How to Tell a Real Maine Coon — and a Good One
There are two separate questions here and most buyers ask only the second. First: is this cat a Maine Coon at all, or a long-haired cat being sold as one? Then, and only then: is it a good one? This page answers both, with what to look at and what it means. We would rather you could judge our kittens properly than take our word for them.
What Actually Proves It
Start here, because everything below is weaker than this and it is worth being honest about that.
- A registered pedigree from a recognised body — CFA, TICA or FIFe — showing four or five generations, is the only thing that establishes ancestry. Everything else on this page is an indicator.
- The pedigree should name a registered cattery, and that cattery should be findable. A pedigree with no cattery name behind it is a piece of paper.
- Papers should come with the kitten, not "follow later" and not cost extra. That charge is one of the oldest tricks in the trade, and the papers usually never arrive.
- Parents' DNA test results — HCM, PKdef and SMA — should be shown to you as documents with the cat's name on them, not described. PKdef is pyruvate kinase deficiency; a breeder who calls it PKD is naming a different disease.
- You should be able to see the mother, in the place the kitten was raised. A seller who will only meet you elsewhere is telling you something.
The physical traits below are how you sanity-check what the paperwork claims. A cat with excellent papers and none of these traits deserves a hard question; a cat with all of them and no papers is still not a documented Maine Coon.
Six Things to Look At
Take them in this order. The first two settle most cases on their own, and every one of them can be checked on a cat sitting in front of you, in about a minute, without touching anything you have not been invited to touch.
The muzzle
The single most reliable tell, and the first thing a judge looks at.
Square and blocky, with a clear break where it meets the cheek. Seen head-on it is a box hanging below the eyes, and you can see its corners.
Tapering to a point, or blending into the face with no definition at all. A wedge instead of a box.
Look at her straight on, at her eye level. Can you draw a rectangle around the muzzle? If the sides run inward to the nose, it is not a Maine Coon muzzle.
The profile
What separates a Maine Coon from a Norwegian Forest Cat, which is the mix most often passed off as one.
A gentle concave curve from brow to nose — the line falls inside a straight edge laid between them — and a chin that lines up under the nose and upper lip.
A straight wedge from ear to nose tip, or a chin that slopes away behind the nose.
View her from the side and imagine a taut string from the brow to the tip of the nose. A Maine Coon's face curves away from that string. A wedge lies along it.
The eyes
Where most guides go wrong. Roundness is not the tell.
Large and expressive, set wide apart, and set on a slight oblique angle — the outer corner sits higher than the inner one, pointing at the base of the ear.
Small for the head, or set dead level. Fully open, a correct eye can look almost round, so size and angle are what you are judging.
Follow the line of each eye outward. On a Maine Coon it runs up towards the outer ear base. If both eyes sit on one flat horizontal line, that is the fault — not the shape.
The ears
Judge the base and the set, not the tips.
Large and tall, wide at the base, set high on the head and reasonably close together, with heavy furnishings — the hair inside growing out past the edge.
Small, low on the skull, or set out towards the sides so the head reads round.
Ignore the lynx tips entirely. Look at how wide the ear is where it joins the head, and how much space sits between the two. Wide bases, close together, high up.
The tail
The most under-checked tell on this list, and one of the hardest to fake.
At least as long as the body, wide at the base, tapering, and carried as a full plume of long flowing hair.
Short, thin, or evenly furred along its length. This is what mixes most often lack.
Lay the tail along her back if she will let you. It should reach at least her shoulder. A tail that stops at the middle of the back is telling you something.
The coat
Not how much fur, but how unevenly it is distributed.
Uneven and shaggy: short over the shoulders, lengthening down the flanks, long on the stomach and britches, with a ruff coming in at the neck. Silky, and it falls rather than stands.
One even length all over, or a dense coat that stands away from the body. That is a domestic longhair, or a Persian somewhere behind her.
Run a hand from the shoulder to the belly. On a Maine Coon the length changes noticeably under your palm. On a mix it does not.
And While You Are There
Four more worth checking. None of them decides anything on its own, and none is improved by a diagram — you are feeling for these rather than looking at them.
Long and rectangular, broad in the chest, and heavy in the hand for its size.
Fine-boned, cobby, or light when you pick her up. Coat volume standing in for substance.
A nice thing to have, and part of the look.
Not proof of anything. Plenty of mixes have them and they thin with the season. If a seller leads with lynx tips, that is what they have instead of a muzzle.
Large and round, with tufts of fur growing between the toes.
Small and neat for the size of the cat.
Still filling out at three to five years, in a way most breeds are not.
Finished at twelve months. A cat that stopped growing at a year was probably never going to be large.
Colours That Cannot Be Purebred
This one is close to decisive, and almost nobody checks it. Maine Coons occur in nearly every colour and pattern — but a few are not in the breed at all, and their presence means another breed is in the cat's recent ancestry.
- Pointed, in the Siamese sense — a pale body with darker face, ears, legs and tail. There is no such thing as a purebred colourpoint Maine Coon, whatever the advertisement says.
- Chocolate and lilac.
- Cinnamon and fawn.
If a seller offers you a "rare colourpoint Maine Coon" at a premium, they are either selling a cross knowingly or do not know their own breed. Neither is a person to buy a cat from. Blue eyes in an adult non-white cat are worth the same suspicion, for the same reason.
If It Is One, Is It a Good One?
A different question, and a matter of degree rather than yes or no. Every trait below exists on a scale, and where a kitten sits on it is what separates a pet-priced kitten from a show-priced one. None of it is about health.
Muzzle depth
The hardest thing to breed and the first thing a judge looks at. A genuinely deep, square muzzle is rare even in good lines; a slightly shallow one is the most common reason a kitten is priced as a pet.
Boning
Heavier is better. Compare litter mates side by side and the difference is obvious in the legs and the chest.
Ear set and size
Large ears set high and reasonably close together. Ears that are correct but set too wide is a common and quite visible fault.
Eye set
The oblique angle again. Straight-set eyes on an otherwise good cat will cost it in the ring.
Tail length
It should reach at least to the shoulder when laid along the back. Short tails are penalised and are surprisingly common.
Overall balance
The one that takes experience. A cat can have every part right and still not hang together, and a cat can have a middling part or two and read beautifully. This is where two honest breeders can disagree.
Worth repeating, because the trade relies on people not knowing it: none of the above is a health measure. A pet-quality kitten from tested parents is exactly as healthy as a show-quality one from the same litter, and usually a better buy.
How we price on these traitsWarning Signs in the Seller
- 01Kittens available at eight weeks or younger. Legal in many places, and still too early — it cuts the socialisation window short and it is the strongest single signal of a seller optimising for turnover.
- 02You cannot see the mother, or she is "at the vet", or you are asked to meet somewhere that is not where the kittens live.
- 03Several breeds available at once, or a rotating stock of whatever is in demand.
- 04"Vet checked" offered in place of health testing. They are not the same thing and the substitution is deliberate.
- 05A price well below the market with an urgent reason attached. Nobody sells a genuine RM 12,000 kitten for RM 3,000 because they are moving house.
- 06Deposit demanded before you have seen the kitten in person or on a live video call.
- 07No written contract, or one that appears only after payment.
Common Questions
Not honestly, and neither can anyone else. A photo can show a muzzle that looks wrong or a tail that looks short, and that is a reason to look at the paperwork — it is not a verdict. If the cat is happy and healthy, this matters far less than the internet suggests.
They are indicative, not conclusive. The consumer cat DNA tests report breed similarity against reference populations, and Maine Coon shares ancestry with other landrace long-haired cats, so a mix can score high and a purebred can score oddly. A registered pedigree is still the answer.
No. Size is one trait among many and it is not the one judges weight most heavily — structure is. A very large cat with a pointed muzzle and a thin tail is a large cat, not a good Maine Coon. Sellers lean on size because it is the thing buyers already want.
Almost certainly not. Both come in with maturity and are often not obvious until well past a year, and they thin in hot weather. Judging a twelve-week-old kitten on coat furnishings is not a fair test.
They can be — the trait is historically part of the breed and is accepted by some registries and not others. It is not evidence either way, because extra toes occur in cats of every kind.
Then say so, and say which trait. We would rather have that conversation than sell you a kitten you have doubts about. If you are right, it is worth knowing — it has changed a price here before.
Come and Check Ours
Bring this page with you. Look at the muzzle, lift the tail, feel the bone, ask for the pedigree and the parents' test results. That is exactly the inspection we would want a buyer to make, and it is the reason it is written down.