Want to Breed Maine Coon Cats? Are You Nuts?

Unless you are committed to having your life and your bank accounts revolve around cats, breeding Maine Coon cats can be a nightmare. Of course, you should never breed Maine Coon cats if you can avoid it. Although they are in demand, there are still far too many winding up euthanized in shelters every year. When I was in elementary school, we bred our Maine Coons - once. Then, we got them neutered as soon as possible.

What A Deal!

Why did we breed our pedigreed Maine Coons? Because the breeder of the female gave us an offer we couldn't refuse. Maine Coon kittens cost hundreds of dollars. My Dad wanted a Maine Coon for years and, after Melanie, his favorite mixed-breed cat, died, only a Maine Coon was good enough to follow in Melanie's paw prints.

If we bred two Maine Coons and gave the breeder the first litter, then we could keep the male and the female for free. Sounded great! What could go wrong?

Just about everything.

Breeding Quality Vs Show Quality Cats

There are three levels of cats in the cat show world pet quality, breeding quality and show quality. Our Maine Coons were breeding quality. They did not look like the mighty, fluffy felines we had fallen in love with in "Cat Fancy" magazine and at area cat shows. The kittens we were given were sickly, neurotic, well smaller than average -- yet had supposedly impeccable bloodlines.

We were blinded with love and determined to make the best of a bad situation. Although we knew the female, Misty, in particular was unhealthy, we had already bonded with her and wanted to keep from giving her back to the breeder. We knew no one else but us could see Misty's special qualities.

Misty became pregnant at about eight months of age and would be tiny, sickly and have a raggedy coat for the rest of her life. She gave all of her health to her kittens, which amazingly were perfectly healthy and grew larger than their mother or their father.

Courting Kitties

The tom cat, or stud cat in Maine Coons yells, murmurs, chirps and yowls non-stop whenever a female in heat is nearby. No ear plugs can drown that out. Not only that, he sprays urine to mark his territory everywhere in the house including your legs if you don't move fast enough. Nothing except time can get rid of the reek of stud cat pee. It's difficult to groom out of the Maine Coon's long, dense coat, too.

Who Gets The Kittens?

When the kittens finally came all five of them we were warned time and time again not to fall in love with them, because we had to give them away in order to keep Rocky and Misty. So, of course, we fell in love with them. Maine Coon kittens are, arguably, the cutest kittens on Earth, with just the right balance of fluffiness and chubbiness. This hurt the most.

Luckily, all five of the kittens received loving homes. But, having to give them up still gives me bad dreams. I never got to meet any of the kittens' owners. They never wrote us to update us on the kittens' lives. I hope they had good ones.

Other Tips

Your pregnant Maine Coon needs plenty of trips to the vet, which is expensive. You should schedule a trip to your vet a few days after birth. The kittens also need their first shots at eight weeks of age. When she's pregnant, your cat needs vast amounts of nutritious food, including chicken liver, raw eggs beaten with sugar and milk and lean chicken. Misty needed to eat in the middle of delivery to give her the strength to keep on going.

If you can, let Dad play with and socialize with the kittens. Maine Coons are more like lions sometimes than cats in that they have a sense of family. The father can help take the load off of Mom and let her have a break. Mom will eventually wean the kittens herself. By then, please schedule an appointment with your vet to get her spayed.