This has been one of the best experiences. Thank you for breeding such a great companion. Look forward to years with this guy."
David Phillips l Lapine, Alabama
Our Breeding Goals
Health
Temperament
Temperament
Excellent health is the cornerstone of our Maine Coon breeding program. Without a deep commitment to raising healthy cats, there is nothing else.
At Maine Street Coons, every breeding cat goes through a comprehensive genetic (DNA) and medical evaluation to ensure they are able to produce robust, long-living kittens.
When choosing a breeder, DNA testing alone is not enough! We partner with a multi-disciplinary team of licensed veterinarians who perform the following tests on our cats and kittens at appropriate intervals based on their age and health status.
- Catscan Genetic (DNA) Screening
- Feline Upper Respiratory PCR
- Fecal flotation screenings
- RealPCR Fecal Panel
- FeLV/FIV Combo test
- Comprehensive blood work
- Annual Echocardiograms
- HD-Screening by X-Ray
Once your kitten is born, our licensed veterinarian will see them for comprehensive wellness exams at 6, 9, and 12 weeks of age, or sooner if an issue arises.
Our vet practice dispenses all medications and preventatives, administers all vaccines, and inserts our microchips.
We do not take a DIY approach to veterinary medicine!
We let our skilled veterinary team do what they do best, and we stick to what we do best, which is raising incredibly happy, healthy, outgoing Maine Coon kittens that make people's dreams come true.
Because we are so thorough when it comes to health and wellness, we stand behind the health of our Maine Coon kittens for a full five-years, offering the hobby's most generous genetic health guarantee.
Temperament
Temperament
Temperament
An incredible, outgoing, affectionate personality is the calling card of well-bred, quality Maine Coon kittens and that's the result of the unique way we do things around here.
You see, a Maine Coon cat's temperament is impacted by both nature and nurture, meaning it is partially inherited from the parents and then cemented through habituation and socialization by humans and other animals.
For this reason, every Maine Coon we select to be a parent cat has a phenomenal temperament.
We have literally spent more than $10,000 to acquire, transport, and health test a potential breeding cat, only to spay or neuter them because their temperament was not up to our exceptionally high standard. When people talk about our cats, we want their exceptionally loving nature to be one of the first things out of their mouth.
Working with great genes, we fill every Maine Coon kitten's early life experience with safe, rewarding, and confidence-building exposure to people, other animals, new environments, and the sights, smells, and sounds of a busy household.
We are present at every birth, helping Mama Cat dry and feed her newborns.
We hand supplement all babies every 2-3 hours from birth to three weeks, constantly soothing them, telling them stories, and singing them to sleep. As soon as it's safe for them, we welcome our vaccinated kittens into the main parts of the house, where they are an active part of the everyday hustle and bustle of our busy home and cattery. They enjoy our frequent visitors, love to ride in a car, and make us so proud with the way they behave in a variety of new situations!
As a result, Maine Street Coons' kittens leave us to go to their new homes happy, well-adjusted, curious, affectionate, charismatic, confident, outgoing, and gentle-natured. We even go so far as to perform a personalized temperament assessment on every kitten which we will go over and give you prior to collecting your kitten deposit.
Type
Temperament
Type
Type is a fancy term in the cat hobby that defines the way a purebred cat is supposed to look according to the written breed standard.
We may be biased, but there is nothing more beautiful than a well-bred Maine Coon cat! According to TICA's written breed standard, and in keeping with the God-given characteristics of these indigenous longhaired American cats, a well-bred Maine Coon adult cat of great type will possess:
- A well-defined, square, and proportionally balanced muzzle
- A slightly concave profile with visible chin depth and no hard stops or bumps in the profile (like the back of a spoon)
- Large, wide-set, expressive eyes, oval and somewhat oblique
- Pointed, well-tufted ears set at 11 and 1 on the top of the head, about one ear width apart
- Lynx tips that create a tapered or pointed appearance at the end of the ear, without being distracting
- An overall beautiful, naturally wild (non-feral) expression
- Substantial (heavy) boning
- A large rectangular body
- A solid, muscular, balanced build
- A shiny, shaggy flowing coat with a highly desirable gorgeous ruff and skirting around the body
- A long, tapered, flowing tail, roughly equal to the length of the body, that puts on a show of its own
Maine Coons that adhere to the breed standard and go on to win champion titles in the show hall will not have:
- Overly exaggerated features including rabbit ears that are too long or set too closely together
- Ears that are "falling" off the sides of the head
- Eyes that are set too narrow or too wide on the face
- Eyes that are deep set in the face, increasing the risk of Entropion
- A narrow chin that is not as wide as the upper jaw and does not complete the square look of the muzzle from the front
- A "shallow" chin (lower jaw) that is less than 1/3 of the total height of the muzzle
- A short chin that falls short of the end of the upper jaw and fails to form a proper "box" shape when looking at the cat's profile
- A straight slope from the top of the skull to the end of the nose
- A bump in the nose bridge or a Roman nose
- An overly elongated back that is disproportionate to the length of the legs or creates a sag
- Small or fragile boning
- A short coat or tail
- Blue eyes (except in white cats)
Our Committment to Health Testing
Excellent health is the foundation of our Maine Coon breeding program.
Part of being an ethical Maine Coon breeder is constantly working to improve the overall health and quality of life of the breed we love. Our four-part comprehensive health testing program lowers the odds of us producing Maine Coon kittens at risk for developing severe, debilitating, or fatal conditions.
1. We first screen every cat or kitten that enters our cattery for infectious and parasitic diseases, while they are in quarantine. This ensures our Maine Coon cattery remains free of FeLV (which causes feline leukemia and some cancers), FIV, another potentially deadly viral infection that suppresses a cat's immune system, ringworm, and other parasitic diseases.
2. We then perform DNA testing on every potential Maine Coon breeding cat before accepting them into our program, a standard best practice for any ethical Maine Coon breeder. DNA testing helps us eliminate any Queens and Kings that are carriers of genetic disorders that could affect their Maine Coon kittens, including hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), polycystic kidney disease (PKD), spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), and Pyruvate Kinase Deficiency (PkDef). We use the CatScan genetic panel by Neogen Labs, which we believe to be one of the most accurate and comprehensive feline genetic tests on the market.
3. All our potential breeding cats undergo echocardiograms (heart ultrasounds) by a board-certified cardiologist before being bred and on a routine basis thereafter.
While DNA testing for the HCM1 genetic mutation is very important to help reduce the risk of breeding cats affected by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), ultrasound scans of the heart are the second most crucial line of defense. Some cases of HCM appear spontaneously in cats that are N/N for the HCM1 mutation. Educated breeders and veterinarians know for a fact there are additional genetic mutations that cause this to happen, but they have yet to be pinpointed. Conducting echocardiograms on all Maine Coon cats is critical to find physical changes in the heart structure that occur with HCM in DNA-negative cats, further reducing the risk of unknowingly passing along the fatal disease. Because HCM develops over time, it is important to screen cats every few years over the course of their lifetime, as a cat may test normally at one visit and abnormally a year or two later.
4. We work with our veterinarian and the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) to help identify cats at high risk for developing severe feline hip dysplasia.
Most people think of hip dysplasia as a condition that affects dogs. Still, Maine Coons cats' large build puts these cats at risk of developing this painful condition relatively early in life (usually before the age of five). It is currently estimated that some 35% of Maine Coon cats are affected by hip dysplasia, ranging from mild and without symptoms to severe and debilitating. As a Maine Coon preservation breeder, we are trying to do our part to breed away from HD and improve the breed's overall health. Diagnostic imaging (x-ray) helps us understand the health of our cats' hips (based on OFA's grading scale) and pair breeding cats that, together, will produce Maine Coon kittens at lower risk of inheriting a debilitating form of this condition.
Our Health Testing Partners
Our Veterinarian
Our Partnership with OFA
Our Partnership with OFA
At Maine Street Coons, we have placed the health of our beloved pets in the hands of the experienced and compassionate veterinarians and veterinary staff at Cahaba Valley Animal Clinic for almost 20 years.
Dr. Tony Wright and Dr. Barrett Mann take exceptional care of our cats and kittens, and we are proud to serve as founding members of t
At Maine Street Coons, we have placed the health of our beloved pets in the hands of the experienced and compassionate veterinarians and veterinary staff at Cahaba Valley Animal Clinic for almost 20 years.
Dr. Tony Wright and Dr. Barrett Mann take exceptional care of our cats and kittens, and we are proud to serve as founding members of their Client Advisory Council. Together, we pride ourselves in placing happy, healthy Maine Coon kittens into the loving hands of their new guardians.
Our Partnership with OFA
Our Partnership with OFA
Our Partnership with OFA
The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals provides specialty veterinary reviews of medical diagnostics and imaging to verify the health of Maine Street Coons breeding cats' hips and hearts. Our veterinarians and veterinary cardiologists send hip x-rays and echocardiograms to OFA for their specialists to perform secondary screening for any HCM or hip dysplasia-related issues.
Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.
Anatole France l Nobel Prize Winner l French Poet
