The Big Maine Coon Cat

Intro: this is a ‘reprint’ of a page on big Maine Coon cats I wrote about 6 years ago. It was on the blogger subdomain and received 490,000 views. That is a lot for one page on Google Blogger. Those were the easy days. The page is rarely seen nowadays so I thought I’d redo it here. I have added some more recent photos.


The big Maine Coon cat (MC) is very impressive and the biggest purely domestic cat in the world (I am excluding the wildcat hybrids) but not all Maine Coons are huge. The MC is also the largest native American purebred cat. I suppose that is obvious. Sometimes people think that Maine Coons weight 30-40 lbs (13.5 to 18 kgs). This is not true. One breeder says that the average female MC weighs between 8-12 pounds and males weigh up to 18 pounds. These are cats in good condition.

Enormous Maine Coon cat
Enormous Maine Coon cat. A tabby cat.

Obviously fat MCs are sometimes going to weigh 25 lbs. The shaggy fur covering a long lean body probably adds to the impression of size. Also when you compare them with some of the svelte, slender and slight modern oriental style cats they look enormous. I am thinking of the Oriental Shorthair for example.

Big Maine Coon cat
Big Maine Coon cat

It can take 4-5 years for an MC to reach maximum size. The factors that dictate size are genetics (selective breeding probably played a part here too), diet and exercise! Intact males (not neutered) are more likely to achieve higher weights in meeting the cat’s full potential due to the contribution of the cat’s hormones to his development. By contrast a male cat that is breeding may have reduced coat density making him look smaller.

Big ginger tabby maine coon cat
Oscar Wilde. Red Tabby and White Maine Coon. Photo Barbara (Jorbasa on Flickr)

Other than selective breeding since the late 1800s to the present (the duration of the cat fancy) what makes the Maine Coon so big? Well this cat is not as big as people think as mentioned. Secondly, if the Maine Coon originates in ships cats imported from Europe about 400 years ago, these cats were probably large in the first place and then they developed/evolved naturally as farm cats. The farm cat/mouser lifestyle probably lead to the natural selection of larger cats.

The Big Maine Coon Cat

 
Jordy the 5 year old Maine Coon above, full name: Nascat Jordache of Coonoquan was featured in the Atlanta Magazine in 2007. He is a 25 lb Maine Coon. He was a national champ in 2004. Does be look a little bit overweight? Apparently he has a very laid back character and looks regal. He does look docile and well mannered in this picture.

Maine coon cat

 
Photo above: The judge said the cat “unfolds” indicating that Maine Coons are long and flexible more than simply big. Many breeders testify to their MCs being 5 feet from nose to tail (about 1.5 meters). Remember the world’s longest domestic cat: Stevie, a renown Maine Coon who died recently. I think there are many other Maine Coons who are longer to be honest.

very large Maine Coon cat

 

Photo above: His name is Shooter. I think he is the biggest Maine Coon I’ve seen – photo is copyright wendyophoto – this is a very impressive photograph. Wendy says, “This HDR was made from a single RAW photo taken at ISO 1600”. See this image in large format. See also a lot of Maine Coon cats and great information.

Maine Coon cat

 
There is a certain fascination with big animals including cats. In the UK there is the perennial sighting of the escaped big cat roaming around some parkland or farmland in the dusk. We never see evidence other than a poor quality picture. There are supposed to be dozens of wild beasts in England and someone I recall is setting up remote cameras to try and get that elusive evidence. Some think they might be large feral domestic cats. People do tend to exaggerate what they have seen.

Huge Maine Coon 'GIZMO'
Huge Maine Coon ‘GIZMO’

In the same vein there is a fascination about the Maine Coon cat’s size. We know that this breed can throw up some big cats but they are not all that big normally, as mentioned. And in any event, if we are to compare cat breeds we should look at the average weight of male and female cats of each cat breed. The averages are much less than the one off large male.

Photo: copyright Helmi Flick
Photo: copyright Helmi Flick

All that said the Maine Coon is the largest cat breed if you’re talking about CFA registered purebred cats. TICA register more cats and some are wild cat/domestic cat hybrids such as the Savannah and an F1 or F2 Savannah is bigger than a Maine Coon normally. The world’s tallest “pet cat” was Magic an F1 Savannah of great presence.

Maine Coon cat

 
You’ll get some oddities caused by an illness and you’ll get some very fat cats. These are larger than normal but not for the right reasons. It is, I feel, rather pointless to isolate large domestic cats that are large because they are overweight or ill. Worse it is a kind of freak show.

cat-of-the-week

One classic way of breeding larger domestic cats is through hybridization with wildcats as they are sometimes but not always larger than domestic cats. In fact I made a comparison between the large domestic cats and wild cats on the page linked to above.The Savannah is the classic large domestic cat/wildcat hybrid at F1-2 level. The thing is, it is impractical to have domestic cats that are large beyond a certain threshold as keeping them requires special arrangements. In addition breeders need to breed the wildcat hybrids back to domestic cats for character. You can’t really live with a wild cat in the house. This automatically reduces the size of the cat.

Abnormally large domestic cats of any breed including the Maine Coon is unlikely to happen because selective breeding over the years has dramatically narrowed the gene pool. Purebred cats often have a high Coefficient of Inbreeding as breeders search for the perfect appearance. This limits the occurrence of oddities in regards to size.

Apparently a Maine Coon has been 49 inches in length, that is about 4 feet. That said Maine Coon cats are actually long rather than purely big. So a big Maine Coon cat will be very long and this is amply demonstrated in the pictures. The so called “world’s longest cat” is Maine Coon called “Stewie”.

The big Maine Coon cat
Photo above was taken at a CFA cat show. Tabby-and-white. Photo by semarr

 

One last thing, photographic evidence requires some sort of scale to compare size with. A very big Maine Coon cat would look small against a very large person. And similarly you cannot tell a big Maine Coon cat from a photograph unless there is something in the picture to compare size with. There are also a number of hoax photographs on the internet. These are photographs manipulated using Photo shop type software.

Each picture on this page have been selected as showing a big Maine Coon cat with something to scale by (except for Jordy! but his weight is recorded as correct). It is for that reason I am showing people where possible as well as cats in the photograph.

The big Maine Coon cat
Above: Big Fingol – almost 28 lbs – Photo by Jackdaw (Flickr)

 

Here is another big Maine Coon cat being shown off for his or her size:

Go to the Largest Domestic cat breed analysis

Photos:

  • 3rd down on right this cat according to the person in the photo weighed about 25lbs, the top end for a Maine Coon cat. copyright BeryIM
  • 4th down shows how long the Maine Coon can be copyright BeryIM
  • 6th down another large cat but the scaling is misleading because the cat is nearer the camera. photo copyright semarr. Taken at a CFA cat show

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6 thoughts on “The Big Maine Coon Cat”

  1. The author of the best comment will receive an Amazon gift of their choice at Christmas! Please comment as they can add to the article and pass on your valuable experience.
  2. I’ve wanted a Maine Coon cat/kitten for as long as I can remember. I had a cousin that rescued a Maine Coon after an apartment fire, where the cat lost his tail, yet was still beautiful, large & in charge. So I’ve always wanted a Maine Coon. So,if anyone has one that is in need of his/her forever home….call me, Jeanie (pronounced Jean…ie) like the pink Jeanie in a bottle, @ 517-256-0158. My family would love to meet him/her the Maine Coon. I’ve got 3 grown children, with the last one graduating this year. My husband is retired & home most of the days so the cat will not be lonely. We are used to large animals, as our last dog, Louis, was a large Saint Bernard, weighing approx, 150-180lb’s. I’d love to find a large Maine Coon that is big, well behaved & loving. The empty nest syndrome is totally not for me & my husband. So if there is a Maine Coon anyone knows of please send me a text. Contact info: Jeanie M. Jones, 208 W. Northrup St., Lansing Michigan, 48911: #1-517/256-0158: email – jnbean108@aol.com

    Reply
    • I wish you the very best of luck in your search Jeanie. I don’t see many if any Maine Coons becoming available at cat rescues unfortunately. I guess that you don’t want to buy a cat from a breeder.

      Reply
  3. Is this cat up for adoption? The large Maine Coon? If so please call Jeanie Jones, 517-256-0158. I’ve always wanted a large Maine Coon, so hopefully I’d b a great new home!

    Reply
    • Shane, find a very good cat breeder. Visit that breeder to check out their facilities. Check out their cats. Your cat will select you. Ensure that you get a contract and ensure that you receive the paperwork to prove that your cat is purebred. You will pay the same price as for nearly every purebred domestic cat which is somewhere between $500 and perhaps $2000. The usual price used to be in between $500 and $1000 approximately.

      Reply

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