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How long do Maine Coons continue to breed?

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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...
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Maine Coon makes weird chomping sound after tasting a treat

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Well, this is very strange. Never heard a cat making a sound like this. Just after licking a small amount of a cat treat this Maine Coon makes a chomping sound. The video is courtesy Furry Fritz on TikTok. Maine Coon makes weird chomping sound after tasting a treat. Screenshot. It can only be because he/she continues to taste the treat. The mouth movements probably spreads the fragments of the tasty cat food paste or some other food, perhaps human food, around his mouth so he can continue to enjoy the taste. That's a reasonable theory.  I can't see anything wrong with it. I am sure there are no health connotations. It's just an idiosyncrasy of one Maine Coon cat. As we all know domestic cats have their own characters and foibles. This is an example. He probably makes the same chomping sound every time he tastes this particular treat. Here is an infographic touching on cat personality:
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Some dog breeds are predisposed to polydactylism like the Maine Coon

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Polydactyl paw of a dog. Screenshot. One aspect of the Maine Coon that helps to make it a famous cat breed is that it is predisposed to polydactylism. This almost totally benign genetic mutation was more common in the past than it is today as the breeders (some or all?) have selectively bred it out of their breeding lines as it disqualifies cats in CFA cat shows but not TICA cat shows where they have a special polydactyly Maine Coon (MC) category.  Back in the day when the MC was a barn cat say in the early-mid 1800s I bet there were a lot more polydactyl MCs. I questioned whether certain dog breeds experienced the same genetic mutation and Ben the Vet on TikTok tells me that there are. He does not specify dog breeds but a quick internet search found the following breeds predisposed to the genetic mutation: Norwegian Lundehund The Great Pyrenees The Beauceron Akita Anatolian Shepherd Rottweiler Jindo The Catalan Sheepdog Shiba Inu The Estrela Mountain dog Australian Shepherd Kor...
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Maine Coon breeder in Kharkiv, Ukraine invites buyers to her cattery to meet the cats during the war

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In a show of strength and contempt for the Russian invasion of Ukraine VivatCoon a Maine Coon breeder in Kharkiv, Ukraine is still inviting potential adopters of their cats to visit the cattery despite The Guardian newspaper in the UK reporting that "Two women have been killed and 10 wounded in a strike on a museum in Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region." Perhaps she just can't get around to amending the home page which would be understandable. Larysa Bekuzarova, a Maine Coon breeder in Kharkiv, Ukraine is according to her website continuing as normal. Image: Bekuzarova  I'd expect under normal conditions she may well receive visitors from abroad. There'd be none at present and I wouldn't expect any from within Ukraine either. Not a good time to adopt a cat in Ukraine which is sad. Fighting is ongoing around Kharkiv and this lady is still operating her cattery seemingly as normal.  I wonder if she is and how the war as affected her. She is a breeder of huge, Europe...
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Location: Kharkiv, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine
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Maine Coon coat is the single most important part of the cat's appearance

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The CFA breed standard guides breeders on the appearance of the breeds registered with that association. It is the same with the other breeds and associations. They award points for each aspect of the appearance with the overall total being 100. This allows judges to give an overall figure which is a percentage. The MC has a double coat of downy undercoat and a top coat but the coat is made up of three types of hair strand: down hairs (wool hairs), bristle or awn hairs and guard hairs . Technically there is a fourth type of hair: the whiskers. Maine Coon coat is the single most important part of the cat's appearance. Image: MikeB The aspect of the Maine Coon appearance (anatomy) to which is attached the most points in the coat. A show cat can be awarded a maximum of 20 points (20% of the total) for their coat in comparison to 15 for the head shape and 15 for the body shape. This 20% figure does NOT include body colour and pattern. The coat is therefore the most important single as...
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2 reasons why female Maine Coons are better than males

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In human terms it is sexist to select one sex over another and I feel slightly uncomfortable doing it but this article should interest people who are thinking of adopting a Maine Coon cat (MC). 2 reasons why female Maine Coons are better than males. Image: MikeB HCM If you are thinking of adopting you probably know by now that the MC is predisposed to several inherited diseases, one of which is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). It is a serious heart disease and ultimately a killer. It can start at a very young age . A breeder says that a cat predisposed to HCM should be tested for the disease yearly. How do you check ? This disease is present in the general domestic cat population and in other breeds at a higher prevalence e.g., the Bengal cat at around 15% of all Bengal cats. It is also present in humans at 0.2% prevalence (1 in 500). However, 30% of Maine coon cats have a genetic mutation that makes it likely that they will develop hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Cats in general are mo...
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Beautiful picture of a rare snow-white deaf Maine Coon

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I recently wrote about white cats being bad mothers ! The reasoning is straightforward: white cats are often deaf and being deaf they cannot respond in a timely way to their kitten's cries for attention. This is a barrier to being a good mother. And my mind turned to a photograph by Helmi Flick, a very well-known American show cat photographer, of a white Maine Coon cat. As I recall it was one of her first assignments as a professional cat photographer. She peached it and got a great result. It is as if the cat is floating like a cloud against a deep blue sky. She used an Olympus camera. She uses Canon nowadays or did. She lives in Fort Worth metroplex, Dallas, Texas. I'm told that this cat was or is (if still alive) deaf. That would have to be expected. The chances of being deaf depends upon whether the cat has two blue eyes, odd-eyes i.e. one yellow and one blue or both yellow.  A high proportion of all-white cats with two blue eyes will be deaf because the cochlea of the inn...
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Location: Dallas, TX, USA
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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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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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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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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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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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What is the activity level of the Maine Coon cat?

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Laid back, golden-eyed silver tabby Maine Coon looks down on their slave. Image in the public domain. One well-known Maine Coon cat website asks whether Maine Coon cats are hyper? And they go on to state that Maine Coon kittens are a little hyper which, as it happens, is typical of all kittens of all domestic cat breeds and random bred cats. It is just the nature of young kittens in the same way that it is the nature of young humans. But the word "hyper" is very far from the behaviour of the adult Maine Coon cat. My impression is that it is the opposite pretty well. One very obvious sign that Maine Coon cats are in general calm individuals is that you see many photographs on the Internet of Maine Coons cat owners holding up their cat to show them off to the camera and the expression on the cat's face could not be any calmer. They take it all in their stride. There is no struggling or wriggling to signal that they want to be put down as quickly as possible. I have a strong...
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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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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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