What Is a Maine Coon?
Most people do not arrive at the Maine Coon first. They come through a Persian, a Ragdoll, a British Shorthair, a Bengal — and then they meet one of these, and they stop looking. It is the largest cat you can keep in a house, it behaves more like a dog than a cat, and it is, by a margin most owners will argue about at length, the most beautiful breed there is. This page is what it actually is, where it came from, and what living with one is like.
Up to a metre from nose to tail tip, and twelve to fifteen years of it. A domestic shorthair is about 4 kg; a Siamese tops out near 5. Full growth takes three to four years, and sometimes five.
The Breed at a Glance
| Weight | Males 6–11 kg, females 4–7 kg |
|---|---|
| Length | Up to 100 cm from nose to tail tip |
| Time to full size | Three to four years, sometimes five |
| Lifespan | 12 to 15 years with good care |
| Coat | Semi-long, water-resistant double coat |
| Grooming | Comb to the skin twice a week, 10–15 minutes |
| Shedding | Yes, and heavier when the coat turns over |
| Vocalisation | Chirps and trills far more than it meows |
| Temperament | Confident, sociable, follows people between rooms |
| Good with | Children, dogs and other cats |
| Health screening | HCM, PKdef and SMA are the three worth testing |
| Origin | Maine, United States |
Our heaviest stud today is 8.97 kg and our heaviest queen 6.68 kg, both still growing. Every cat here is weighed weekly and the figures on this site update with them — which is a slower and more awkward way to write a breed page than copying a published range, and the reason ours does not match the more cautious ones.
Where They Came From
Nobody knows, and the theories are better than the answer.
The one that is probably true
Longhaired ships' cats came ashore along the coast of Maine and bred with the local farm cats. What survived the winters was big, thick-coated, water-resistant and heavily furred between the toes — a cat built by New England weather rather than by anybody's plan. It is the only origin story that explains the coat.
The one everyone repeats
That they are part raccoon. They are not — it is biologically impossible — but the brown tabby coat and that enormous ringed tail made the story irresistible, and it is where the second half of the name came from.
The one about Marie Antoinette
That her longhaired cats were shipped to Maine ahead of an escape that never happened. No evidence, wonderful story, still in circulation two centuries later.
What is documented
A Maine Coon named Cosey won Best Cat at Madison Square Garden in 1895, at the first major cat show held in America. Then the imported Persians arrived, fashion moved, and the breed was declared extinct in the 1950s by people who had stopped looking for it. It was not. Maine made it the state cat in 1985.
Where Cat People Stop Looking
Cat people rarely stop at one breed. There is usually a first cat, then a breed they read about, then a breed they saw a photograph of and had to have. Ask in a Maine Coon owners' group how many cats came before this one and the answers run long. Ask how many came after, and mostly there are none. Something about the combination — the size, the face, and the fact that the cat follows you from room to room — ends the search. This is the breed people finally settle on, and stay with.
Half Cat, Half Dog
The comparison gets made constantly and it is not lazy — it is the most accurate thing anyone says about the breed. What is worth spelling out is which half you get from each.
The dog half
It will meet you at the door. It will sit outside the bathroom and wait. It will move rooms when you move rooms, settle on the desk you are working at, and take a position on the arm of whichever chair you chose. Many pick one person out of a household and attach to them specifically. This is not a cat that tolerates you being home.
The cat half
All of it, kept intact. Litter-trained without being taught. Clean to the point of fastidiousness, and free of the smell that comes with a dog. Silent on its feet. It does not need walking in the rain, does not need to be let out at six in the morning, and will not disgrace you in front of guests.
The part people underestimate
The affection is not clinginess in the anxious sense. A Maine Coon separated from you is not distressed, it is simply somewhere else and would rather not be. Come home late and you are met at the door, not sulked at from under the bed.
The Best Temperament of Any Cat
A cat this size has nothing to prove, and that turns out to be the whole explanation. The nervy, defensive behaviour people accept as normal in cats — the swipe when you reach the wrong way, the disappearance when the doorbell goes, the standoff with the carrier — comes largely from small animals managing risk. Take that away and what is left is a cat that is confident with strangers, patient with children, generally fine with dogs and with other cats, and comfortable being picked up by someone it has never met. Good breeding and daily handling from the first week do the rest.
It is a breed characteristic, not an individual one. Which is exactly why an unsocialised Maine Coon is such a waste of a cat.
You Will Be Asked About It
This is the part nobody warns you about. Guests photograph the cat before they sit down. The courier stays at the door longer than the delivery requires. Neighbours who have never spoken to you will ask what it is, and then ask how big it will get, and then ask again in three months. Put one on the internet and strangers argue in the comments about whether it is real. A Maine Coon walking across a room reorganises the room's attention, and some of that attaches to the person who owns it — which is a slightly silly thing to enjoy, and almost everyone does.
The Breed Is Not for Everyone
None of the following is a warning. It is what you are taking on, and we would rather you knew now than at week three.
They shed. A semi-long double coat needs combing to the skin twice a week, more when it changes, and the trouble spots are behind the ears, under the front legs, the britches and the base of the tail. Skip a fortnight in this climate and you are cutting mats out rather than combing them.
A full-grown male is the size of a small dog, and eats and costs like one. Larger litter tray, sturdier furniture, higher food bill, and a cat that can reach anything you thought was out of reach.
They follow you. If what you wanted was a cat that keeps to itself and treats you with mild contempt, you will find this breed exhausting — and there are breeds that do that beautifully.
They mature slowly. You are buying three to four years of growing cat, and the animal at twelve months is not the finished article you saw in photographs.
Common Questions
Males typically run 6 to 11 kg and females 4 to 7 kg, with a body up to a metre from nose to tail tip. For scale, an average domestic shorthair is around 4 kg. The photographs that look exaggerated online usually are not — but they are of adult males in full winter coat, which is the breed at its most impressive rather than its most typical.
Twelve to fifteen years with good care, which is comparable to any other domestic cat. Health screening on the parents matters more to those years than the number itself: HCM, PKdef and SMA are the three inherited conditions worth testing for in this breed.
Unusually so, and it is one of the main reasons families choose them. The size helps — a cat that does not feel threatened does not need to defend itself — but early socialisation is what makes the difference between a tolerant cat and a genuinely easy one.
In the ways that matter, yes: they greet you at the door, follow you between rooms, often attach to one person, and many will learn their name and come when called. They keep the cat virtues too — litter-trained, clean, quiet, no walks. It is the most useful single sentence about the breed.
Comb to the skin twice a week, about ten to fifteen minutes. That is the honest figure for a tropical climate, where the undercoat thins but humidity works against you. A stainless steel comb does more than any brush.
Imported bloodlines, health screening on every breeding cat, and small litter numbers by choice. Our published ranges and what sits behind them are on the pricing page.
Yes, with one condition: that you want a cat that is involved in your day. They are forgiving of first-time mistakes, sociable, and not delicate. The grooming is the only real commitment, and it is twenty minutes a week.
Come and Meet One
Photographs undersell the size — everybody says so after the first visit. Our cats are in Damansara Perdana and viewings are by appointment.