Articles & resources for maine coon enthusiasts

In addition to their amazing personalities, Maine Coon cats are known for being very large, beautiful, long-haired cats. People love their flowing manes and ear tufts. They’re impressed by their physical strength, strong boning, and muscular bodies. Others are mesmerized by their gloriously long, bushy tails or the hair between their toes.

While all these things are true about well-bred adult Maine Coon cats, you won’t find all of these physical features in a young Maine Coon kitten. More so than any other breed of cat, Maine Coons are slow to physically mature. In fact, Maine Coon kittens take up to four years to reach their full adult potential. So, when you are choosing a Maine Coon kitten that’s just a few weeks old, it has a lot of developing left to do!

Here are some things to keep in mind when you’re evaluating the appearance of a young Maine Coon kitten:

• Kitten coats will go through many changes as they transform into adults. These coat changes will impact the length of the coat, the color, the texture, and the thickness.
• The coat color on a smoke or silver coat may appear very dark or very light as it goes through various phases of development.
• The kitten’s coat may take on a reddish hue from a chemical reaction to the mother’s saliva that occurs as she grooms her baby.
• The kitten may or may not have a ruff. Some kittens are born with them. Others don’t get them until after their first birthday.
• The ears of a newborn Maine Coon kitten will be tight and close to their head. A few weeks later, their ears will be rounded and stick out sideways like a bear cub’s. By the time they go home, their ears will be up on top of their head, where they may look a little exaggerated until the kitten’s head matures and the ears become more proportionate.
• The kitten’s tail may start out relatively thin and not look much different from that of a regular domestic long-haired cat.

So how do you pick out a Maine Coon kitten from a breeder that will grow up to become the adult Maine Coon cat of your dreams?

1. Get to Know the Maine Coon Breed Standard

We all like what we like. However, if you’re going to spend the time and make the effort to purchase a purebred cat, it only makes sense that you’d want a cat that looks like it is supposed to look! Yes, there technically is a “right and wrong” when it comes to the physical appearance of a Maine Coon cat.

The ideal characteristics are written down in something called a breed standard. The two most popular and credible registries of pedigreed cats in the United States, TICA and CFA, author these standards for the Maine Coon. The standards are leveraged by reputable breeders to produce kittens of a consistent type and are leveraged by each association’s trained judges to score cats competing at their cat shows to determine the winners.

Since we first dreamed of breeding Maine Coon cats, we have been mildly obsessed with breeding cats that conform closely to the TICA breed standard. We are committed to preserving the health and legacy of these majestic Native American cats and the physical beauty they embody as a result of how they adapted to survive the harsh New England climate from which they originate. We understand that the closer a Maine Coon cat’s appearance is to the breed’s standard, the better that cat’s ability will be to produce healthy, purpose-bred kittens that also meet the standard, and that is our goal!

Our cats adhere closely to TICA’s written breed standard, and we endeavor to bring our kittens closer and closer to the perfect type as we improve our breeding program. Here is a published copy of the latest written breed standard from TICA.

2. Prioritize a Balanced Look Over Extreme Features

One thing we must specifically point out within the breed standard is the serious focus on balance in a Maine Coon cat. CFA, TICA, and preservation breeders like us are working hard to try and preserve the authentic look of the original Maine Coon cat. In fact, TICA recently updated its language in the breed standard and made changes in how points are issued to reinforce the importance of balance.

“Overall balance and proportion are essential to the Maine Coon, and no one feature should dominate the eye’s attention over any other.” –TICA breed standard, 2023

Poor breeding (intentional or not) has resulted in some Maine Coon cats developing extreme features. This is what we often see with European Maine Coons. While European Maine Coons have the exact same DNA as their native American counterparts, they have come to look very very different because they have been intentionally bred to embody deep-set eyes, exaggerated “alligator” muzzles, overly tall or close-set rabbit ears, and other features that give them a more extreme feral look.

At Maine Street Coons, we are opposed to breeding away from the traditional breed standard because it introduces health issues into the breed that are not naturally occurring. For example, many Maine Coons with deep-set eyes or overly slanted eyes go on to develop entropion, a painful eye condition that causes chronic irritation, infection, and potential blindness if not surgically corrected. Another issue we see is breeders that overly fixate on the size of their Maine Coons. Often, in an effort to produce a larger Maine Coon cat, the back becomes extremely and disproportionately long. The legs and tail may look short in comparison. The cat may wind up with the same painful back conditions that plague dogs with long spines, like Dachshunds.

3. Decide What Features Are Most Important to You

There is no such thing as a perfect cat, and if there were, a breeder wouldn’t sell it to you! They’d keep that perfect specimen to show and use in their breeding program. Instead of focusing on perfection, decide what about the appearance of a beautiful, show-winning Maine Coon matters to you most.

• Is it the length and thickness of their coat?
• The shape of the eyes?
• The squareness of their muzzle?
• The length of their tail?
• The furnishings on their ear tips and between their toes?
• Is it a certain color or pattern?

Now that you know what the Maine Coon breed standard is, and what a show-winning Maine Coon looks like, save pictures of Maine Coons that really speak to your heart. Look back at pictures and identify the top 2-3 features all those cats have in common. This will give you a pretty good idea of what it is that really attracts you to the breed. Then look for an active show breeder whose adult cats embody those features on a consistent basis. Provided everything else is in order, this will be the right breeder for you, and he or she can help guide you to a kitten that is likely to have those same features as it matures.

4. Choose an Active Show Breeder

You don’t have to buy a kitten that is rated as “show quality” and pay a higher price to get a beautiful, loving Maine Coon pet. Any show-winning Maine Coon breeder will know the written breed standard backward and forward. They will have a good eye for identifying kittens and cats that conform. Find a breeder who participates in and wins at TICA or CFA cat shows. Their Maine Coon cats will have titles like Champion (CH), Grand Champion (GCH) and so on. The very best cats will also have titles like Regional Winner (RW) or International Winner (IW). The breeders who have cats with titles in their breeding program know how to pick an exemplary kitten from a litter! They will best be able to help you gauge the appropriateness of a kitten’s features, based on its age at the time it’s being evaluated. They know how their lines mature and can guide you towards a kitten that will meet your expectations over time.

At Maine Street Coons, we compete at TICA cat shows, and we are active members of the Cattyshack cat club in the Southeast region. You can view all the TICA shows online and check our Facebook events to see which ones we are attending in the coming months.

5. Look at the Kitten’s Parents and Grandparents

Maine Coon cats are the slowest domestic cat to mature. They don’t really begin to come into their own until their second year of life. Their third full year is when the Gentle Giant lurking inside them will fully emerge. Because Maine Coons become parent cats when they’re young, usually around a year old, you might get a better idea of your kitten’s potential by looking back at the kitten’s grandparents. If you don’t like the look of mom or dad or grandma or grandpa, then you aren’t going to like the way that cute kitten looks as it grows older. The best way to predict the future is by studying the past!

One of the most reliable ways to predict your kitten’s future appearance and temperament is to look and attitude of his or her parent cats. If having a large cat is important to you, look at the parents’ size. If having tall ears, well-tipped ears, almond-shaped eyes, or a strong square muzzle is important to you, look at Mama and Dad.