25/08/2023
Wanted to make a post, explaining the difference between Maine C**ns and domestic cats. Domestic cats are just as lovable, so this is not about Maine C**ns being better. There is a lot of confusion, so hopefully this helps.
Also, scammers and backyard breeders have it easier when people don’t know the difference.
Maine C**ns always have a pedigree, proving their ancestry. Only a cat with two registered Maine C**n parents is a Maine C**n. Randomly bred longhair cats that are found outside or in shelters are not Maine C**ns or mixes. You can’t find them as rescues. It’s extremely rare that you will have a real Maine C**n at a shelter. I’ve never seen one at a shelter and I know people that work there and haven’t seen one either after years of shelter work.
The way the breed works is that breeders selected cats in the beginning and started to selectively breed them for certain features. All those cats are documented from the beginning. CFA, TICA and any other cat registry doesn’t accept randomly bred cats as part of the breed. Maine C**ns originated in the state of Maine (coastal area) and were only found there, but you can’t really find them there anymore because so many people moved there and cats mixed with strays.
Shelters/rescues label domestic longhair cats as Maine C**ns or mixes all the time. They do this to find people to adopt them faster, but it really is fraud since they take money for cats that are not Maine C**ns, but they “sell” them as such. This causes a lot of confusion. Shelters do great work helping cats, and I understand that they need to find homes, just wish they wouldn’t do this. If your cat was advertised as Maine C**n or mix from a shelter without pedigree it’s not likely a Maine C**n at all. From experience, in 99.999% of the cases the cats are not Maine C**n.
Since breeders care a lot about their breeding cats and pay a lot for them, since they have to purchase breeding rights and pay for health testing (most spend 30K-50K in their first 1-2 years starting a small cattery), they make sure that they don’t get out and get diseases from strays or get pregnant. There just aren’t a bunch of Maine C**ns running around in the neighborhoods. And kitten buyers get them already altered or are required by contract to do so by a specific age.
Only 1-3% of all cats belong to a cat breed and there are over 70 recognized cat breeds, so you can imagine how few are really Maine C**ns. The real Maine C**ns are in the hands of breeders or owners, not out on the streets. Even if there was one real Maine C**n unaltered on the streets- it would make no impact in the domestic cat population of millions and definitely would not account for all the alleged mixes. All other cats that don’t belong to a breed are called domestic cats. These cats are not mixes of other cat breeds. This is the way it works with dogs, but not with cats. They are randomly bred cats without any breed background. Or, if you will, they are their own breed of domestic cats.
I’ve lived in many different places, many different states, rescued and fostered, but never saw a real Maine C**n outside.
Even pet buyers pay a few thousand $$ for a kitten, so they make sure to keep them safe. Contracts usually say that they have to be inside cats. Buyers are also required by contract to give the cat back to the breeder, not a shelter, if they can’t keep them anymore. Most breeders microchip kittens before they leave the cattery and stay on the microchip as a second contact. They would get informed if the first contact doesn’t answer, so they can arrange for the cat to be picked up. All this means that it’s extremely unlikely to find a real Maine C**n rescue.
The reason why you see domestic cats having some similarities to purebreds is that they are the same species. The Maine C**ns in Maine developed from domestic cats. Then breeders took those cats and through selective breeding enhanced their traits. But, the domestic longhair cats are not part of the Maine C**n breed. Maine C**ns are a pedigreed cat breed and only cats with a documented ancestry are part of it. Even if just one parent isn’t a Maine C**n, the kittens are not considered Maine C**ns and can’t get registered. After a couple generations of breeding to strays you would not see much Maine C**n anymore. After 3 generations, which can happen within just a couple of years, you would only have 12.5% Maine C**n left. These cats would not look like the Maine C**ns you know at that point. Real mixes are actually a lot more rare than purebred Maine C**ns, since breeders do everything to make sure their cats don’t get out. The real Maine C**ns you see all have a long pedigree, going back to foundation cats of the breed (back to the 60s). If you ever decide to get a Maine C**n, make sure to find a reputable cattery that is registered and does health testing. The only way to make sure that you are really getting a Maine C**n is registration paperwork. This is the same for other cat breeds as well. Every domestic cat will look similar to one breed or another, because the breeds were developed from domestic cats.
DNA testing does not work for cat breed identification. The tests usually even have a disclaimer about it. They don’t work, because cats have only been bred on purpose since a couple hundred years, most cat breeds are less than 50-100 years old, unlike dogs which have been bred since thousands of years and can be differentiated by DNA, since their genetic makeup has changed. Cats are still genetically too similar to each other for testing to work. The tests can only tell you that your cat has some similar genes that are found in pedigreed cats. This is not because your cat is actually a mix of different breeds, it is because cat breeds were developed from domestic cats. The DNA tests also often claim that a cat is a mix of multiple different breeds…as you can see that is extremely unlikely. It would mean two or more intact purebred animals from different breeds got out, found each other and had kittens.
When you test the same cat with two different companies you often get totally different results.
Dogs are either purebred or mixes of other dog breeds, since they have been purposely bred since such a long time and don’t often breed indiscriminately outside like cats do. To understand it better, think of the relationship between wolves and dogs. Dogs developed from wolves, cat breeds were developed from domestic cats. Domestic cats are the natural ancestors of the different cat breeds. Although I’d say domestic cats are typically a lot more domesticated than wolves 😄 Even today- people still develop new cat breeds all the time, either by selecting domestic cats to create a new breed or by mixing cat breeds that are allowed to be mixed (Maine C**ns are not allowed to be mixed per registry rules).
https://www.rover.com/blog/cat-dna-test/
Most vets are also not trained in breed identification. There are over 70 cat breeds and vets don’t have the time to learn them, since they are focused on health issues. Most vets also have never even seen a real Maine C**n. A lot of vets will tell people with domestic longhair cats that they have a Maine C**n, maybe to make them happy or because they really don’t know better. If you want a more educated opinion about your cat, ask a breeder or a cat show judge. Breeders handle this breed every day, know the standard, they pick breeding cats and compete in cat shows. Judges know the different breed standards and handle the different breeds all the time. Even breeders and judges can’t confirm that a cat is a certain breed without a pedigree, they can only tell you if your cat looks similar to a breed. But with experience it’s pretty easy to see if a cat is a Maine C**n or not, like when you look at a German Shepard and a Husky…you know which one is which and it’s the same for us with cats.
Every cat breed has what is called a standard. It tells you how a cat should look like when they belong to a specific breed. At the cat shows the cats will get judged based on the standards (domestic cats can’t compete with Maine C**ns at the shows). Domestic longhair cats can have some traits that they share with Maine C**ns, but not all is the same. They have a longer coat, but the coat is usually a little different from a Maine C**n. Maine C**ns also have a squared muzzle, usually lynx tips etc
Look at domestic longhair cats and then look at pictures of Maine C**ns. You will after a while see that they don’t look the same.
Breeders are not allowed to mix Maine C**ns with other breeds or domestic cats. This is a rule from the cat registries. Don’t fall for backyard breeders that offer unregistered cats or mixes. There is no way to know if you are really getting a Maine C**n in those cases or what they are mixing in (again, it is not allowed to mix Maine C**ns with other breeds). There are people that sell domestic longhair cats as Maine C**ns. Registration is very cheap for breeders (13 bucks for a whole litter) and no ethical breeder sells unregistered kittens. There are no cheap Maine C**n kittens and you’ll never find a Maine C**n kitten at a shelter or as a stray outside. They are very popular and breeders don’t give them up.
Reasons why people sell unregistered kittens are that they aren’t Maine C**ns or because they didn’t purchase breeding rights and are breaching contract with their breeder. People that do this also cut corners in other ways, don’t do health testing, overbreed their cats, let them go too young etc.
The “M” you see on some cats doesn’t mean that they are Maine C**ns. Those are tabby markings and can be found in many cat breeds and domestic cats, including shorthaired cats. Also, not all Maine C**ns are tabbies, so not every Maine C**n will have the M. Being big, longhaired, fluffy, sweet, talkative, chattering, tufts between the toes, liking water and playing fetch aren’t signs that the cat is a Maine C**n. Domestic cats can have those traits just the same and many Maine C**ns don’t like water, aren’t huge etc. A Maine C**n female can be as small as 8 lbs, but is still a Maine C**n because of the ancestry. Being fluffy and longhaired does not in any way make a cat a Maine C**n. It just means that cat has two copies of longhair genes. Just like a shorthaired cat isn’t automatically a Bengal or Burmese.
You’ll often hear people say, well it’s a Norwegian Forest cat if it’s not a Maine C**n. That’s totally unlikely. That breed works the same as Maine C**ns, they are a pedigreed cat breed that is native to Norway only. There aren’t as many breeders of that breed in the US and these cats aren’t even native to the US. They also share traits with domestic longhair cats.
In short- when you have a cat that belongs to a breed you know you do, since you will have documentation and likely have a contract and paid accordingly, went through a registered breeder etc.
If you have a domestic cat and just found out it’s not a Maine C**n…don’t be disappointed. I’ve had domestic cats my whole life too and love them. Your cat doesn’t care and you won’t love your cat any less. It won’t change anything. Each cat is special 😻😊
Post Written by Jasmina Waltz
