Thread: Opinions And Insight: Maine Coon Breeders

Originally Posted by NCarver

The trouble and expense and potential danger (to kitten) of importing a MC from Norway seems extremely unnecessary when there so many MC breeders in the US. Normally only a breeder would import such a cat for some specific purpose (look, line, etc.). There are lots of sites that list MC breeders. E.g., the MCBFA lists 5 breeder members in Texas:
MCBFA Members

Looked at Congocoons a while back when somebody else mentioned it. Person is breeding for a specific and frankly nonstandard MC look. I personally don't like the look, but that is obviously up to you (as long as you do not intend to show). As already noted, didn't see much about health testing. With many breeders in the US doing heart and other health testing it is safest to stick with those breeders, although some long-established breeders know their lines well enough that it is very unlikely there will be problems (however you will have to take their word on that since you won't know all about their history).

As an example of health info, I looked at Nascat (Houston) from the MCBFA list and find this on their website:


The Nascat site is what I would consider very professional, with pedigree and health info for each of the breeding cats, e.g,: Nascat Maine Coons (a beautiful example of a female MC I might add--click on her Helmi Flick photo)

Is importing pets not a common practice? I know it's often done with dogs, especially with the bigger bully breeds, but I'm new to cat breeding as a whole.

But as I mentioned above, the look abroad wasn't intentional. I google searched "Blue Maine Coon", looked through google images, and a few of the Spellbound cats were featured. I looked through their cattery, fell in love with their cats, and contacted them.

I don't know if it's just me, but I prefer the "wild look" to the cleaner look. That's another reason I'm attracted to the above two breeders. I'll contact Nascat though.