lives on average across the breed.  Image: MikeB. These are NOT Maine Coons!! Note: this is a cross-post. I felt the need to do it again with a slightly different emphasis and length. The video below provides you with Ben's assessment based on a well-known study: Longevity and mortality of cats attending primary care veterinary practices in England dated 2015. Link at base of page. The video/study does not tell us why the Maine Coon has a lifespan that is shorter than the average moggie estimated to be 14 years. The issue is why do Maine Coons live relatively short lives compared to many other breeds and non-purebreds. The answer is probably in HCM. For people they say that most sufferers...

This applies to all domestic cats. Maine Coons probably have slightly shorter life spans than moggies. And their health is compromised by inherited diseases which are been well documented. These probably affect their effective breeding lifespan. But in short, the general answer to the question is a very long time. Male cats have been known to produce offspring at the advanced age of 16 years. This is something like a human being in his 70s. Maine Coon family. Image copyright Helmi Flick. Female cats have been known to give birth when 12 years of age. There is a recent story on the Internet about a 30-year-old cat giving birth! That obviously is an exception (unique actually) and the cat was not a Maine Coon. In fact, I can't recall any Maine Coon living to the age of 30. That would be an incredible rarity. A 12-year-old cat is probably the equivalent of around the mid-60s for a human female. There is a story on the Internet of a woman giving birth at the age of 70. So there seems t...

This video is nicely instructional for people interested in adopting a Maine Coon. Here we have a very nice little video. It shows an Australian lady (an amusing woman) interviewing an Australian woman who is a Maine Coon cat breeder. The interview appears to have taken place at a cat show where this beautiful 10 kg (22 pounds) male Maine Coon cat has won two titles that day at this cat show.  RELATED: Here's a list of Maine Coon breeders in Australia and some extra information . And as is so typical of Maine Coon cats he sits there completely chilled out minding his own business while they talk about him. This is a strange place to this cat but no problems. He just wants to sit down and chill. Australian Maine Coon breeder talks through the breed in an interview at a cat show in Australia where this cat won twice. Screenshot. How many times have we seen Maine Coon cats chilled and super-calm like this? I've seen them all the time. And it must point to a personality for this br...

How long will this Maine Coon kitten live? More than 11 years? Image: MikeB from images in the public domain. The question whether the Maine Coon cat is inbred is very important. I have just written a couple of articles, one about inbreeding depression and how it's caused and its effect on health, and the other an article about the lifespan of domestic cats comparing purebred cats with non-purebred cats. These are important and both affect the Maine Coon. Please click on the links to read them: Inbreeding depression cause and effect Lifespans of some purebred and random-bred domestic cats UK (some startling stats) When I did that research I came across a study and presentation, the results of which you can see by clicking on the second link above , which came to the conclusion that the average lifespan of the Maine Coon cat is 11-years-of-age. I found that statistic shocking.  The Abyssinian's average age is 10 years while the Bengal cat is 7.3 years according to this study. P...

For me, to be very frank, the question is not that useful because it is encouraging me to generalise, and it is wrong to generalise on lifespan because it will vary between individual cats even when they are all Maine Coons.  Precious Maine Coon life beginning. Will he have a long life free of HCM? Image in public domain (as assessed). But I'm going to try and answer the question nonetheless because a well-known website on Maine Coons answers it and they say that you can expect Maine Coons to live beyond 12 years of age. Like I said, that's not extremely helpful. My assessment that their lifespan is 12 years! Not beyond it. See the update below if you want to cut to the chase. HCM the key It seems to me the discussion about Maine Coon lifespan should centre on a critically important inherited disease that affects this popular breed namely hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). A lot has been written about this heart disease. How does it affect lifespan? It must affect lifespan to ...

You may have heard the news that the speaker at the House of Commons in the UK, Sir Lindsay Hoyle has just lost his Maine Coon cat, Patrick, who died at the age of 12, two years after being crowned Westminster's top cat. Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Patrick. Photo: EPA. Sir Lindsay Hoyle is an animal lover. He said that Patrick lived a good life. I am sure that he did as the Speaker is clearly an excellent animal caregiver. The information that caught my eye is the age of Patrick when he died. The age of 12 is not a great age for a domestic cat nowadays. I think we can expect the average random bred cat to live normally beyond the age of 15. When I did some quick research on the lifespan of Maine Coon cats, all the websites I visited told me that they did between 12-15 years of age on average. My estimation is that this is about three years shorter than your typical non-purebred cat. I think this is a factor in whether you adopt a purebred cat or not. And I think, too, that this is not ab...

How long do Maine Coons live? Google's artificial intelligence computer tells me that some people ask this question. There is not a lot one can say in response. Domestic cats in general live to the high teens in my opinion. Modern day medicine and general domestic cat care has extended the lifespan of domestic cats. I would argue that the average domestic cat lives to 15-20 years with around 16-17 years being the average. The point is this though: purebred cats, and Maine Coons are purebred cats, tend to have shorter life spans . On that basis, Maine Coons probably, on average, live to around 15 years. But you won't find statistics on this; hard data. Maine Coon kitten. Image in public domain. This is anecdotal and it is my opinion in any case. But the bottom line is that Maine Coons, being domestic cats, will live as long as any other domestic cat but perhaps slightly shorter. Why is this? It's because purebred cats are inbred. They are inbred automatically because it i...

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 ...

3 month old MC. Long life ahead The Maine Coon lifespan is probably slightly better than the average for a purebred pedigree cat because although this breed does have some health issues which you can read about by clicking on this link , in general this cat breed is reasonably healthy and therefore around 12 to about 15 years is probably about right. A Swedish insurance company, we are told, discovered that the average age was 12.5 years . The average age for domestic cats generally is about 14 years. Therefore it is probably correct to state that the Maine Coon lifespan is slightly shorter than the more hardy random bred cat. Of course these are averages. Many Maine Coon cats will live longer. The photo is by Kristian Mollenborg on Flickr.