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Inquisitive dilute ginger tabby male Maine Coon investigates and licks his new 'son'

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The title underneath this video on YouTube is, I believe, misleading. It says "Dad saw his Maine Coon son for the first time and was shocked!" I don't see a shocked father but an inquisitive dad who wants to be involved. You see the father licking his "son". And the mother then comes in onto the scene and they recognise each other as parents and then things carry on as normal. The newborn is male because nearly all ginger tabbies are male. There is one remote possibility that the kitten is not the offspring of the cats we see in the video! That's not been mentioned or discussed. But I will presume that they are. The father's coat is a beautiful dilute red tabby. The mother seems to be a silver tabby and the offspring is a ginger tabby. But the issue is how much involvement does a male domestic cat desire in raising offspring? That's what comes to mind here but the situation is somewhat artificial. The father in this instance is involved to a certain ...
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Picture of 4 Maine Coon mothers with their 26 kittens born the same day (Rudycats Part 2)

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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...
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Maine Coons from a few days old to almost 12 weeks now

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Screenshot montage by MikeB. It is nice to see newborn kittens growing up instantly to 12-week-old adults and this TikTok video allows you to do that. Of course, it's very popular because people love Maine Coon cats, and they love kittens. It kind of combines all the elements of what we like to see in domestic cats. You probably know that Maine Coons grow to be full adults slower than other breeds. Is this correct? I sometimes doubt it. But that is the now 'cast in concrete' fact. Is there any anatomical reason why Maine Coons should take longer to reach adulthood (3-5 years)? There shouldn't be as in this respect they are regular domestic cats like any other. Humans reach adulthood at around 20 years which is around one quarter of their lifespan. If Maine Coons live to 15 on average, reaching adulthood at the age of 5 represents one third of their life. Strange? Inaccurate? For me, the music sucks to use an American expression. It is horrible and intrusive. Below is an...
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Study says more than 1 in 5 Maine Coon litters have stillborn kittens

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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...
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Maine Coon kitten's first 4 weeks of life in 21 seconds (video)

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Newborn red tabby Maine Coon. Screenshot. The newborn kitten meows will soften the hardest heart. This little ginger tabby is growing up to be one of those Maine Coons that has a slightly human face. A Yoda face. OMG he is cute. He is about as cute as a kitten can get. If you want to see a human-faced Maine Coon please click this link. As you may know the ginger tabby cat coat is sex linked. They are mostly males . RELATED:  Are male, orange tabby cats the friendliest ? Please click the play button twice to get the video to play 😎. Or you may be lucky and it works with one click....
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Obstetric information for Maine Coon cats

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Maine Coon kitten whose name is 'Ben' born in Lithuania. Photo: the breeder but I have forgotten her name. A study carried out in Poland provides anyone who is interested with some useful information about Maine Coon obstetrics. The scientists collected information from 52 litters from different households using a questionnaire. Here's the information: The overall length of pregnancy i.e. gestation was 65.5 days plus or minus 1.32 days; The shorter the pregnancy the larger the litter size; Kittens born alive had an overall mean weight of 119.6 g; Kittens born alive were heavier when pregnancy was longer; The weight of kittens decreased with larger litter sizes; 12.5% of kittens were stillborn; "The expulsion intervals varied widely". I take this to mean that the time between delivery of each kitten varied widely; In 82.9% of the cats the duration of the first stage of labour was less than two hours; The time between the birth of the first kitten and the last kitte...
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Location: Warsaw, Poland
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Maine Coon 3 life stages: newborn, juvenile and adult

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A series of photos by Maine Coon of Superbia showing 3 life stages of a handsome black-and-white Maine Coon: newborn, juvenile and adult. You can see the adult in a pen because he is a breeder (see below). I'll be frank: I hate to see any cat in a bloody cage and especially when it is for breeding purposes. People breed cats for profit. In the meantime, the cat is imprisoned. Nothing personal against the breeder by the way. In general, I don't like the way breeders have to keep their breeding cats in cages because they behave badly i.e. spray urine and howl, I guess. Adult black-and-white Maine Coon from breeder: Maine Coons of Superbia in Germany. Photo: the cattery. Juvenile Maine Coon from Maine Coon of Superbia. Photo: the cattery. Juvenile Maine Coon from Maine Coon of Superbia. Photo: the cattery. The photos are by Maine Coon of Superbia. They are based in Germany I believe. A really nice series of photos. Newborns are pretty unprepossessing, aren't they? But they gro...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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Black smoke Maine Coon Richie with a black face and diamond eyes

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Black smoke Maine Coon Richie with a black face and diamond eyes. Photo: Instagram. OMG, this is a Maine Coon with an amazing face. His full name is "Richie du Mont d’Even". I think he has a black smoke coat which has created this black face with the assistance of other genes (polygenetic influence?) and ears with piercing, diamond eyes. This is a very special cat. Richie looked very interesting but relatively plain as a kitten. Image: Instagram. His paws are balls of fluff. He has a mane that goes over his head like a halo. He's angelic and other-worldly. The lynx tips on the end of his ears are smoky grey which makes them stand out. They are a bit like the opposite to the black lynx tips of the wild caracal.  He lives in France with his human: Adriana Piraino. He was born on 7th November 2020. He is still very young. They say Maine Coons reach adulthood at around the age of 4. He is going to be enormous as well. Richie with Adriana. Photo: Instagram Richie was bred b...
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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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