Melanie Pace is the co-owner of Greek Garden Maine Coon Cattery in Utah County, Utah. In this insightful interview, she shares her passion for Maine Coons, explains her journey to becoming a Maine Coon breeder, and provides lots of great advice for potential owners!
All the images in this article are of Melanie’s beautiful Maine Coons.
Thank you for doing this interview! Please tell us a bit about yourself and your cattery.
My name is Melanie (I go by Hazel) and I run Greek Garden Maine Coon cattery with my fiancé, Dallas. Our cattery is located in Utah County, UT. We have been breeding Maine Coons for just over a year now, and absolutely love them!
We will be attending our first TICA show with our stud Apollo in April and are excited to meet fellow breeders and enthusiasts!
Fabulous, best of luck Apollo! How did you get started breeding Maine Coons?
When we moved into our new house, we quickly realized that there was a bit of a mouse problem. We tried everything we could to get rid of them, but nothing was working. As someone who absolutely loves pets, especially exotic ones (I bred and hand-raised parrots for 12 years), I decided we needed a cat to help with our problem, and I wanted the coolest one I could find.
I dove into researching, and weeks later came to the conclusion that a Maine Coon was the way to go. I then researched all of their potential health problems, things to look for in the perfect standard Maine Coon, made sure I was financially equipped to give our new family member the best life and healthcare she could ever need, and finally found a cat that I really wanted to get (and breed, if her health and structure checked out) in Russia. Her name was Aphrodite.
After a couple more months of figuring out logistics, examining pedigrees and testing, Aphrodite finally arrived at our home. She fixed our mouse problem and immediately had us wrapped around her little paws. Anyone who’s ever had a Maine Coon will understand how enchanting they are – it wasn’t long before I was doing more deep diving to find some more of these incredible kitties for our family.
I decided to go all in, registering a cattery with TICA and CFA and slowed down my other job to spend more time tending to the cattery. Many months and countless more hours of research later we finally ended up with our starting crew: Aphrodite, Apollo, Iris, Nyx, and Persephone.
I love that the cats are named after Greek gods and heroes. How and why did you choose this theme?
We spent a very long time trying to come up with the perfect Cattery name. Our first Maine Coon, Aphrodite, came to us already named and I absolutely loved that she was named after a Greek Goddess.
I decided I definitely wanted to do a Greek theme to match her name, but my first choice “Greek Goddess Cattery” was already taken. It was actually my sister who suggested “Greek Garden”, which was similar enough to the name I had originally wanted, and thankfully that name was available!
What do you love most about the Maine Coon breed?
Maine Coons, in my experience, are incredibly intelligent and loving. They are very similar to dogs – they like to follow us around the house all day, love staring out the windows to watch cars and people go by, and quite a few of them even like to swim.
They are also very trainable for cats – a couple of our kittens have already learned “fetch”, “sit”, and “stay”! One of our kittens from a previous litter even loves to go on harnessed walks with his new owner and canine siblings!
Let’s talk for a moment about cat breeder associations. Are you a member of any of these? If so which ones?
We are!
We are registered with both TICA (The International Cat Association) and CFA (Cat Fanciers’ Association). I think it’s extremely important to not only be part of these associations but participate in them, go to cat shows, and listen to everything they will tell you about how to be a great Maine Coon breeder.
TICA has a voluntary code of ethics that they provide for breeders that I feel helps create a great ethical foundation for any cattery.
I absolutely agree. How would you describe your Maine Coon breeder philosophy?
I feel like it should go without saying that any good cattery exists to help further the health and standard of the breed they love. Breeding pedigree cats is a huge responsibility and kittens should be created to improve the lines with every single generation.
The health and well-being of our cats and kittens is at the very top of our list. We also carefully vet potential new kitten owners with an application process, video call meeting, and have an extensive contract and go home instructions to make sure we are doing our very best for our kittens and their new families. We are very specific in the contract and do not allow any kittens that we have not deemed “breeding quality” to be bred, and do not allow them to ever be declawed, docked, cropped, or undergo unnecessary painful procedures for aesthetic reasons.
We also have a lengthy clause about our kittens returning to us or going only to approved homes if the initial owner finds they are unable to care for them – no ethical breeder should ever be producing kittens that end up in shelters, laboratories, or out on the streets.
What are some of the ways that you ensure the health and well-being of your cats and kittens?
Running a cattery takes a lot of work, every single day.
We are constantly cleaning litter boxes, disinfecting rooms, vacuuming, sweeping, brushing our adult cats, and bathing kittens. We make sure to quarantine any newcomers to prevent any diseases from coming into our cattery, and run fecal and respiratory PCRs on each incoming cat.
After quarantine newcomers are carefully introduced to the rest of our family. We keep our kittens in large nurseries filled with toys and fun things while they learn how to use litter boxes, and after their first rounds of shots slowly start introducing them to our other cats and smaller dogs.
All responsible Maine Coon breeders perform health screenings and genetic testing on their cats – what kinds of tests do you perform on your cats?
We are incredibly picky with the cats we select for our cattery, and pay careful attention to things like COI (coefficient of inbreeding), face and body structure, and general wellness and appearance of each cat.
Maine Coons, like every pedigree breed, come with their own set of problems – this includes a number of genetically inherited diseases, hypercardiomyopathy, and hip dysplasia.
We run full genetic panels on all of our cats and post results publicly. Once they pass their genetic screening we have them examined through OFA for hip dysplasia, and perform advanced heart echocardiograms through a board-certified veterinary cardiologist, also submitted to OFA. We then run complete blood panels to make sure there isn’t anything we’re missing. If any cats don’t pass, they don’t breed. Period!
Tell us a bit about the environment where your cats are raised.
Our kittens are raised in nurseries – we currently have two “nursery” bedrooms set up to create the perfect environment for young kittens to safely learn and grow. Once they have had their first rounds of shots they can begin to explore the entire house.
Our adult cats are part of our family and hang out with us around the house during the day – we make them their own special cat-safe meals and spend a lot of time cuddling with them!
At night they go into their cat-safe bedrooms with all of their favorite furniture, beds, and fresh food and water.
What are some of the ways you socialize your kittens to prepare them for their new homes?
We spend hours with our babies every single day both because they’re just so stinking adorable, and because it greatly helps them socialize and learn to love humans.
When they get a bit older we also begin introducing them to our other pets so that they are prepared for new families with other furry siblings!
What is the typical process for someone interested in adopting one of your kittens?
I would encourage people to look through our entire website first to learn all about our cats and cattery.
Our FAQs page is extremely thorough! After making the decision that you would like to bring home one of our babies, there is a kitten application on our website that you can fill out.
We will review it and reach out to you with any additional questions we may have for you, and will let you know if you are approved!
Are there any specific criteria or requirements that potential adopters need to meet?
There are a couple things we are very picky about, such as making sure that new homes will not be allowing the kittens to “free roam” outside (it’s very dangerous, not to mention bad for local ecosystems!).
To adopt a kitten you will have to review and sign our contract, which covers important topics like declawing, what to do if you ever decide you need to give up your kitten, and especially covers breeding rights and our policies on spaying and neutering.
Backyard breeding (BYB) ruins the efforts of well-meaning catteries and most often creates kittens that end up in shelters or on the streets! Not to mention the necessary extensive health testing that most “BYBs” lack!
What are some of the ways you support new owners after they adopt a kitten?
We send kittens home with everything they need for a great start in life –
- their own personal genetic health test,
- fecal PCRs, FIV, FeLV, and Heartworm testing,
- 3 year genetic health guarantees,
- pet insurance,
- their veterinary wellness certificate,
- microchipping, and
- vaccination records.
They also go home with an instruction pamphlet written by us covering everything from how to introduce your new kitten to their family to what litter to use!
We love to stay in contact with our kitten’s new families. It makes us so happy to see updated pictures of them, and we are always there if you have any health questions or concerns!
What advice would you give to someone considering a Maine Coon as a pet?
Do it!
Make sure you are financially prepared – pet insurance is a great thing! – and can give your new family member the time commitment they require.
A pet sibling is always a great thing – Maine Coons do well in pairs!
Also take your time to do a lot of research about the breed, and about buying a Maine Coon in general. It’s important to know how to avoid backyard breeders, pet brokers, and scammers!
Are there any common misconceptions about the Maine Coon breed you’d like to address?
Yes!
The world recently became obsessed with huge, 25 lbs+ Maine Coons with dramatic facial features, advertised as “XXL” Maine Coons. These lines of Maine Coons were created when some of these cats were selectively bred for large size and dramatic features, and often the health of these cats and their offspring was overlooked.
I’ll admit, I am a bit of a fan of the slightly more dramatic features as well. However, you have to be very cautious with these larger cats. The Maine Coon breed is already a large breed, but not meant to be as large as these “XXL” lines. These larger-sized cats are very often visibly overweight and/or come with a plethora of health problems related to the extreme size that their frames were not meant to support.
The standard Maine Coon size, according to TICA, is 9-13 lbs for females and 13-18 lbs for males. It’s very important when looking for a Maine Coon on the larger end of the spectrum to make sure hips have been tested, and pay extra attention to family history such as joint pain, heart, and mobility issues. Hip dysplasia is already a huge problem with this larger cat breed, and a vast majority of the breeders who bred for the even more extreme sizes didn’t bother to test their hips. I have looked into hip dysplasia statistics over the past 10 years for the Maine Coon cat breed on OFA, and the results are devastating. PLEASE do not support breeders who do not properly test hips.
Extreme facial structures are the other big concern. Some are acceptable and will even perform well in shows but you have to be very careful and know what you’re looking for. With the more protruded jaws and intensely large muzzles, problems like entropion and teeth alignment issues can be created. Things like deeply set eyes and very large square chins should raise flags. I have been tempted by some of the more deeply-set-eyed cats myself only to find that their parents had to undergo entropion correction surgery at young ages, and the kittens would very likely have to deal with the same.
Our goal as breeders should be to create healthy, structurally sound cats that do not need countless surgeries just to have normally functioning bodies.
Melanie, thank you so much for sharing all this valuable advice! How can people get in touch with you for more information?
We plan to attend our first TICA show in 2024, we are very excited! We also have an “upcoming litters” page on our website ;).
You can get in touch via:
All our other contact info listed on our website!
