Big Maine Coon cat discussion but they don’t have to be huge

I am sure that people who search for “big Maine Coon cat” want to see just that at the least. Perhaps you want more. Well, Maine Coons are big. They are the biggest purely domestic cat breed, if one excludes the wildcat hybrids high level filials, such as the F1 F2 Savannahs, as a good example. The Maine Coon is a very long standing and natural domestic cat having initially been imported with the Pilgrims when they settled in America in 1630 or so. At that time the cat was not, of course, a Maine Coon but a long-haired cat, perhaps an Angora cat, from Europe. See Maine Coon cat history.

Maine Coon Lotus
Maine Coon Lotus. Photo: Instagram.

Update: This page was written a long time ago. Since then, I have created a subdomain website dedicated to the Maine Coon cat, on which, there are many pictures of genuinely huge individuals. I would respectfully ask you to visit that website and search for some big examples.

LINK TO WEBSITE DEDICATED TO THE MAINE – PLEASE CLICK TO SEE SOME GREAT ARTICLES ABOUT THIS BREED.

You will be mightily impressed if you are interested in large Maine Coon cats. Below is one example just to give you a taster as to what is to come. If you click on the image, you will be taken to a page on this cat.

Huge Maine Coon with black feet
Huge Maine Coon with black feet.

Secondly, as my colleague Valley Girl (her blog is: http://teh-kitteh-antidote-anecdote.pictures-of-cats.org/) reminds me, the Maine Coon is more than just a big cat, they are noticeably long and quite pliable (if you know what I mean). Indeed, the long torso is referred to in the Maine Coon breed standard. In Maine Coon TICA breed standard the following terms are used, “Large, long, substantial, rectangular”.

In the CFA breed standard, the length of the torso is also referred to, “The body should be long with all parts in proportion…..” Very interestingly, the CFA describes the body as, “Size medium to large”. I find this strange as this cat breed is the largest that is registered by CFA on my reckoning.

RELATED: What kind of Maine Coon wins competitions?

The truth is that the huge Maine Coon cats that we see on the Internet, perhaps on Instagram and other social media outlets, are exceptional and not necessarily in compliance with the breed standard. The breed standard does not specify that Maine Coon cats need to be huge to win cat show competitions. They must be substantial and must comply with the breed standard but that’s it. If you go to the CFA website and look at past winners of cat shows you will notice a distinct difference in appearance between these cats and the celebrity Maine Coon cats that are featured on social media websites.

Comparison CFA Grand Champion Maine Coon versus Maine Coon bred to an extreme
Comparison CFA Grand Champion Maine Coon versus Maine Coon bred to an extreme. The difference reflects the difference between American (left and CFA) MCs and European MCs under TICA and FIFE. Image: MikeB

It is, in my opinion, the Russian Maine Coon breeders who have so cleverly selectively bred foundation cats to produce Maine Coons with an extreme appearance both in terms of size and facial features. You will see them with very large ears and great tufts of hair growing out of the tips of the ear flaps. You will also see huge, square muzzles and, as mentioned, some cats with huge bone structure. Another example of this kind of Russian Maine Coon breeding is below.

RELATED: Stunningly huge Maine Coon taken out in cat stroller to New York City.

Picture of a Maine Coon who looks like a middle-aged man
Picture of a Maine Coon who looks like a middle-aged man. Picture: Reddit via Pinterest and therefore in my opinion it is now in the public domain.

And below is another example of what I describe as extreme breeding. This is a Maine Coon with a muzzle which reminds me of the muzzle of the lion. The muzzle of the Maine Coon should be square and it should be strong like this but this is going beyond the breed standard to a new level. I don’t think that cat show judges would view this sort of appearance as desirable. That is because an essential part of the Maine Coon breed standard is that the cat should be of a balanced appearance. This means that the various anatomical elements and features of the cat should be in balance with each other. That automatically rules out extremes such as the over-sized muzzle.

Massive muzzle on Maine Coon
Massive muzzle on Maine Coon. Photo: Pinterest.

There is also a health issue which needs to be mentioned. You probably know that the Maine Coon often inherits certain health problems, two of which are to do with the joints namely hip dysplasia and patella luxation. Hip dysplasia is a loosening and weakening of the hip joint. It is exacerbated by excessive weight. The bigger the cat the more predisposed that cat will be to problems concerning this disease. The CFA has an underpinning policy which is that breeders should not breed cats which are inherently unhealthy. This is an overarching policy and therefore to breed Maine Coons which are very large may go against that policy.

The photo and the cat are so good you will see it elsewhere on this site including these places, also dealing with cat size:

And here is Samson:

Below are some more articles on the large Maine Coon.

1 thought on “Big Maine Coon cat discussion but they don’t have to be huge”

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