Reality Check

I know, I know…what’s this page about?

It is exactly what is says…a reality check for you…to make sure you REALLY want a Maine Coon.

We don’t want to dissuade you by any means, we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our kitties…we just want to assist you in thinking through everything before you make the decision to bring your new guy or gal home.

In short…Bigger cat = more food, more hair, more grooming, more poop, more cleaning, more climbing and scratching areas! These are just to name a few!

FOOD– These cats are bigger and so, they eat more- please be ready to accommodate with a HIGH quality diet. There are a lot of great foods but also a lot of terrible foods- please do some research and be ready to share what foods you are considering.

HAIR | GROOMING- Here is a major thing people likely don’t give enough thought to…Cats don’t really need baths, right? WRONG! These cats DO! Because of their extremely long coat, they accumulate oils in their coat and this creates a sort of raggedy dirty looking coat when not groomed. At minimum, you should be ready to thoroughly brush your Maine Coon weekly and give a bath once very few months. Pro tip: between baths, you can apply some talc-free baby powder or cornstarch to the coat and then ruffle it in with your fingers and brush it out! This will help absorb the oils and make for a nice looking coat.

POOP– Because they eat more- they poop more! This isn’t really a big deal but they do require larger than normal litter boxes and at least twice a day scooping. Also, because of their very long tail hair, they get poop in their tails from time to time, be ready to help them out with this as needed. If you are lucky enough to live near a cat groomer, you can even have the hair trimmed a bit back there to help prevent this issue entirely!

CLEANING– Well, as stated above, there will be a lot cleaning with the Maine Coon his/herself, but additionally they SHED and track litter around so you will have to do a bit more sweeping and vacuuming in your house to keep it clean.

CLIMBING | SCRATCHING– Because of their size, you will likely need to purchase larger than normal scratching posts/ trees for your Maine Coon. We recommend Cat Tree King. Our contract states there will be NO DECLAWING of any cat coming out of our cattery, it’s a cruel practice, so you’ll need to provide scratching options in every room your cat has access to. This will most likely prevent scratching on furniture etc. But, REALITY CHECK, you are getting a cat…they LIVE to scratch things! So, if you never want anything of yours scratched – please don’t get a cat! If you want to mostly minimize damage, make sure you have ample options for your kitty and they will usually gladly use what you have provided for them. Trees are also important so your kitty is able to get to a “safe place” when they feel they need to get away- especially if you have other animals or children who may be overzealous at times 🙂