A giant cat dressed for winter
Picture a snowy farm in Maine and a big, shaggy cat crossing the yard. Long fur hangs under its belly like snow pants, which helps keep out wet snow. When it curls up to sleep, its bushy tail can wrap around it like a scarf. Some of these cats even have extra toes, so their wide paws look like mittens.
That cat is a Maine Coon, a breed of domestic cat that grows larger than many small dogs. Many Maine Coons are fond of water, and they often chat in chirps and trills as well as meows.
This book works like a field guide to wild animals, except that its subject lives with people. It shows what to look for, what the evidence says and where the evidence stops. Each of the first six chapters begins with one surprise, and later chapters cover everyday care, a method for watching a cat, common myths and health.
Quick facts
- Type: a domestic cat breed, not a wild species.
- Size: larger than many small dogs, with females generally smaller than males.
- Growth: can keep growing until three years of age or older.
- Coat: heavy and shaggy, longest on the belly and back legs, which helps keep out wet snow.
- Tail: long and bushy, and a sleeping cat can wrap it around itself like a scarf.
- Toes: some are born with extra toes, which can make their paws look like mittens.
- Water: many watch dripping taps, dunk their toys or even visit the shower.
- Voice: often chirps and trills, with purrs and an occasional meow.
How to use this guide
Each of the first six chapters opens with one surprise about Maine Coons and then looks closer. Chapter 9 shows how to watch a real cat without bothering it, and Chapter 10 covers heart and muscle health.
- Field notes: questions from Mila and Omar to think about as you read.
- Scientist spotlight: one study, what it found and what it could not show.
- Try it: a short activity to do with a picture or a pencil.
- Feature cards: field marks to compare side by side.
Chapter 1
A giant among house cats
Maine Coons are giant cats, larger than many small dogs. Depending on the dog, a Maine Coon can even be the bigger animal of the two. The Cat Fanciers' Association calls the breed the gentle giants of the cat fancy.
Size is the first thing most people notice, yet it is also the field mark that takes longest to appear, because these cats can keep growing for years.
Slow to grow up
Maine Coons can keep growing until they are three years old or older. The Cat Fanciers' Association writes that the breed is slow to mature, often reaching full development only at three to four years. Maine's Secretary of State gives three to five years, so a two-year-old Maine Coon may still be filling out.
Cat shows plan for this. The breed standard tells judges to make allowance for slow maturation, and British judges are asked to consider a younger cat's development. In other words, a young cat is not judged as if it were a finished adult.
Size also varies from one individual to another, and females are generally smaller than males. Many Maine Coons outgrow many small dogs, but no single weight defines the breed.
A long, square-cut outline
Breed standards are written descriptions that judges use at cat shows. The breed standard describes a long, rectangular-looking body with a muscular build and legs in proportion to the body. From the side, the outline looks more like a brick than a ball.
The face follows the same plan: the breed standard describes a square muzzle, the part of the face around the nose and mouth, with a firm chin below it.
A standard describes an ideal combination of features. Real Maine Coons vary, and a judge considers many features together rather than any single one.
Chapter 2
Snow pants and a ruff
A Maine Coon's heavy, shaggy coat grows longest on its belly and back legs, which helps keep out wet snow, like snow pants. Maine's Secretary of State describes the coat as water-resistant.
Water-resistant is not the same as waterproof. The coat is also shorter in some places than in others, so describing it region by region tells you more than simply calling it long.
Reading the coat by region
Start at the head and work back. Maine's Secretary of State describes a coat that is shorter on the back and neck. It is longer on the ruff, the stomach and the britches, which are the long fur on the back of the hind legs. According to that source, this layout helps protect the cat against wet and snow.
Show standards agree on the layout. The breed standard describes shorter fur on the shoulders and longer fur on the belly. The British standard adds shorter fur on the head and neck and a full, shaggy belly.
Why would fur keep a cat warm at all? Research on cat fur describes fine down hairs beneath longer guard hairs. Fluffed-up fur is mostly air, and that trapped air helps insulate the body. This applies to cats in general, and it does not make any cat safe outdoors in extreme cold.
Chapter 3
A tail like a scarf
When it curls up to sleep, a Maine Coon can wrap its long, bushy tail around itself like a warm, fluffy scarf.
Maine's Secretary of State notes this habit and says the tail can help protect the cat from cold winters. When the cat is awake, the tail becomes one of its clearest field marks.
The tail, as the standard describes it
The breed standard describes a long tail with long, flowing fur, wide at the base and tapering toward the tip. To check the taper, compare the width where the tail joins the body with the width near the end.
Does the tail do something no other cat's tail can do? The breed standard describes how the tail looks, not what it is for, and the scarf habit is a sleeping posture that the sources describe. A field guide can record that posture without claiming more.
Ears and eyes
The breed standard describes large ears that are wide at the base and taper toward the tips, along with eyes set wide apart. Together with the square muzzle, these features shape the breed's face.
Big ears do not prove better hearing, and nothing in the sources shows that a Maine Coon hears more than other cats. What all cats share is a sensitivity to noise: loud, unfamiliar sounds can frighten them.
Eye color varies between individuals, and it does not reveal a cat's temperament, its hearing or its family history.
Colors and patterns
The breed standards recognize a wide range of coats. A Maine Coon can be a solid color, a tabby, a tortoiseshell, a shaded coat or a smoke, and many of these can also come with white.
Coats can also differ between registries, because not every registry accepts every combination. A coat listed by one club may be missing from another club's list.
Chapter 4
Mittens on the front paws
Some Maine Coons are born with extra toes, so their wide, fluffy paws can look like they are wearing mittens! Breeders even call one form mitten-paw.
Having extra toes is called polydactyly, from Greek words meaning many fingers. It turns up in some Maine Coon breeding lines, while many Maine Coons have the usual number.
Counting toes
Cats usually have five toes on each front paw and four on each back paw, but some Maine Coons have more. Extra toes are a common trait in some breeding lines.
A genetic study found that the trait passes from parent to kitten as a dominant trait with incomplete penetrance. Dominant means that one copy of the gene version can be enough, while incomplete penetrance means that some cats carry it without showing extra toes.
Show rules pull the other way. The Cat Fanciers' Association's show standard still asks for the usual number of toes, so some pet Maine Coons with extra toes would not match it.
Round paws with tufts
The breed standard describes round paws with tufts of fur between and around the toes. Look between the toe pads, where the tufts stick out.
It is tempting to guess what tufts are for. The breed standard describes how they look, not why they developed, so any purpose remains an open question. Tufts alone also cannot prove that a cat is a pedigreed Maine Coon.
Paws themselves are ordinary cat equipment. What makes a Maine Coon's paws worth a closer look is their shape, their tufts and, on some cats, the extra toes.
Claws and scratching
Paws come with claws, and claws get used. Scratching is a normal cat behavior and also a way of marking, so a scratched surface may carry a message for other cats.
A cat that scratches the sofa is not being naughty on purpose, and caregivers can offer suitable scratching surfaces instead. Individual cats differ in the material they prefer and in whether they scratch upright or flat.
Chapter 5
A cat that likes water
Many Maine Coons are fond of water, so they may watch a dripping faucet, dunk their toys, or even visit the shower! A Maine Coon can bat at the drops as they fall.
All three habits come from the Cat Fanciers' Association's breed profile. This chapter looks at water play first, then at drinking water and food.
Taps, toys and showers
Watch a Maine Coon near a dripping tap and you might see a routine. The cat can sit and stare at the forming drops, then reach out and pat at them.
The breed profile says many will also wash food or toys in water, and some even try to join a person in the shower. A wet toy left beside the water bowl may be a clue.
A cat can choose this play for itself, but no cat should ever be put into water for fun. A cat that walks away from the tap has given its answer.
Water to drink, food to eat
Playing with water and drinking it are separate matters: every cat needs clean, fresh drinking water, whether or not it likes to splash.
Cats are obligate carnivores, which means they depend on nutrients found in animal foods. That does not make a home-made, meat-only diet enough. A complete, balanced cat food made for the cat's life stage supplies what it needs, and a veterinarian can advise on the choice.
Location matters too. Cats benefit from separate places for food, water, litter, play and rest. A crowded corner holding everything is not the same as separate spots, especially when cats share a home.
Chapter 6
Chirps and trills
Maine Coons often chat with little chirps and trills, so if one talks to you, answer softly and let it come to you.
This chapter listens closely: which sounds a Maine Coon makes, what a soft hello looks like, and how cats talk with smells.
A vocabulary of small sounds
Maine Coons often chirp and trill as well as meow. The Cat Fanciers' Association's breed profile lists chirps, trills and purrs in their daily conversation, with an occasional meow. Its breed article calls the Maine Coon a vocal breed, and Maine's Secretary of State describes a distinctive, chirping trill.
A Maine Coon can chirp and trill, but no source here translates those sounds into words. A field note can record when a cat chirps and what happened next, without deciding what the sound meant.
Saying hello the cat's way
Answer softly and let it come to you. That advice fits what is known about cats in general. Loud, unfamiliar sounds can frighten cats, so a quiet voice is a kinder reply than a shout or a squeal.
Individual cats vary in how much contact they want, so the best hello lets the cat start the contact and end it. Crouch to the cat's level and wait. A cat that sniffs your hand and leans in is making a choice, and so is a cat that turns away.
Scent: the quiet conversation
Cats also communicate with smells. When a cat rubs its face or body against a chair leg, it leaves scent behind, and cats use smell and scent marks to recognize their surroundings.
Familiar scents help shape a cat's sense of security. A new smell can change how a cat reacts to a room, even when the room looks the same to us.
Every cat does this, Maine Coons included. It may explain why a cat sniffs a visitor's shoes or rubs along a chair that has just been moved.
Chapter 7
Play, perches and hideaways
Maine Coons can run and play. Like other cats, they can chase, pounce and catch a toy with no live prey involved. Between bursts of play, they can use high places to watch from and safe places to hide.
This chapter looks at what play looks like, where a big cat can rest, and why no cat keeps quite the same clock.
Chase, pounce, catch
Watch a cat play with a wand toy and you can often see a sequence: the cat stares, chases, pounces and finally catches. Cat-care guidelines call this kind of play pseudo-predatory, because it follows parts of a hunt with a toy instead of prey.
The guidelines suggest moving the toy away from the cat, much as prey would flee, and then letting the cat catch it, since the catch can complete the sequence.
Safe toys matter as much as fun ones. The guidelines warn against toys with small parts a cat could swallow and against using hands or feet as targets, and toys with strings get put away after play.
Perches and hideaways
Raised resting places can let cats watch their surroundings from above. For a big Maine Coon, the perch has to be secure and large enough for the cat to stretch out, with an easy way up and down. A wobbly decorative ledge is no place for a large cat.
Cats can also hide in safe places, such as a box or a covered bed that the cat can enter and leave easily. A hiding place must never trap a cat, and hiding does not always signal the same feeling.
No fixed clock
Maine Coons can nap. Rest is a normal part of every cat's day, but cats do not all rest at the same times or in the same places.
So is a cat a night animal? In the study, the answer was mixed, because people and routines shaped activity too. The results do not show that all Maine Coons are nocturnal, or that every cat needs to go outdoors.
Chapter 8
Brushing and everyday care
Vets can help care for Maine Coons, from checkups to advice on food, coat and behavior. A long, heavy coat also asks something of the people a cat lives with, because regular brushing can remove loose fur.
Cats groom themselves too, with a tongue covered in tiny backward-facing spines called papillae. Brushing adds to that work.
Brushing a long coat
Cornell's cat-care experts recommend regular brushing or combing, and regular brushing can remove loose fur from the coat.
How much brushing a cat accepts varies between individuals, so short, calm sessions that the cat can walk away from let it set the limit.
Never pull at a mat, a tight knot of fur; an adult should ask a vet or a professional groomer how to deal with one. Brushing can help a coat, but it will not prevent every problem.
Calm trips to the vet
A trip to the vet starts at home. A familiar carrier can serve as a safe retreat for a cat. When it is left out in a room with familiar bedding, it can offer cover and a known smell, not just a ride.
Even so, a carrier cannot promise a calm trip, and a frightened cat should never be forced into contact. Quiet voices and a calm routine help, because loud, unfamiliar sounds can frighten cats.
At the clinic, a vet can examine the cat and advise the people who care for it. A vet is the right person to ask about anything that seems wrong.
Chapter 9
Field work at home
A field guide is meant to be used. Wildlife watchers keep their distance, stay quiet and write down what they see before they explain it, and the same habits work with a cat in a living room. The difference is that this animal lives with people, so its comfort comes first.
This chapter gives one method for watching, checks five myths against the sources, and ends with feature cards to compare.
How to watch a cat
Choose a time when the cat is already awake and nearby, and sit where it can see you and leave freely. Never call, chase, lift or block the cat; if it comes over, let it decide how close to get.
Divide each page into two columns. The left column holds what you saw and heard, and the right column holds what you think it means. A chirp belongs on the left, while saying hello belongs on the right, with a question mark.
Field marks belong on the page too, such as coat regions, tail, toes and ears, described from where you sit without handling the cat.
A sample watch
Here is how five minutes with this cat might look on the page. Saw: sits by the tap with eyes on the drip; pats a falling drop twice; gives one short chirp; walks off. Guessed: did the moving drop draw it in? Was the chirp meant for me, or for the drop?
Five myths, checked
Myth: A Maine Coon is part wild cat. Maine Coons are domestic cats, not a wild species. Genetic evidence links all domestic cats to Near Eastern wildcats far back in their ancestry. That evidence covers house cats in general, so it is not an origin story for this breed.
Myth: Any big, long-haired cat is a Maine Coon. Long fur turns up in other breeds and in mixed-breed cats, and Cornell's cat experts separate mixed-breed longhairs from pedigreed cats. Size and coat alone cannot reveal a cat's breeding history.
Myth: Every Maine Coon is a brown tabby. Maine Coons can have many colors and patterns, from solid and smoke coats to tortoiseshells and coats with white. The brown tabby in this guide's pictures is only one example.
Myth: All Maine Coons love water. Many are fond of water, but individual cats differ, and the ones that play with drips choose to do so.
Myth: Every Maine Coon has the same gentle nature. Individual cats vary in how much contact they like. Genes, early life and experience all shape that preference, so a friendly breed reputation is not a promise about any one cat.
Feature cards: the body
Feature cards: head, paws and color
Chapter 10
Heart and muscle health
Vets can help care for Maine Coons at every stage of life. Researchers have studied two conditions with genetic links in the breed: one affects the heart, and the other affects the nerves that control muscles.
Read this chapter with an adult. It explains what a DNA test and a heart scan can show, not how to diagnose or treat a cat.
HCM, A31P and SMA
Feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, called HCM, involves thickening of the heart muscle walls. Thick walls can make it harder for the heart to relax and to pump well. HCM is recognized in Maine Coons, but it is not certain to appear in any one cat, and it also occurs in other cats.
Part of the risk in Maine Coons is linked to one gene. A DNA change called A31P, in the MYBPC3 gene, is associated with a higher risk of HCM in the breed. That gene carries the code for a heart muscle protein. The risk looks highest in cats with two copies of the variant. Even so, a cat with the variant does not always develop the disease.
A negative test has a narrow meaning. It says the cat lacks that one variant. It does not rule out HCM, because cats without A31P have developed the condition too. It is not a lifetime promise of a healthy heart.
To see the heart itself, vets use echocardiography, an ultrasound scan that uses sound waves to make images of the heart. Other conditions can also thicken heart walls, so a vet must consider those before deciding it is HCM. The DNA test reads one gene; the scan shows the heart as it is now.
Glossary
- Breed standard
- A written description of a breed's ideal look, used by judges at cat shows.
- Britches
- The long fur on the back of a cat's hind legs, which helps protect against wet and snow.
- Domestic cat
- A cat that lives with people, not a wild species. Maine Coons are domestic cats.
- Echocardiography
- An ultrasound scan that uses sound waves to make images of the heart.
- Field mark
- A feature that helps you recognize an animal by sight.
- HCM
- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart condition in which the muscle walls thicken.
- Incomplete penetrance
- When some animals carry a gene version without showing its trait.
- Maturation
- Growing into an adult body. The breed standard allows for slow maturation in Maine Coons.
- Motor neuron
- A nerve cell that controls muscles.
- Muzzle
- The part of the face around the nose and mouth.
- Obligate carnivore
- An animal that depends on nutrients found in animal foods.
- Papillae
- Tiny backward-facing spines on a cat's tongue.
Glossary (continued)
- Pedigree
- A record of an animal's breeding history.
- Perch
- A raised resting place where a cat can watch its surroundings.
- Polydactyly
- Having extra toes. Some Maine Coons are polydactyl.
- Ruff
- The long fur around a cat's neck and chest.
- Scent mark
- A smell a cat leaves by rubbing or scratching. Cats use scent marks to recognize places.
- SMA
- Spinal muscular atrophy, an inherited condition in which motor neurons are lost and muscles waste away.
- Telemetry
- Recording information from a distance, such as the activity sensors used in the study of indoor and outdoor cats.
- Trill
- A rolling cat sound. Maine Coons often trill as well as meow.
- Tufts
- Small bunches of fur, such as those between a Maine Coon's toes, as the breed standard describes.
- Variant
- A version of a gene that differs from the usual one. A31P is a variant of the MYBPC3 gene.
- Water-resistant
- Able to shed some water, but not waterproof.
Sources and evidence
The breed standards of the Cat Fanciers' Association and the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy supply the descriptions of coat, tail, paws, ears and face. The breed profiles of the Cat Fanciers' Association and Maine's Secretary of State supply the size, growth, water and voice habits. Cat-care guidelines, research papers and veterinary sources supply the rest, including the health chapter.
A breed standard describes an ideal, a breed profile describes habits common in the breed, and a study describes the animals it tested. Read the original source when a claim matters to a decision about a real cat.