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Showing posts with the label scratching behavior

7 potential Maine Coon behavioral problems

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Image: MikeB Below is a list of seven potential Maine Coon behavioural problems from a well-known website about this cat breed. I would like to discuss them. The picture that I have made hints at the fact that I question whether these really are genuine Maine Coon problems. They are clearly natural behaviours because everything that a Maine Coon cat does is essentially natural; a reaction to the circumstances under which they find themselves and for a Maine Coon cat those circumstances are invariably created by their human caregiver because nearly all Maine Coon cats are full-time indoor cats. They live inside a human world; a human environment both in terms of the inanimate objects and the animate objects. Aggressive Territorial Clingy Inappropriate Climbing Spraying Scratching Furniture Destructive Aggression Of course, Maine Coon cats can be aggressive. Their inherent character trait lends this cat to be pretty calm and unaggressive; perhaps, in general, less aggressive than a typic...
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Can a Maine Coon kill a person?

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Can a Maine Coon kill a person? Under extreme circumstances the answer is yes due to a bite infection but I don't think it has ever happened! Image: DALLE-E Because of the imposing size of some of the Maine Coons that we see on the internet - which do not really represent the general Maine Coon population - some people are genuinely unsure if they'll be safe around one of these impressive cats. This is an extreme viewpoint and many will consider it quite mad. It's not. But fear not because it is highly unlikely for a Maine Coon to kill a person. Maine Coons are domesticated cats that have a friendly and affectionate nature. They are not aggressive towards humans and are known to be great companions. Maine Coons are large cats, with males weighing up to 18 pounds, but their size alone does not make them dangerous to humans. While Maine Coons are powerful animals with sharp claws and teeth, they are not likely to attack humans unprovoked (c.f. defensive aggression). Like any ...
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Do Maine Coons destroy furniture?

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Maine Coons are neither more predisposed to destroying furniture or less predisposed to doing it compared to any other domestic cat. This is not about a specific breed of cat; it is about normal domestic cat behaviour and how their human caregiver deals with it as best they can and indeed how they respond to cat scratching behaviour.  I think it is fair to say, too, that the word 'destroy' is unduly harsh and provocative. Cats don't destroy furniture. They mark it 😃. Yes, they make it look less attractive but that's not the end of the world for most people. Note: Active Maine Coon kittens will probably be more 'destructive' compared to normal sized kittens simply because of their size. Do Maine Coons destroy furniture? No more or less than other cat types. This is much more about humans than cats. Image: MikeB. Of course, Maine Coon cats are bigger than the average domestic cat. This probably predisposes them to being more destructive if they scratch furniture ...
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6-month-old male Maine Coon scratches everything and sucks the tip of his tail. What can his caregiver do?

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A Reddit.com user (u/missandei86) appears to have recently adopted a young Maine Coon cat. He's a handsome blue Maine Coon cat with golden eyes. His human caregiver also says that he has a great personality and is super affectionate. He is also loud and he begs for food. 6-month-old male Maine Coon scratches everything and sucks the tip of his tail. What can the owner do? Photo: u/missandei86. I get the distinct impression, from the description, that this Maine Coon is feeling insecure. This accounts for the begging for food and constant vocalisations with his owner. And when a cat scratches a lot, they deposit scent on the objects that they scratch which is reassuring to them. And if a cat is sucking the tip of the tail this looks to me like a cat that has been weaned too early .  He is sucking his tail for reassurance. It's a bit like a boy who still sucks his thumb although he is too old to do it. Boys and girls who do this do it because they feel anxious. And I think thi...
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Do Maine Coons scratch furniture?

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Yes, Maine Coons will normally scratch furniture just like any other domestic cats depending on the proclivities of the individual cat concerned. That's the answer. I could stop there but I'll add a bit more. As is the case with any other domestic cat you can take steps to help prevent your Maine Coon scratching furniture. But don't declaw. That is a big NO NO. It is blatantly cruel and unnecessary. What you need to do is purchase some really good scratching boards and scratching posts on which you can rub some catnip to attract your cat to them. If you are armed with these alternatives your cat will certainly scratch furniture much less. As for scratching posts you need to get a really solid one. The best one you can get it on Amazon. Click this link: https://amzn.to/3yujykJ and you'll be taken to a big, solid scratching post which I believe you can buy on both the European and the American version of Amazon. I have got one myself and a few scratching boards on the gr...
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Do Maine Coons scratch furniture?

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Sorry but this is an absurd question. However, I feel compelled to address it briefly because Google tells me that people ask it. All domestic cats scratch furniture if the opportunity arises because all domestic cats need to scratch something. If they were allowed outside it would be the side of a fence or a tree trunk. If it is inside the home, where Maine Coons should be living full-time in my opinion, it should be a solidly constructed cat scratching post, one of which I recommend and which can be purchased on Amazon.  You can see it in the photo below. You can't miss it on Amazon. Scratching posts have to be sold and big to be effective and attractive to domestic cats. Marvin at scratching post. Marvin lives with DW, a regular contributor. The photo is by her. Maine Coons are just like any other domestic cat. I don't really need to state that, but I will just to be absolutely clear. They need to scratch to stretch their back, to deposit scent onto objects around them, t...
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Location: Kingston upon Thames, UK
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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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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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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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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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5 Maine Coon transformations from kitten to adult (video)

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Maine Coon kitten and his adult self. Photo: Robert Silka. This is a series of photographs by the very famous Maine Coon photographer: robert_sijka. I think he presents his photographs too dark as there is not enough information in the photographs for my liking but he takes great photographs of great Maine Coon cats. In this series he photographs a kitten and their adult version. Each individual cat is a wonderful example of the Maine Coon breed. I can count five examples. In my experience, these Google Blogger videos only work if you click the centre play button and then, immediately afterwards, the play button bottom-left! It sounds bad but the short video is worth watching.
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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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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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Picture showing a Maine Coon as big as a child

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Another good example of the size of the bigger Maine Coons. Photo: Reddit.com This is a good photograph from the point of view of comparing size because it is from above and so we can see the full length of this almost totally black Maine Coon with white boots. The cat looks bigger than the child which is possible because I've seen Maine Coons which are positively enormous. I'm sure breeders of this cat go out of the way and bend over backwards to breed the biggest Maine Coon that they can. It's a challenge. They're not meant to necessarily be as big as this, as far as I know. That wasn't the initial objective under the breed standard. The standard does not say that Maine Coons must be enormous. In fact, the Cat Fanciers' Association breed standard, in the opening paragraph provides an overview of the cat and there is no mention that this cat should be very big. It is reproduced below (great cat though): "GENERAL: originally a working cat, the Maine Coon is...
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Should Maine Coons wear collars?

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Should Maine Coon cats wear collars? It's a question posed by the owner of the website Maine Coon Central and I think the question is not a great one to be perfectly frank but it does just about need to be addressed which is why I am writing this article. Maine Coon cat wearing a collar. Photo by Warren Photographic (modified by MikeB) and used with his express permission. You could ask the same question about any domestic cat that goes outside. Cat collars normally contain an identification tag. Cats that go outside might get lost. The ID tag can help them be reunited with their owner without recourse to having to scan for a microchip. The thing is though that it is probably exceptional for a Maine Coon cat to be allowed to go outside unsupervised. Quite rarely people take them outside on a harness and lead to allow them to explore the outside and be mentally stimulated. However, under these circumstances you don't need a collar with an ID tag for obvious reasons (unless they ...
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