Does anyone here have (or had) Maine Coon cats?

[Lorien]

I got a Maine Coon kitten (Oberon) this Summer to help my older cat Miro and myself cope with the loss of my 15 year old kitty Peewee.He's become a wonderful companion for Miro, but at seven months he's already longer and taller than the cat my friends call "the roast" (because he's the size of a butterball turkey!). I've only ever had rescue kitties; Oberon is my first purebred cat, and I admit I didn't know how large Maine Coons could grow to until looking up his forebearers on the internet. These are his Grandparents (I hope the link works):

Grandmother Narumi:


Granfather Reed (my kitten looks a lot like him)


My question is; are these cats typical of the breed as far as size goes? I can't find any other comparitive size photos online. My kitten is already quite large at seven months, and thankfully the gentlest cat I've ever owned, but is he past the halfway point of growth or does he still have a way to go? (I've read that they don't mature until four years old). Will he need a saddle?

Thanks!

[Cooley Hurd]

1. yes... about 10 years ago...

cleared it up with a topical ointment...

[Limbought]

2. Never owned one myself,

but a friend in high school had one he called "Pickles." The cat was HUGE & could kick the shit out of most of the dogs in the neighborhood. When Pickles walked down the street Rover, Spot & Lady turned tail.

[kainah]

3. I have a Maine Coon

and she's WONDERFUL!!! I'd say that size is about normal. Mine was pretty small for a Maine Coon and then, when she was 8 years old, our "alpha" cat died and she assumed the role. To take it on, she grew about 4 inches and put on about 5 pounds. It was absolutely amazing. Even her vet was astonished by it. At 7 months, I'd say he may or may not be halfway grown. Whatever happens, you'll have a wonderful companion, I guarantee you.

[Lorien]

9. Yowzah! And female Maine Coons are

supposed to be considerably smaller the males. Did she grow in height, width, or both? ;-). My beloved kitty that passed away never weighed more than six pounds (he was a runt), so I'm a little intimidated by Oberon's growth! But you're right; he is a wonderful companion. :-)

[xultar]

4. I've got one I named him Thor, HE IS HUGE, so Sweet!

They get depressed very easily. I think it is because he has such a fantastic temprament. HE's so loving and sweet. I put Thor on Prozac when we moved cuz he got depressed. HE was fine in about a month. He doesn't take it anymore. I think he is obsesive compulsive though.

Send me a PM we can chat Maine Coon...

[Lorien]

7. Lol! I almost named my kitty "Thor" too!

he's just so tender hearted that it seemed like too much to live up too, lol! Most people call him "Obie" because even "Oberon" is a bit much for him. ;-) I'd love to see a photo of Thor!

My late kitty Wee was on Prozac too during his last year. I'm convinced it gave him six extra months of life.

[Dookus]

5. I've never had one...

but I've wanted one for years. I've only met two of them, and they were both awesome. They're just gorgeous animals.

[Lorien]

16. Check out

www.petfinder.com , they often have adoptable Maine Coon kittens and adults. I got mine at a cat show, of all places (very strange crowd!). I went there to see the rescue kitties that one group had brought for adoption, but little Oberon kept trying to get my attention while I was there, and finally I couldn't resist. He isn't "show quality" because he has a couple of light brown spots on his belly (supposed to only be silver, black and white) so he was sold at a discount. He's perfect to me, though. :-)

[CatWoman]

6. DUer Geniph has three Maine Coons

and they are beautiful (so are kitty's parents) :D

She also belongs to an association.

Why don't you shoot her a PM?

[Lorien]

11. Thanks Catwoman!

I think I will.

I've certainly enjoyed looking at your furkids:-). They remind me of my late tortoishell Mishka, who I had in college. Wonderful kitties!

[Zomby Woof]

18. I've met them!

They are the hugest fuzziest furballs ever! :D (The kitties that is, but JohnYawl is too). :evilgrin:

[Johnyawl]

45. That's because I'm a human Maine Coon

big, furry, and loveable!

[Missy Vixen]

25. We have two Maine Coons

and Geniph and I share the same breeder. The following site is more addictive than DU: http://www.pinecoon.com.

Meet our two brown tabby boys: Mojo is eighteen months old, about 18 pounds, and the linebacker of the family. He's gigantic. Oscar is nine months old and is the "breed standard" -- long, lean, huge paws, heavily muscled. They're both goofy, mischievious, and very affectionate. Oscar is also our show cat; he'll be getting that show bath tomorrow night for this weekend's festivities...Our boys' father is Rumble, who's 20 pounds and 42" from nose to tail.

If you have any more questions about Maine Coons, I'm also happy to answer them!

Julie

[Lorien]

31. Thanks Julie!

That was a fun site! I think I will be contacting you when it comes time to give Obie his first bath, lol! He's a very gentle soul, but you never know how they can change when faced with a tub of water and suds! I'm sure there's more to washing them than just Johnson's baby shampoo, too.

My kitties breeder doesn't have a site, but his grandparents breeders do. Lots of fun pics! Here they are: http://www.mainlysilver.com/index.html

http://www.shubacoons.com/breeders.htm

My cat is a dead ringer for Schubacoons "Freedomkatt Tom Cruise" (the most absurd names!) his mother's father. Except Oberon has orange/copper eyes. Fortunately, he doesn't know how pretty he is. ;-)

[geniph]

44. Julie, are you going to be at the show this weekend

at Seattle Center? I'm planning on stopping by one of the days.

[Missy Vixen]

57. We're going to the show!

Geniph, we'll be with the Pinecoon contingent. (It's usually an entire row; all the fun people will be there!)

I'll be the roly poly redhead. ;-)

It'll be so great to meet you!

Julie

[geniph]

63. Woohoo! I'll look for you!

I'm the small woman with hip-length red hair. May or may not be accompanied by a burly bearded blond giant - that would be JohnYawl, if I can talk him into coming along.

[WilliamPitt]

8. They are the buffalo of the cat world

Huge animals. Totally cool.

[Don_G]

10. One Owns Me

They do get big. They're also sweet, gentle and make emotional attachments to anyone they think is worthy.

[scarlet_owl]

12. My stepmother had one a few years ago

but he was no where near as large as the cats in the pictures. He was big, though.

[pansypoo53219]

13. my dad found a young kitten 6 weeks?

who became my grandparents foster cat fritz and you woulda sworn he was full maine coon and what a smarty and almost a dog temperament. i did a great portrait of him for granma when he was finally adopted. but he was pretty big. 11 lbs or so at about a year. and my dear departed cosmo was a close cousin, the norweigan forest cat and he was 12 lbs and very long and fuzzy. (also a stray from the pound). so i would say that you will get at least that big a cat. just make sure you brush his 'pantaloons'. that's where the hairballs will form. Cosmo was a stinker, but what a cat.

[Lorien]

14. Yeah, I've heard that Norweigan Forest cats

are very similar to Maine Coons. Most people seem to think that the breed "evolved" from ship cats brought by the vikings, or Turkish Angoras from Europe that bred with bobcats and local barn kitties.

Lucky for me, Obie loves to be brushed! He also likes to have his (massive) claws trimmed-even holds them out for me! I'm surprised that he barely sheds at all. Good thing, too. He'll be as furry as his cousin here; another silver mackeral tabby.

[OneBlueSky]

15. yeah, I adoped Dudley many years ago . . .

when he was just a kitten . . . little did I know how big he'd become, or how affectionate . . . his companion at the time was a much smaller female named Donut, and together they ruled their territory, which consisted of about an acre on a main drag in a small New England town . . . whenever a dog wandered onto the property, one of them would take the front end and the other the back end, and the mutt never knew what hit him . . . needless to say, the dogs quickly learned that they were not to be messed with, and kept a wide berth . . . these are absolutely great cats, and I still miss Dudley to this day . . .

[HEyHEY]

17. It's so depressing

My buddy has a mayne coons, when he got we were all expecting it to get soooo freakin huge. But it is a small mayne coon..dang

[REP]

19. Yup - They're Huge

Five of my current cats are half Coon/half Turkish Angora and they're all pretty good-sized; the tom kitten weighed 13 pounds when he was six months old, and he's not fat. Pete and Lily were Coons as well; at his peak, Pete weighed 24 pounds (again, not a fat cat; just a huge one) and Lily weighed 18. It takes about four years for them to get their full size. Pete *needed* be to be held constantly - it would be the heaviest cat who loved being held the most!

Coons are terrific cats. They're pretty hardy and healthy. If you ever see that your cat can't move his tail, though; take him to the vet right away. There's a rare neurological disease (primary degenerative encephalomyelopathy) that is starting show up in large breed cats, especially Coons and tail paralysis is a first symptom. It is still VERY rare, so don't be worried about it!

[Lorien]

32. What a great combination!

Coon/Turks must be wonderful cats! My half Turk Peewee was the brightest, most loving cat I've ever had. MCs are so gentle and sweet.How lucky you are to be "owned" by so many! ;-)

I never would have considered a purebred cat, until my beloved Wee passed away from HCM. I initially had gone to the cat show to look at some shelter cats one breeder had brought in for adoption (all my past cats were rescues), but Obie kept trying to catch my eye from his cage, and I finally gave in. I never have spent more than $35 on a cat or kitten, so to actually pay a few hundred bucks for one (low price because he isn't show quality) seemed absurd. What sold me was his health guarantee; all of his ancestors had been screen for genetic illnesses like HCM. After spending thousands trying to save Wee, I felt the price was worth it. But I'm sure I'll still bring home a few rescue kitties in the future!

[corarose]

20. I use to be a Dog & Cat Groomer & Yes they get that big

.

[regnaD kciN]

21. I once heard a Coonie described as...

..."a cross between a cat and a bulldozer."

I had one in the early 90s. Bartholomew (emphasis on the last syllable) was a stray, so didn't have a pedigree, but it was obvious to anyone which breed he was, even though he was a bit smaller than the behemoths shown here. Barth was a very sweet cat, and a good companion. He was very tolerant of our senior Manx, and let her push him around most of the time, even though it was obvious to all that he could have knocked her halfway across the house with one paw tied behind his back. When our Manx (who could never be described as behaving in a friendly way toward him) died, Barth went into mourning for some time.

Where we live now, one of the families a few blocks from us has a Coonie who is almost an exact copy of Barth, except orange-and-white instead of gray-and-white. I strongly suspect that he is among the ancestors of one of our current feline adoptees (The Great Pumpkin), because although Pumpkin is an orange shorthair, he has the personality and close to the bulk of a Coonie.

By the way, from most current breed standards I've seen recently, Norwegian Forest Cats ("Wegies") and Siberians are supposed to be even bigger, if only slightly.

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

22. I have a cat that I got at a shelter

I am sure he is coon cat even though they just had him listed as a a longhair. He has the typical strange meow, which is very quiet and other-worldly, and is 13 pounds. He is so gentle and sweet, but I can see how they could get depressed because he is very sensitive.

It is so funny to watch him with the short-haired girl cat. She is very spunky and launches herself at him and takes him down like a gazelle. Then he rolls her off him and goes after and swats her so gently with his giant paws while she yowls bloody murder.

I call him "Cat-zilla" because he knocks everything over with his big tail and doesn't even care.

[Lorien]

33. Yeah, those tails!

who needs a dustmop when there's a Maine Coon in the house?:-)

[underpants]

23. I've got one but it isn't NEAR that size

Man those are some big cats.

Our girl Pepper is long (about 18") but she isn't near that size. She probably weighs about 6 pounds I'd guess.

[commander bunnypants]

24. Sebastian Cattbutt- A Maine Coon

is about 14 pounds now. Mostly fur,mostly a huge baby, mostly sweet, till he wants some chicken, got himm around 1990 when he was on his way to the pound. He is a great cat.


DDQM- A couple of weeks ago he put a 90 pound lab/greyhound in his place. It was over chicken.

[Missy Vixen]

26. Our boy Oscar

Let's see if I can post pictures; if I screw this up, sorry, everyone!

[Lorien]

36. What a handsome boy!

great ear tufts! Brown classic tabby is such a great look for a Maine Coon, too. He certainly looks "show worthy", even to my uneducated eye! :-)

I wish I could post pics of my little guy. What image hosting service do you use?

[Missy Vixen]

38. Jen, thank you, he's our baby

Oscar's our big show cat. He looks soooo innocent, but he is a holy terror!

Here's the deal with the bath, from a few posts up: It takes an hour. We first clip his claws. When we're done with the claw clipping (very, very important,) rub his ruff (around his neck,) and his tail with Goop. He then gets dunked into the sink, which is filled about halfway with lukewarm water and two teaspoons of Woolite. We rinse out the Goop. He then gets rubbed down all over (of course, not on his face,) with "pure soap". He's rinsed again. He then gets rinsed with two teaspoons of white vinegar dissolved in half a gallon of warm water. More rinsing ensues. We blow him dry. Fortunately for us, he likes the blow dryer!

He's gorgeous when we're done, but it's a lot of work!

>I wish I could post pics of my little guy. What image hosting service do you use?<

Okay, this is what I did, and another Lounge poster mentioned it in a thread yesterday. I went to Oscar's picture on the web, right clicked, clicked on "properties", copied the URL, and pasted it into the post. It worked! (WOOO-hoooo!)

I hope this will work for you, too!

Julie

[Lorien]

40. Thanks for the great grooming tips!

Whew! It does sound like a lot of work! I'll have to bookmark this for the future. I just hope that Obie's not one of those kittens that turns into a howling, growling ball of feline fury in the bathtub, lol!

Sadly, Oberons photo is nowhere on the web.Here are two of his ancestors, the first looks a lot like Obie does now, but Oberon has orange eyes and Mac tabby patterning with white, like the kitty in post #14. The second is another of his Grandpa Reed, who Obie also resembles .

[Johnyawl]

46. Is this one of Betsy's kittens?

My goodness He's gorgeous! He reminds me of our Cappy when he was small, those HUGE ears! There was way too much ear for that little kitten, but he sure grew into them.

I love Maine Coons, it was my idea originally to get one. I talked Geni into it when Fractel died (she was a sweet cat). I love all the Coonies, but my favorite is the brown tabbies. Your Oscar is a doll, quite like my Cappy.

[Missy Vixen]

60. He's a Pinecoon boy!

>My goodness He's gorgeous! He reminds me of our Cappy when he was small, those HUGE ears! There was way too much ear for that little kitten, but he sure grew into them.<

Johnyawl, thank you so much! I would love to see a picture of Cappy when he was small, too! Oscar's grown quite a bit since that picture was taken, but he still has gigantic ears...

Hopefully we'll see Geniph this weekend; the whole gang will be there!

Of course, if there are those who want to see even more gorgeous Maine Coons, go to www.pinecoon.com. (Heheheheheh...you're getting verry sleepy...you want a Maine Coon kitten...heheheheheheheh!)

Julie

[geniph]

65. Oh, if you want a picture of Kittycap when he was a baby...

as one of the other breeders put it, "he looks like his momma was frightened by a 747!" This picture was published in the MCBFA Scratch Sheet, too:

[Lorien]

70. Good Lord!

he looks as if he can receive messages from the Mothership with those ears, lol!

He's a handsome one, alright! :loveya:

[bloom]

27. This last June

My husband got a kitten from someone he knows at work.

She was pretty furry and cute and stripey. Her tail looks like a racoons tail. She's pretty solid and big for a 7 month female.

We had never heard of Maine Coons - but pretty soon people started saying things like "Well that looks like a Maine Coon!" & "Have you seen the size of your kittens parents?" etc.


She is funny how she attacks the dog one minute and nuzzles her the next.

Drinks LOTs of water.


I think she's probably half Maine Coon or something.

[MissMillie]

28. My sister has one

sweetest thing you'll ever know.

Big, big kitty.

[City Lights]

29. I've got one.

Watson is our only purebred out of seven. Maine Coons are big and they make great family pets. Watson is BIG. He just turned 3 and weighs 19 lbs. (He's also fat, but don't tell him that as he thinks he's just big boned.)

He's the most loyal and dog-like cat we have. He's my constant companion. He sleeps on the floor on my side of the bed, or in between me and the edge of the bed (I hate sleeping in the middle). Sometimes he sleeps under the covers with me. He plays fetch with toy mice. He looks longingly into my eyes as he kneads my arm, stomach, leg, or whatever body part is within reach. He also cleans me regularly.

I'd get another one in a flash if I didn't feel so damned guilty about buying a purebred when there are so many throwaways looking for homes in shelters.

[Lorien]

39. there are a lot of throwaway Maine Coons too

www.petfinder.com. I know how you feel-I've always had rescue cats too. But there are plenty of "defective" (not "show worthy") Maine Coons kittens out there, as well as many purebred adults that need a home. Many breeders have older kitties up for adoption too.

Your so lucky that you can sleep with yours. Oberon compulsivly kneads my head when I let him sleep with me, and even with trimmed claws, it hurts! Siouxj suggested a football helmet, lol!

[bloom]

30. One thing I noticed when I looked up info online

is that there were a LOT of diabetic Maine Coons who were among those listed for rescue.

Seemed unusual - I wonder about their tendency for being overweight?

[Missy Vixen]

35. Maine Coons and diabetes

>Seemed unusual - I wonder about their tendency for being overweight?<

Bloom, Maine Coons are naturally larger than other cats; they were bred for mousing and generally keeping the area free of varmints. They aren't "fat" unless their owners don't make sure that they get some exercise. For instance, one of the other women in our cat club has a boy that's 23 pounds; there isn't an ounce of fat on him. This is not considered unusual due to the fact that MC's grow for the first four years of their lives.

Maine Coons also (in my opinion, and from listening to multiple MC breeders,) would be much more prone to hip dysplasia than to diabetes. Our breeder screens all her cats yearly for hip dysplasia.

Maine Coons are also the most popular breed of cats in the United States at this point; this could account for a higher number of rescues. (Technically, it's not an MC without breed paperwork, but there are people who would advertise "Maine Coons" without having said paperwork.)

Julie
edited for additional information

[Lorien]

37. I've read recently

that diabetes is on the rise in cats generally, for the same reason it is in people; lack of activity and over feeding. My vet mentioned that she saw a huge jump in the disease over the past decade.

[grannylib]

34. My cousin had one, she was a monster but such a beauty!!

[nini]

41. the first guy looks like my Fluffy who went to heaven in Sept.

I still miss him :-(

[Individualist]

42. My sister-in-law has two Maine Coon

beauties, one male and one female. They're about the size of Narumi and Reed.

[geniph]

43. As CatWoman mentioned, I have three

and they are amazing cats. Both JohnYawl (my husband) and I agree, we'll never have a home without Maine Coons again. Two of ours are SMART, I mean REALLY smart - the other - well, he's very sweet. He's dumber than a sack of hair, but he's a love. All three are cuddly and completely non-aggressive, which is good given their impressive weaponry - you should see the fangs and claws on my big boy! I've never seen claws like that on any cat; I have to use dog clippers on him. If I didn't clip everyone's claws every two weeks, those would be a scary sight! They follow us everywhere - you cannot do anything alone in a house with Maine Coons. I've never seen such people-oriented or such loving cats.

Here are my babies:

Dar Morev Yankee Red Witch (Yankee), who's almost 8, and 15 rather overweight pounds (she looks like a furry basketball):


Pinecoon Capn Jim Hawkcoons (Cappy), 4 years old and 17 very lean pounds:


Coonmora Friendly Fire (Fire), 5 years old and 16 slightly chubby pounds of adorable loving gay idiocy (yes, he is gay):

[ploppy]

47. What

absolutely beautiful animals! I love the pink noses!!!!

[Johnyawl]

48. I love those three cats!

Cappy is an amazing animal. He would have made a great ship's ratter. He's got claws like small scimitars, and fangs that would make a small leopard proud. And a prey drive that's stunning to watch. And yet he's the most lovable cat I've ever lived with. He has this ability to meow in a tiny little kitten voice,(when he's begging for a piece of chicken, or - his favorite - turkey), you'd swear it was a baby kitten, calling for its mothers milk. We got him at a time when I was unemployed, and he and I bonded VERY closely because I got to spend all day with him. He's the second smartest cat I've ever seen.

Fire is our little hairdresser. He climbs up on my chest and grooms my beard; grooms Genis bangs, and will hold Cappy down and groom him like a kitten, until Cappy gets tired of it and kicks his butt. Gently, with no fangs or teeth, it amazes me how gentle the two boys are with each other. He's a sweet, lovable boy, who's as dumb as a box of rocks. I've never seen a Maine Coon this dumb.

Yankee is our first Coonie, and she's a typical redhead: cantankerous, irritable, mean, pushy, demanding and neurotic. And she's also the smartest cat I've ever seen. She damn near speaks english. She tolerates Cappy; barely tolerates my two boys; utterly detests Fire (she reacts to him the way a freeper reacts to Hillary Clinton), and loves Geni and I.

[Lorien]

52. Do all of your MCs

have high pitched voices, or is it just Cappy? Oberon still sounds like a tiny kitten-maybe he'll stay that way? (Doesn't fit at all with the image, lol!)

[geniph]

53. They each have very unique voices

Yankee's the talker of the bunch - she never lets anything go by without a comment from her. If she gets yelled at, she backtalks, every time, in the whiniest little voice you ever heard. She has VERY distinct different meows for different things; she comes as close to actual words as I can imagine a cat doing. She manages to communicate what she actually wants (water, the litterbox is dirty, we have dish bottom, pet me, I want a lap, get the boycats away from me, play, there's a dog outside) amazingly well.

Cappy talks a lot, but in that incongruous tiny baby-kitten voice. It's an absurd sound coming from a cat tall enough to turn lightswitches off and on (he has, too). When there's something on the kitchen counters that interests him, he simply stretches up and looks - he can actually put his head up above the counter. He's the LONGEST cat in the universe. I have had to instruct him that simply because he CAN look in the kitchen sink or on the stove, doesn't mean he SHOULD.

Fire has almost no voice at all most of the time - he does these near-voiceless hoarse little squeaks that are the most pathetic thing. We would worry that there was something wrong with his vocal cords if it wasn't for his nightly songfest - he goes and gets his toy rat and wanders around the house with the toy in his mouth, howling at the top of his lungs. If you come out and look at him, he'll spit the toy out and look embarrassed. He only does this when he's unobserved.

They're total characters. One of the coolest things about them is that none of them have any bad habits - there's no fighting, they never scratch or bite people, they don't steal food or get on the counters, they don't scratch the furniture, they don't pee on anything - they're wonderful cats. If I could just teach them that "MOVE!" does not mean "switch places so I still have a cat in my way at all times," I'd be happier, though. I sometimes wonder how there can always be at least two cats underfoot no matter what room you're in - it's like they teleport from room to room to get in the way!

[Lorien]

56. Lol!

No need for TV in your house! Fire's bit with the toy rat sounds hilarious!

Cappy does sound HUGE! When do you think he hit the halfway poit in his growth? Pics of my MC are in post #50-he looks grown up now, but I think he has a way to go. :shrug: Still acts like a baby, too! But like yours, no bad habits to speak of (yet!). :-)

[geniph]

66. The boys keep growing until they're almost 5

but they're probably half-grown at about 11 months or so. You don't want him growing too fast!

[Lorien]

49. What handsome kitties!

and so furry too-do you live in a northern state? I'm in Florida, and my little Oberon ("little"-he's seven months old, and I just measured him; 38 inches from nose to tail tip!) isn't very hairy yet. He's a real lovebug too-not quite the velcro kitty or Einstein that my Peewee was, but a very faithful lap cat nevertheless, and a superior intellect to my domestic shorthair, Miro. Miro is sweet, but dumber than krill.

Hey, have you ever tried clicker training? Obie learned "come", Jump up" "jump down", "Sit up", and "high five" all in a few days. He perfoms the behaviors instantly when asked-it's really amazing-I'm sure Cappy and Yankee would be almost instant learners. Here's a link for more info: www.clickertraining.com

[geniph]

54. We're in Washington state

and they get to go outside only on the screened-in deck when we're using the hot tub, but I don't keep the house particularly warm in the winter. They start growing their real coat at about 7 months, so Oberon may fluff out soon. You should see the European breeders' cats - many of the Europeans have outdoor runs (in the snow!) for their cats, and they put on coats that are astonishing!

There are two lists on yahoogroups devoted to Maine Coons - the mcats list is a VERY busy list with about 800 members, including both Mainelysilver and Shubacoons (your guy's breeders and relatives). The mcphotos list is all pictures of Maine Coons, and the breeders regularly post pictures of their new kittens. It's a great way to get a daily cuteness fix!

I never intended to have purebreds, but once John talked me into the first Maine Coon, there was no going back. They are incomparable; the perfect cat for people who are also dog lovers.

[Lorien]

71. Hey, do you have links for those sites?

They sound fun! :-)

[geniph]

72. You'll need a Yahoogroups account to join

these are mailing lists, not web forums, although you can read posts on the web if you have a yahoogroups account.

The links to join are http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mcats and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mcphotos

(You can't view the mcphotos pictures unless you actually subscribe to the list, by the way - they're no longer available on the website)

[Lorien]

74. Thanks Geniph!

:hi:

[Lorien]

50. Kitty pics!

Now that I can upload some pics, the thread is sure to drop like a stone, lol!

Oberon at 3 1/2 months:


Oberon at 6 1/2 months:


Showing off his fabulous tail:


Cat nap:


Camera shy Obie:

[geniph]

55. He's a lovely boy

Our Cappy has a flaw that makes him unshowable, too - a white "locket" on his neck. But we think he's perfection itself, as I'm sure Oberon is too!

Don't overfeed a young Maine Coon. You want him to grow slowly and steadily, not rapidly. It's a good idea to take him off kitten food with its higher protein and calorie content, too. Rapid growth has been implicated in some cases of hip dysplasia and Legg-Calve-Perthes syndrome, and some growth plate fractures. Large breeds are more susceptible to rapid-growth problems (as are large-breed dogs and horses), so watch his food intake. Young Maine Coons tend to be very athletic - lunatics, actually - and their weight can cause them to damage joints when jumping onto hard, slick surfaces from the heights to which they'll climb. Try to keep him from doing much maniacal leaping (good luck with that!) until he's full grown and slightly more sedate.

[Lorien]

58. Thanks for the advice

what brand(s) of food do you recommend? I have him on a combination of Nutro Natural choice kitten food and Royal Canin Maine Coon formula (has really helped my 14 year old DS's arthritis). Do you have a preference?

[Missy Vixen]

64. Jen, we're still feeding Nutro Natural

Our cats really like it, but another breeder told me that we should feed Eukanuba. I'll be interested to read what Geniph thinks about all this.

Julie

[geniph]

67. I feed Royal Canin's Sensible Choice

because it's completely corn-free, and one of my three has a dreadful allergy to corn-based foods. I had them on Nutro Natural for a long time, but I've heard too many apocryphal stories of male cats blocking on Nutro Natural, so I switched (it was one of the only other corn-free foods I could find).

Any Royal Canin food is good, but I'd seriously consider taking him off the kitten food if I were you.

[SiouxJ]

59. There's my cute little Obie!

I have the honor of being his Goddessmother ;-) He's such a sweetie! :loveya:

[Lorien]

68. He loooves his Goddessmother, too!

Especially when she feeds him treats while watching Eddie Izzard! ;-)

[Missy Vixen]

61. Okay, let's try this again!

Between your Oberon and Geniph's kitties, I'm in LOVE! Aren't they fun? Our boys are sleeping in the filtered sunshine and wondering where the teaser toys are.

I love Maine Coons!

Julie

[Lorien]

69. A few more pics

with Miro, A.K.A "the Roast", and as a 4 month old. :-)

[absyntheNsugar]

51. Yes...get a saddle...

and prepare for a large cat. They are often referred to as gentle giants, and out of all of the cats, they are the most 'dog like'...e.g. they come when called, like people, play even in their golden years.

We had one (Sophie le Chat) who to this day still like the laser-pointer game. And she's a big cat.

She also does this "meow"-thud thing where she will meow, then, almost like a cow being tipped over she falls to the side and slams on the floor with a thud.

[jobycom]

62. Mine looks just like Narumi. Smart, sweet cats

Kiki is huge, playful, extremely smart, and can speak better than my ten year old daughter. She communicates well with her eyes. She's a little stand-offish at times, which makes the sweet moments more unexpected. She's very gentle with our kids, too, even when they are not gentle with her. She's nine, and she's still as playful as a kitten at times. It's quite amusing to see a Shetland-sized cat attacking a catnip mouse.

She's probably not a purebred, but her vet swears she seems like one (she's a pound kitty, turned over because she claws furniture-- a very expensive habit, since she can shred it more quickly than a kid with scissors). And she's the spitting image of the cat in your picture.

Also, the hair mats faster than any cat's I've ever seen, and we used to have a Persian. Brush regularly, especially if you are southern climed.

[Lori Price CLG]

73. OMG, those cats are gorgeous!!

Those cats are beautiful!
:)-Lori Price