Coat Colors and Patterns

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If a Maine Coon cat isn't genetically black, than it is...red!  

Our sweet Jolene is a lovely example of a red classic red tabby Maine Coon. What is rare is that Jolene is a girl, whereas most red tabby cats are males! Buy why?!

Red females are hard for Mother Nature to produce. When she does, it's because both parent cats are red or carry red in their coat. 

To keep nature interesting, the red gene somehow overrides the solid gene in cats so that even solid red Maine Coons show some tabby markings on their legs and face. The big giveaway that a cat is red solid and not red tabby is the absence of the light-colored rings around the eyes and at the chin. A solid red cat will be red in all these areas (unlike Jolene).

 In a tabby Maine Coon cat (irrespective of which tabby pattern), an extra gene called the Inhibitor gene creates a silver tabby coat by suppressing the pigmentation in the lighter-colored hair bands. The black or red stripes will still appear black or red, but the alternating, lighter-colored stripes will be light silver or almost white. Our boy, Oscar, is a spectacular example of a black-silver classic tabby Maine Coon cat, who also has the white spotting gene (giving him white paws and a white chest).

• A black (brown) tabby cat will be a black-silver (classic, ticked, mackerel, spotted) tabby, like our King Oscar. 
• A blue tabby cat will be a blue silver (classic, ticked, mackerel, spotted) tabby. 
• A red tabby cat will be a red silver (classic, ticked, mackerel, spotted) tabby called a cameo in CFA. 
• A cream tabby cat will be a cream silver (classic, ticked, mackerel, spotted) tabby. 

At Maine Street Coons, we simply adore the look of a cat “with white,” including white mittens, a white ruff, and a white belly, face, or torso. We find that the contrast between the colored coat and the white patches creates visual interest and see something angelic in the expression of a Maine Coon "with white" that just makes us swoon! Thankfully, the white spotting gene is not associated with hearing loss. Maine Coon cats with white will typically have white mittens, like our beautiful black silver classic tabby with white girl, Joni Mitchell, pictured here at 11 weeks.

The gene that makes a cat appear solid white is a masking gene that hides the cat's actual color underneath. Because this gene is associated with hearing loss and total deafness, we have made the decision not to breed solid white cats at Maine Street Coons. Pictured here is one of our pet girls, Kattarose Penny Lane of MaineStCoons.