Jasmina Waltz is an experienced Maine Coon breeder, of Star-Studded Maine Coons, located in Colorado. In this guest article, she explains the importance of Maine Coon pedigree, how to identify a Maine Coon and the reasons why it is unlikely to find a Maine Coon at an animal shelter.
Jasmina is also a contributor to the highly-rated book, The Complete Guide to Maine Coons: Finding, Preparing for, Feeding, Training, Socializing, Grooming, and Loving Your New Maine Coon Cat. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
- The Importance of Pedigree
- What Are the Origins of Purebred Cats?
- The Mislabelling Issue: Shelters and Misconceptions
- Maine Coon Breeders Keep Their Cats Indoors
- Understanding Cat Breeds and Genetics
- The Importance of Paperwork
- Cat DNA Testing: Limitations and Misconceptions
- Are Cats Bred the Same Way Dogs Are?
- Can a Vet Identify a Maine Coon?
- Can Cat Show Judges Identify a Maine Coon?
- The Breed Standard
- Buyer Beware of Unregistered Cats
- What About the “M” Marking on the Cats?
- But What if My Cat Has All the Traits of a Maine Coon?
- Could My Cat Be a Norwegian Forest?
- Conclusion: How to Identify a Maine Coon
- How to Contact Jasmina Waltz and Star-Studded Coons
- How To Identify a Maine Coon: FAQ
This article was written to explain the difference between Maine Coons and domestic cats. Domestic cats are just as lovable, so this is not about Maine Coons being better. There is a lot of confusion regarding differences, so hopefully this article helps.
Also, scammers and backyard breeders have it easier when people don’t know the difference.
The Importance of Pedigree
Each Maine Coon always has a pedigree to prove his or her ancestry. Only a cat with two registered Maine Coon parents is a real Maine Coon. Randomly bred longhair cats that are found outside or in shelters are not classed as Maine Coons, nor a “Maine Coon mix”.
It is extremely rare to find a real Maine Coon in a shelter. In my 20 years of cat rescuing and fostering, I have never come by a real Maine Coon at an animal shelter. My experience aligns with other cat rescue workers – who also haven’t seen one after years of shelter work. I will explain the reasons for this shortly. But first –
What Are the Origins of Purebred Cats?
The way a cat breed originates is that breeders initially start with domestic cats and begin selectively breeding them for certain features. All the cats that participated in the creation of each breed are documented from the beginning.
The natural Maine Coon breed originated in the coastal area of Maine. Nowadays, you’re unlikely to find Maine Coons there anymore. As more people (and cats) moved to Maine, the Maine Coon cats mixed with strays.
The pedigreed Maine Coon of today is based on these domestic cats that were used as a foundation to develop the breed in the 1960s. CFA, TICA, and other cat registries won’t accept randomly bred cats as part of the Maine Coon breed.
The Mislabelling Issue: Shelters and Misconceptions
Cat shelters and rescue organizations label domestic long-hair cats as a Maine Coon or a “Maine Coon mix” all the time. They do this to encourage people to adopt them faster. While they may have good intentions, they are committing fraud. They are accepting money for cats that are not Maine Coons, despite their claims. This confuses the buyer, who thought they purchased a real Maine Coon.
Shelters do great work helping cats and I understand that they need to find homes. But I wish they wouldn’t do this, as it confuses owners about their cats, and cat breeds, in general.
If your cat was advertised as a Maine Coon or a Maine Coon Mix from a shelter, and comes with no pedigree, then it’s likely not a Maine Coon at all. From my experience 99.999% of these cases – the cats are not Maine Coons. Why is this the case? There are several factors involved…
Maine Coon Breeders Keep Their Cats Indoors
Breeders care deeply about their breeding cats. They also pay a lot of money for them, as they must purchase breeding rights and extensive health testing. Most breeders spend $30-50K within the first two years of starting a small cattery. It then costs at least $20K per year to run a cattery.
Due to this dedication and investment, Maine Coon breeders are careful to ensure their cats never go outside. Doing so risks injury, disease, and pregnancy.
In addition, breeders will only sell a kitten if they have either:
- Desexed the kitten first, or
- Included a strict alter clause in the contract, dictating that the kitten must be desexed by a certain age. If they breach the clause, the buyer will incur a hefty fine. Also, the buyer won’t receive the registration paperwork until the alteration is confirmed.
This severely restricts, if not eliminates the chance of a real Maine Coon kitten being born outside of a breeder’s control.
With the breeding cats kept safely indoors, and all adopted kittens having been desexed – there are no stray Maine Coons running around the neighborhood.
Less than 3% of all cats belong to a pedigree cat breed and there are over 70 recognized cat breeds. Maine Coons are just one of those breeds, so you can imagine how rare Maine Coons are.
All cats that don’t belong to a specific breed are known as “domestic cats”. These cats are not “mixes” of pedigree cat breeds. While breed mixes are common in dogs, this is not how breeds work with cats. Breeding between different cat breeds or domestic cats will only result in domestic cats.
Even if a real, unaltered Maine Coon made it out on the streets, it would be a drop in the ocean of the cat population. It would never result in new Maine Coon kittens or alleged Maine Coon mixes.
Pedigree cat buyers typically pay a few thousand dollars for a kitten, so they are inclined to keep their cats safe inside. Breeders’ sale contracts typically also stipulate that:
- The cats must be kept inside, and
- If the cat is surrendered, it must be returned to the breeder – and never to a shelter.
Most breeders microchip the kittens before they leave the cattery, with the breeder’s details kept on the microchip as a second contact. In the event of a lost or surrendered cat, the breeder will be informed.
For these reasons, you’ll never find Maine Coons freely running around outside. The real Maine Coons are in the hands of breeders or owners, not out on the streets. I’ve lived in many different places, many different states, rescued and fostered cats for years, and have never seen a real Maine Coon outside.
Understanding Cat Breeds and Genetics
Some domestic cats may display visual similarities to purebreds. That’s because all cats are part of the same species, and all of today’s breeds originated from domestic cats at some point.
Maine Coons are a pedigreed cat breed. Only cats with documented ancestry are part of the breed. If even just one parent isn’t a Maine Coon, the kittens will not be considered Maine Coons and can’t be registered as such.
With each generation of breeding with other cats, you will find fewer and fewer Maine Coon features in your kittens. After just three generations (which can happen within two years), your kittens would only have 12.5% Maine Coon genetics. See the table below to understand how the Maine Coon genetics diminish with each breeding generation:
| Breeding Generation | The Proportion of Maine Coon DNA Remaining |
|---|---|
| Purebred Maine Coons | 100% Maine Coon DNA |
| 1st generation | 50% Maine Coon DNA remaining |
| 2nd generation | 25% Maine Coon DNA remaining |
| 3rd Generation | 12.5% Maine Coon DNA remaining |
| 4th Generation | 6.25% Maine Coon DNA remaining |
| 5th Generation | 3.14% Maine Coon DNA remaining |
| 6th Generation | 1.56% Maine Coon DNA remaining |
| 7th Generation | 0.78% Maine Coon DNA remaining |
The Importance of Paperwork
If you purchase Maine Coon, please make sure you choose a reputable cattery that is both registered and performs extensive health testing. The only way to make sure that you have a real Maine Coon is through registration paperwork.
Cat DNA Testing: Limitations and Misconceptions
DNA testing is unreliable for cat breed identification – these tests usually come with a disclaimer. They are unreliable because pedigree cats have only been bred for the last couple of hundred years – most cat breeds are less than a hundred years old. Cats are still too genetically similar for DNA testing to work reliably.
This is unlike dogs, which have been bred for thousands of years and can easily be differentiated by DNA.
Cat DNA tests can only tell you that your cat has genes found in pedigreed cats. If similar genes are found, this is not because your cat is a mix of breeds. It is because pedigree cat breeds were bred from domestic cats.
The DNA tests also often say that a cat is a mix of two or more different breeds. This is very unlikely. We already discussed how unlikely it would be for a Maine Coon to be in the wild – a mixed kitten would need to be the result of two purebred cats finding each other in the wild and mating.
Lastly, when you test the same cat with two different companies you will often get completely different results. This highlights the inaccuracies of DNA tests. Check out this rover.com on the topic – We Tried the Top Two Cat DNA Tests and Here’s What We Discovered.
Are Cats Bred the Same Way Dogs Are?
Dogs can be either purebred or a mix of other dog breeds. Dogs have been purposely bred for thousands of years and don’t often breed indiscriminately (unlike cats).
To better understand the relationship between Pure-bred cats and domestic cats, think of the relationship between wolves and dogs. Dogs developed from wolves, while cat breeds were developed from domestic cats.
Even today, people develop new cat breeds by selecting domestic cats to create a new breed, or by mixing cat breeds that are allowed to be mixed (Maine Coons are not allowed to be mixed as per registry rules).
Can a Vet Identify a Maine Coon?
Most vets are not trained in breed identification. There are more than seventy cat breeds. Vets don’t have the time to learn about all the different breeds and how to identify them. Instead, they are focused on cat health issues.
Most vets have likely never even seen a real Maine Coon. Some vets will identify a domestic longhair cat as a Maine Coon – maybe to make the owner happy or because they don’t know any better.
Can Cat Show Judges Identify a Maine Coon?
If you want a more educated opinion about your cat, ask a breeder or a cat show judge. Breeders handle Maine Coons every day, they know the standard, they pick breeding cats and they compete in cat shows.
Judges are also familiar with the different breed standards and handle different breeds all the time.
Even so, breeders and judges can’t confirm that a cat is a certain breed without a pedigree. They can only tell you if your cat looks similar to a breed. With experience however, it is pretty easy to see if a cat is a Maine Coon or not, like when you look at a German Shepard and a Husky – you can tell which one is which.
The Breed Standard
Every cat breed has what is called a standard. A standard tells you how a specific cat breed should look when they belong to a specific breed. At the cat shows, cats are judged based on the standards for their breed.
Domestic long hair cats may share some physical traits with Maine Coons, but not all. They may have a longer coat, but their coat is usually a little different from a Maine Coon. Maine Coons will also have a squared muzzle and usually lynx tips.
Look at domestic longhair cats and then look at pictures of Maine Coons. The longer you look, the more differences you’ll find!
Breeders are not allowed to mix Maine Coons with other breeds or domestic cats. This is a rule for the breed, enforced by the cat registries.
Buyer Beware of Unregistered Cats
Don’t fall for backyard breeders selling unregistered cats or mixes. There is no way to know if you’re purchasing a real Maine Coon, nor what genetics have been mixed in.
Some people will try to sell domestic longhair cats as Maine Coons. They’re selling cats for thousands of dollars when you can get the same cat at a local shelter for just $25.
Registration is affordable for breeders (only ~$13 for a litter) and no ethical breeder sells unregistered kittens. So there is no excuse for a breeder to not register their Maine Coons, unless they don’t actually have Maine Coons.
Some reasons why people sell unregistered kittens are that they aren’t real Maine Coons or because they didn’t purchase breeding rights and are breaching their contract with the original breeder. These people also cut corners in other ways, like skipping health testing, overbreeding their cats and selling them when they are too young.
What About the “M” Marking on the Cats?
The “M” you see on some cats doesn’t mean that they are Maine Coons. Those are tabby markings and can be found in many other cat breeds and domestic cats. In addition, not all Maine Coons are tabbies, so not every Maine Coon will have the M.
But What if My Cat Has All the Traits of a Maine Coon?
Being big, long-haired, fluffy, sweet, talkative, chattering, tufts between the toes, liking water and playing fetch aren’t evidence that a cat is a Maine Coon. Many domestic cats can also have those traits – remembering the Maine Coons originated from domestic cats.
You may also find many Maine Coons that don’t have all the common Maine Coon traits – they may not like water or are smaller in size. A Maine Coon female can be as small as eight pounds, but is still a verified Maine Coon thanks to her ancestry.
Could My Cat Be a Norwegian Forest?
You’ll often hear people say “Well, it’s a Norwegian Forest cat if it’s not a Maine Coon”. That’s unlikely.
The Norwegian Forest breed works the same as Maine Coons. They are a pedigreed cat breed, native to Norway only. There aren’t many Norwegian Forest breeders in the US. They share traits with domestic longhair cats, so some people will misidentify them.
Conclusion: How to Identify a Maine Coon
When you have a pedigree cat that belongs to a breed, you’ll know. Your breeder will have provided the appropriate documentation, a breeder’s contract and you will have paid for the cat accordingly.
If you have a domestic cat and have just found out it’s not a Maine Coon, please don’t be disappointed. I’ve had domestic cats my whole life too and loved them just the same.
Your cat doesn’t care and you won’t love each other any less. It won’t change anything. Every cat is special!
How to Contact Jasmina Waltz and Star-Studded Coons
How To Identify a Maine Coon: FAQ
How can I tell if my cat is a Maine Coon?
Identifying a Maine Coon involves looking for specific physical traits such as a squared muzzle, lynx tips on the ears, and a long, bushy tail. However, the most reliable method is to check for a pedigree that proves the cat has two registered Maine Coon parents, as true Maine Coons always come with documented ancestry.
Why is having a pedigree important for identifying a Maine Coon?
A pedigree is crucial because it confirms a cat’s Maine Coon heritage, ensuring that both parents are registered Maine Coons. This documentation is essential for distinguishing true Maine Coons from domestic longhairs or other lookalikes, helping to prevent scams and misunderstandings about the breed’s authenticity.
Can a cat be a Maine Coon without a pedigree?
Without a pedigree, it’s unlikely for a cat to be a genuine Maine Coon. Pedigree documentation is key to verifying that a cat belongs to this specific breed, as it traces the cat’s lineage back to registered Maine Coon parents. Cats without a pedigree, even if they resemble Maine Coons, are generally considered domestic longhairs or mixes rather than purebred Maine Coons.