The Maine Coon muzzle is a part of this cat breed’s anatomy which cuts it out from the pack of other cat breeds and tells us that we are looking at a Maine Coon. There are other appearance features which achieve this including the overall size, the lynx-tipped ears, the shaggy, medium-longhaired coat and sometimes polydactyl feet.
The CFA breed standard makes a point of saying that the muzzle should be “visibly square, medium in length and blunt ended when viewed in profile. It may give the appearance of being a rectangle but should not appear to be tapering or pointed.” It almost saying that it should be different to the Norwegian Forest Cat muzzle which is somewhat pointed. This may be significant as these two breeds may have a common heritage and certainly look similar except for the muzzle 😃✔️ and the ears. The NFC ears are not lynx-tipped to the same extent. Nowhere near.
The cat in the top photo of the infographic is a well-known extreme-bred Maine Coon. He looks enormous and the muzzle is very heavy and unbalanced I say. The CFA emphasises the need for the Maine Coon to have a balanced appearance. That means not bred to extreme with distorted physical features.
Despite that demand, some cat breeders go out on a limb and breed strange looking but highly interesting cats. Some look like humans. That must have taken a hell of a lot of selective breeding over many years.
The CFA breed standard does not mention size. It does not demand that this should be the largest domestic cat breed. It is the breeders – the members of the CFA and other associations – who have sometimes ignored the standard by overemphasising certain aspects of the anatomy.
Below are some articles on the Maine Coon and please visit an entire website dedicated to the Maine Coon by clicking on this link. This is a cross-post from that website.
