One TikTok video maker stated that if you adopt a Maine Coon cat – the biggest domestic cat – you bring into your home bigger problems than you would if you had adopted a regular domestic cat. It is a philosophical question. Well, perhaps not that philosophical 😎 but it is a topic worth discussing. This is a cross post to one I recently made on another website. The Maine Coon can be up to twice the size of a standard domestic cat more but sometimes less. Although some random-bred individual male cats can be bigger than some individual Maine Coons and so you can’t generalise on size.
The idea that a bigger domestic cat creates more problems is false because the domestic cat is quite a small animal. Double the size and they are still a relatively small companion animal with very little difference on the impact they have.
However, there is some truth to the statement. You know that Maine Coons often suffer from joint problems, specifically hip dysplasia and patella luxation. The former is a loose hip joint and the latter a knee joint problem. The bigger the Maine Coon the worse these problems are according to a study or that was the general gist of the study. Therefore, size counts in terms of this serious health problem which has inherited as a consequence of years of artificial selection.
RELATED: Maine Coon abandoned because he was too big, too greedy and too demanding! Now loved and famous! – clearly for some people bigger size does bring intolerable problems!
Philosophically speaking, if there hadn’t been human intervention with selective breeding; if the mid-1800 Maine Coon barn cats of the state of Maine and around Boston had not been chosen to be selectively bred and become pedigree cats, they would not suffer from hip dysplasia today. And they would not be noticeably big as they are today. The Maine Coons we see are the product of careful selective breeding. It is a disappointment to me that this cat companion often inherits these skeletal problems.
And, course, bigger cats eat more food. As cat food is very expensive – sometimes (often) more expensive than human food – this may present a problem to some people on a tight budget.
And if your Maine Coon likes to sleep on your lap, their size and weight may become a problem; certainly after 20 minutes, when your legs start to go to sleep. But not all MCs are lap cats. I don’t think they are known as lap cats.
The video maker implies that bigger domestic cats are more likely to damage furniture more seriously. This must be incorrect. Maine Coons have bigger legs and bigger claws but they don’t scratch furniture more than any other domestic cat. Also, owners can, as you know, do a lot to almost eliminate the problem of scratched furniture. Buy the biggest scratching post on Amazon that you can find which is a world-beater (I have one) and you can use extra wide anti-scratch double sided tape on Amazon as well. This combination will reduce furniture scratching by about 90%.
She also states that her cats wake her up in the morning with loud vocals. All domestic cats do as we know. In fact, they often wake us up during night as well. And Maine Coons are not known for loud voices. Some say that they are quieter than the average domestic cat. So, that argument doesn’t run either.
Although, I am in no way been critical because this woman simply chose an interesting topic for her video. But I just don’t think that her points hold water.
The point that I’m laboriously making is that the formula “bigger cat, bigger problems” is normally untrue. Even if it were true, the trade-off in living with such a wonderful domestic cat companion leaves the caregiver massively in credit.
YOUR THOUGHTS IN A COMMENT ARE WELCOME.
Below are some more pages on large MCs.
Thank You for writing this article. It is most commonly the human, because we are the species with ego. Please folks, adopt and then adapt to your newfound little friend’s needs. They are such individuals, and we hardly ever know what they have been through. You must be patient, voyeuristic and kind
and never give up on them.