Your favorite feline sidekick is growing huge, and his ears have gorgeous tufts like a Lynx. His magnificent tail is as puffy as a feather duster, and his favorite game is playing with water in the kitchen sink. You aren’t sure about where your cat came from; is there a way how to tell if your cat is part Maine Coon?
You can explore your cat’s genetic ancestry by conducting an easy feline DNA test via a cheek swab. This data will narrow the breeds to the two dominant cat breeds in your kitty’s ancestral line, which may include Maine Coon. Otherwise, you can compare your cat’s appearance with the breed standard for similarities.
Often, rescue cats come with no accurate record of their ancestry, and tomcats (being tomcats) can sometimes introduce some mysterious kittens to a litter. Purebred Maine Coons require genealogical history that goes back three generations, but you can tell if your cat has hereditary links to this beautiful XL breed. Let’s explore some of the ways and methods to know if your Maine Coon is a mix or if your kitty is part Maine Coon.
Contents
- Who’s Your Daddy? DNA Testing for Feline Genes
- Maine Coon or Main Con? How To Tell if Your Cat Is Part Maine Coon
- Other Great Companies for Feline DNA Analyses
- Are Mixed Maine Coons Healthier Than Pure Breeds?
- How To Tell if Your Majestic Feline is a Mix？
- Does Your Cat Share the Personality Traits of Maine Coons?
- Closing Meows
Who’s Your Daddy? DNA Testing for Feline Genes
Unlike dogs with thousands of years of domestication, cats, in their aloof manner, domesticated themselves. According to studies, experts suggest that humankind only started actively developing most of our modern cat breeds in the last 150 years.
So, it was only in the 19th century that people began comprehensively breeding cats to conform to specific aesthetic standards. This dedicated breeding led to the multiple purebred ranges we see today, including the Maine Coon cat.
Bloodlines: Where It All Began
The Maine Coon is a descendant of the cats the Puritans brought to New England in the 1600-1700s and identified as belonging to the West European cat branch.
Although many have drawn exciting parallels between the Coon and the Norwegian Forest Cat, genetic evidence shows within this West European branch; the breed reflects the closest ties to the UK breeds out of their genetic testing.
The Maine Coon is a relative latecomer to the official feline purebred lists, although it is one of the oldest cat breeds in the world. The Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA) only recognized its official breed status in 1976, although the breed was accepted by other associations before they finally saw the light.
Delve deeper into the origins and history of Maine Coons on our website.
Maine Coon or Main Con? How To Tell if Your Cat Is Part Maine Coon
You can turn to science to figure out how to tell if your Maine coon is a mix. Every kitty has 38 pairs of chromosomes from which many thousand genes will determine their eventual size, sex, shape, color, and hair length. The extraordinary diversity of modern cat breeds is due to breeders taking advantage of natural mutations and selectively isolating these differences into a pedigreed breed.
Some companies specialize in feline DNA testing, such as Basepaws, a petcare genetics company offering at-home DNA testing for cat DNA and oral biomes. This company boasts an extensive genomic and microbiome database to discover your cat’s heritage.
What companies like Basepaws do is estimate your moggy’s genomic similarity of 21 established cat breeds and four breed regions. So they compare your cat’s DNA to their genomic database of each of these four groups and the breeds within the four groups as follows:
| Region | Breeds |
|---|---|
| Western | American Shorthair, Abyssinian, Maine Coon, Norwegian Forest Cat, Ragdoll, Russian Blue Siberian |
| Eastern | Birman, Burmese, Oriental Shorthair |
| Exotic | Bengal, Egyptian Mau, Savannah |
| Persian | British Shorthair, Exotic Shorthair, Himalayan, Persian |
They will then give you a percentage rating of what group to which your cat most likely belongs. Then, they would provide the closest genetic matches within that group and narrow it down to two main contributing breeds.
Not only that, they can trace your Maine Coon mystery to its most likely ancestor from the wild such as cheetahs, Cougars, leopards, and tigers, which is super cool!
Why Can’t a Cat DNA Test Prove Your Cat Is a Maine Coon?
It’s important to note that these DNA test types offered by companies such as Basepaws are not verification tests and will not tell you whether your cat is a purebred Maine Coon. Pedigreed animals need three or more generations of proven ancestry registered with your chosen pedigree cat association, such as The International Cat Association (TICA) or the CFA.
However, isolating your cat’s genetic history is complex because felines lack the enormous database available in dog DNA. It comes down to the infuriating and fascinating nature of the feisty feline. Cats were only beneficial when humankind started putting down roots and abandoning their nomadic lifestyle for settlements and agriculture.
Dogs, on the other hand, have a long history of being useful to humankind and thus have been purpose-bred for thousands of years. Meanwhile, aloof and independent kitties have been doing their own thing. Most modern pedigree cats emerged as recently as 150 years ago—of which most of the controlled breeding took place over the past 50 years.
Cats earned their place eliminating pests and vermin from human settlements and food stores, but they hardly required training to do so and so were free to choose their mating partners with very little human interference.
Dogs had several vital uses to humankind, and they began to breed dogs with particular abilities, such as hunting or herding, tens of thousands of years ago. This long history of purpose-driven dog breeding has yielded distinct genetic markers identifying variations between dog breeds.
Thus, the recent attention to selective cat breeding has resulted in a lack of distinct genetic markers that identify variations that distinguish between cat breeds. Additionally, feline genetics is a relatively new study area with comparatively little funding and importance in science.
While groundbreaking studies in feline genetics have only reached a domestic cat genome count in the low hundreds, canine genome studies are in the tens of thousands. So, although these companies can provide fairly accurate genetic similarities, you will not get 100% verified feline ancestry.
Other Great Companies for Feline DNA Analyses
Trying to figure out how to tell if your cat is part Maine Coon? Here are some other highly-rated DNA test options.
Are Mixed Maine Coons Healthier Than Pure Breeds?
The Maine Coon Breed shows quite a large percentage of genetic diversity in comparison to other older purebred bloodlines. For example, Cattery Macadamia reports that the Maine Coon retained 34% diversity in 2020, while some breeds, such as the Burmese, have critically low genetic diversity.
Diversity is a good thing, as older, more established breeds often suffer due to the effects of inbreeding, which can enhance the possibility of genetic health issues. Narrowed diversity in the gene pool can cause several issues in cats, such as the following:
- It influences a particular breed’s chances of long-term survival
- It affects the breed’s long-term fitness and adaptation
- Produces low sperm quality
- Decreased litter size
- Increases kitten mortality
- Increases susceptibility to disease and parasites
How To Tell if Your Majestic Feline is a Mix？
1. Tough Guys ‘n Gals: Big Maine Feline General Appearance
The Maine Coon is a working breed that can bear the cold Maine winters where some winters average 14℉ (- 10℃). Thus, they are a rugged, muscular breed, larger than the average domestic cat by almost double (or more in some cases). The appearance is balanced and solid and quite unlike the sleek seriousness of the oriental breeds.
2. Fashion: Coats
The Maine Coon coat is rather distinctive all-weather fur with a slight undercoat and smoothly falling hair. The Coon often boasts a shaggy ruff under and around the neck and onto the chest. This leonine fur is often shorter on the shoulders and longer around the tummy and legs and is often a way to know if your cat is part Maine Coon.
Coat Color is, unfortunately, not a great way to tell if your cat is a Maine Coon mix, as they come in over 75 colors, according to the CFA. However, the tabby pattern is the most common colored coat, and the primary solid coat colors are:
- White
- Black
- Blue
- Red
- Cream
The Maine coon also comes in designs such as the following:
- Tabby (classic mackerel and ticked
- Patched Tabby or Torbies in several colors
- Parti-Colors such as Tortoiseshell, Blue Cream, and Calico
- Smoked and Shaded varieties such as Chinchilla, Cameo, and Smoke
- Bi-color such as the solid coats above and white
3. The Viking Gaze: Eyes
Maine Coons have a haughty imperious gaze with wide-set and expressive, open oval-shaped eyes. The outer corners of the eye tend to taper towards the outer ear. Their eyes are typically the following colors:
- Green or green-gold
- Copper
- Blue or odd eyes in white-coated Maine Coons
4. A Stately Head: Head Shape, Muzzle, and Chin
The head and muzzle, and chin can tell you how to know if your Maine Coon is a mix. The Coon has a rather stately head with high cheekbones and a squared muzzle. The Coon’s non-nonsense muzzles aren’t pointed or tapered like so many other cat breeds but squared off with a Brad Pitt appeal. The chin says it all with the Maine Coon Johnny bravo look and firmly lined up with the upper lip.
5. Lend Me Your Ears: Wildcat Tips
Maine Coon ears are why so many people assumed that the giant breed was the result of a cat-lynx hybrid. Although genetics and basic biology prevent this form from being accurate, the Maine Coons do have remarkable ears.
Most Maine coons have large ears with a broad base and a slight outward tilt. The ears sit relatively high on the head, and the best part is those gorgeous little tufts at their ear tips that snobs call “furnishings,” but many call the “lynx tip.” These wildcat-looking tufts extend past the outer edges of the ear like cute little devil horns.
Here are some gorgeous wild cat ears on some Maine Coons:
6. The End of the Tale: Pride and Blankie
Maine coon generally has a glorious tail that extends the length of its body and culminates in a magnificent fluffy plume to perfect for wrapping around its body and nose when it’s chilly. The Maine coon also holds the record for the world’s longest tail.
Alistair is a five-year-old Coon with a tail of 16.07 inches (40.83 cm). It’s all in the genes for this beautiful Maine Coon, as his brother Cygnus still carries the record for the longest tail ever, 17.58 inches (44.65cm).
Another way to tell if your cat is part Maine Coon is to check out if your kitty shares some of the quirks of this unique breed. Maine Coons are friendly giants who get along well with humans, even the little grabby ones with sticky fingers.
They are loving to their humans but don’t go the Velcro route of many other breeds and harass incessantly for love and attention. They are affectionate but enjoy their “me time” without being aloof.
Other Maine Coon quirks include the following:
1. Water Fetish
Unlike traditional cats, these beauties aren’t afraid of water and will often play with open taps, baths, and their water bowls. Some say that their love of water stems from their seafaring past and their distinctive oily, water-repellent fur.
2. Extra Toes, Anyone?
Some Maine coons have a unique mutation where they have a couple of extra toes on either all four paws or just the hind paws. Bizarrely enough, geneticists linked this to the SSH signaling molecule found in the developing limb bud, which stands for Sonic Hedgehog; I kid you not!
They are polydactyl cats made famous by Ernest Hemingway’s 6-toed Coon beauties.
His cats were so famous his old home in Key West is now a cat museum filled with descendants of these favorite felines.
You can see them in this YouTube link:
3. The Cat’s Meow: How To Chirp and Trill
Instead of the predictable old meow, Maine Coons communicate with their humans by chirping and trilling. This sound is a mixture between a meow and a purr. The best way to describe the sound is my kitty’s “perrrrrrrmow?” And “rrrrrr?” Often addressed as a question, not a statement!
Here’s a beautiful tabby Maine Coon singing for his owner in chirps and trills:
Closing Meows
Unfortunately, there is no surefire way of knowing your mystery cat is a purebred Maine Coon, but you can find out if they are a Maine Coon mix or part Maine Coon. Mixes are often healthier than pedigree lines because they have greater genetic diversity and are less likely to suffer from genetic ill health. Even if your feline is only Maine Coon in part, you are lucky to have your furry friend, who is perfect, just as they are.
