Thread: Can somebody tell me if my kitten is a Maine Coon?

Originally Posted by Antonia

Also, thanks for all the links. The Pawpeds pages I already knew, and the other two are very interesting. I like the TICA Seminar with all the pictures... especially the last page about the 'tongue standard'.

Guess they had to standardize everything somebody thought was important.

Here is a link to the original of these seminars that includes one for CFA that uses some different photos:
Maine Coon Seminar

Originally Posted by Antonia

Do I get it right that you don't expect the MC to develop into a more 'extreme' type? Perhaps that would be for the best... although I find that look utterly fascinating, it does carry tremendous risks to selectively breed for certain features.

People seem to be forgetting that the Maine Coon is supposed to be a "natural breed" rather than one that came about through human selective breeding. If you assume the breed standards represent a reasonable composite of the original long-haired cats found in Maine, then breeding cats that do not adhere to these standards effectively means that you are no longer breeding "Maine Coons." Some people might perhaps prefer a different look and that is fine, but I would consider that to mean that they don't really like the look of "Maine Coon" cats but rather some new--human produced--breed. I see no evidence that huge ears and muzzles are natural. I would expect there would be significant problems for cats with very large ears trying to live through Maine winters. In fact if you go back to really early pictures of cats from Maine, I think you will find that their ears are generally smaller than today's standard MC look. So breeding cats with even larger ears and still calling the cat a Maine Coon?

Furthermore, while people describe big ears and muzzles as "more feral looking," if one looks up photos of the African Wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica or just Felis lybica) from which all domestic cats are now known to be descended, you will find that they do not have giant ears or muzzles. So breeding for large ears and muzzles is pretty clearly human manipulation--certainly not getting the MC closer to its roots.