The Maine Coon is the largest cat breed recognized by the Cat Fanciers Association (CFA).
Contents
This page has been broken up into several pages to meet with Google Core Vital demands. Please click on the pagination links at the base of each section. The contents section does not work entirely but remains to tell readers what this article includes.
- Method Utilized Discussion on the method employed to find the largest domestic cat breed.
- Table of Domestic cat weights The weights of nearly all the domestic cat breeds including unrecognized breeds and cat types (as opposed to a breed) in tabular form including small and large weights.
- Largest and Smallest Domestic cats List of the largest and smallest cat breeds in relation to the various associations and on an open basis.
- Weight Comparison with Wildcats A comparison between the bigger domestic cats and the small-medium wildcats
- Comment Some brief thoughts arising out of the process of building this page
- Click here to see visitor’s submissions
Largest domestic cat breed? – This page deals with the largest domestic breeds, the smallest domestic breeds and the weight of domestic breeds in relation to the wild cats. See what could be the world’s tallest domestic cat.
MAGIC is probaby the world’s biggest domestic cat. She is certified by the Guinness World Records as the tallest (20-9-09). Watch this space for an update to world’s largest.
Method
The research needed to build this page automatically resulted in finding the smallest domestic cat breed as all the cat breeds are included in the research (although at present only a few are not listed). In fact, in compiling a list of the largest domestic cat breeds you will have to research all the weights of all the breeds. And I am talking weights rather than physical size; meaning physical dimensions. This is because research of domestic cat size nearly always refers to weight and weight is directly related to cat size. The two go hand in hand, provided the weights used are typical.
This page therefore looks at the weights of all cat breeds and cats that are not formally a breed because a cat association has not yet (or never will) recognized the cat. As it is interesting to compare domestic with wild cat, I have also included a comparison to some small and medium sized wild cats.
One of several obstacles is the question as to whether I should adhere strictly to the title of this posting. Should I only look at cat breeds that are formally recognized to full status by the premier cat associations or make the “competition” open and compare all cat breeds. I chose the latter because some of the breeds that are not recognized by all the associations but which are established nonetheless, are interesting, big and it is easy to include them. I set out the largest domestic cat breeds by association at the end plus the breeds that are the largest whether they are recognized or not (the equivalent of “open competition”).
However, in order to remain loyal to the title I have made a note in the table as to which associations recognize the breed.
I have selected the following associations as the major players and upon which I have decided if a cat is formally a breed or not. If the cat is listed on their websites as recognized, I treat that cat as a breed for the purposes of this analysis:-
- Cat Fanciers Association (No.1 in USA and biggest in world)
- The International Cat Association (No.2 in the USA and international)
- General Council of the Cat Fancy (UK)
- Fédération Internationale Féline (this includes Europe and Brazil)
Internet research requires extreme caution as the information is often obtained in a circular fashion, meaning one website copies from another and so on. If the first site is incorrect, they are all then incorrect. Accordingly, I always treat information with caution, always look for authoritative information as the prime source and then test it against other sources to create fresh information on the largest domestic cat breed.
Where I have had to make an informed estimate, I have limited the information provided to the minimum required to answer the question posed. Full descriptions of all the breeds in the list are on this website. Go to the home page or navbar for a list of links.
The serval (picture above) is a wildcat that is sometimes tamed to become a domestic cat and that is why this cat species is in this analysis. This cat is not a “breed” but a species. It is not the largest domestic cat breed but is one of the largest domestic cats when tamed. Photo is of Martin Stucki with a tame breeding serval at A1 Savannahs, OK, USA. See tame and socialised serval cat as well.
