Maine Coon Cats

Learning about Cats

by Joanne Mattern

Satisfy readers of all ages and abilities with this engaging series about cats. Each book highlights the history and special characteristics of a popular cat breed. Plus, a chapter on pet care offers readers hands on information to use with their own feline friend. The accessible text and charming photos are sure to delight any cat lover!

Genres: Animals, Nonfiction, Cats

32 pages, Library Binding

First published September 1, 2000

About the author

Mattern is the author of many books for children. Her favorite topics include animals, biography, and history. She lives in the Hudson Valley of New York State.

Reviews

[Kaylee]

This book contains some basic info about cats in general, as well as some INACCURATE info about Maine Coons. The general info is mostly good, though very basic: cats need something to scratch, you'll need to trim their nails and brush them, spaying and neutering is highly recommended, that sort of thing. Learning about the history of the breed is interesting. But then there's some incorrect info that could be potentially harmful.

Namely, this claim: "On average, males weigh from 13 to 18 lb (5.9 to 8.2 kg) with females weighing from 8 to 12 lb (3.6 to 5.4 kg)." That is INCORRECT. I think maybe this was a copy-paste from another book in the series, from a smaller breed. (Each breed gets its own book; I haven't read the others, but I expect a lot of it is copy-paste, and just has its own photos. They're all by the same author.)

I found two *reliable* sources that agree on these numbers: "Males average 15-25 pounds (6.8-9kg) while females average between 10-15 pounds (4.5-6.8kg), but both sexes can grow even larger."

Sources + a scientific study:
1. https://www.mainecoonfancy.com/maine_...
2. http://www.mainecoonguide.com/how-to-...

If you need additional proof, I also found this scientific study about blood chemistry in adult Maine Coon cat blood donors. The study itself is not important for us, but they surveyed 81 *healthy* Maine Coon cats, and they got:

"The age of the cats ranged from 1-8 years (mean 4.4 years), 42 were female and 39 were male, and weights ranged from 4.9-8.5 kg (mean 6.7 kg)."
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2...

In this group of 81 Maine Coons surveyed, the smallest cat was 4.9kg. When they say "mean 6.7 kg", that refers to the middle-average, and in this case, this was the middle-average of all 81 cats, both males and females, so the males will generally be above that middle-number, and the females will generally be below it.

So we can assume 4.9-6.7kg for a healthy adult female. That's very close to the 4.5-6.8kg offered by the first two sources. And healthy males weigh in at 6.7-8.5kg, which again matches up very closely with the 6.8-9kg offered by the first two sources.

I have seen a skinny, undernourished Coonie as a result of this book, and I am really unhappy that this misinformation is in print and being quoted on the internet.

[Katie Haasch]

Kids book on the cat breed Maine Coon.

[Melanie]

It was fun to learn a little more about our cat Baskerville.