Those who want to buy a Maine Coon kitten as a pet, or want to create a cattery, have a very wide choice. This step must be taken responsibly and seriously. You can go to a show, talk to breeders, read about this breed, think. When choosing a kitten for your home, you should not be based on rumors and legends, but on reliable and professional information. Then in the future you will be warmed by friendship and devotion not only of the biggest, but of your most beautiful and beloved cat.

The kitten must be treated patiently and calmly. Careful conversation with the animal and calm, steady movements build the desired trust. Constant loud intonation, sharp movements can make a cat into an excitable and nervous or even an animal that does not allow people to approach it.

From the very beginning, the kitten is taught to a clear order and regimen. Regular feeding, play, daily walks and sleep contribute to the natural rhythm of life of the animal and require only some adaptation from it.

As a rule, Maine Coon kittens accept the game with them with pleasure. Along with this, education takes place in the process of games.

The cat itself takes care of the purity of its body. She regularly licks all the areas that she can reach with a wet tongue, helps with her paws. However, this is not enough, and the owner must regularly comb the Maine Coon's coat, this has a beneficial effect on the general well-being of the animal, hair loss is reduced, the condition of the coat is improved by removing dirt particles, combing matted wool and loosening it.

Use a wide-toothed comb or toothed comb of varying lengths to comb your cat's coat in the direction of hair growth. The main goal is to untangle the tangles. To facilitate the procedure, the wool can be divided into partings and combing in stages. In this case, it is important to comb the wool along its entire length, with the removal of knots (tangles).

Smaller nodules and more thorough combing are the next steps in the procedure. It is carried out with a brush with thicker teeth. At the same time, it is advisable not to use a comb with thick teeth when combing the collar, pants and tail of a cat, because wool in these places is subject to a longer recovery. After untangling the fur, combing is carried out in a certain sequence, so that after it, the cat's fur falling down looks natural, and does not stand on end.

With regular grooming, the cat gets used to all these procedures and even gets a lot of pleasure from them. During the molting period, use a massage brush to comb out dying hairs without regret. At other times, especially before the exhibition, it is recommended to use only a metal comb with long, sparse, rounded teeth. Sprays and conditioners are used depending on the purpose and recommendations of the manufacturer. With their help, your pet's coat gains a healthy, radiant sheen.

Taking care of your skin and coat includes occasionally bathing and washing your cat in warm water. Washing helps to shed dead hair more quickly, improves skin condition, unclogs pores, which promotes the growth of new healthy hair. Maine Coon, not even participating in exhibitions, it is advisable to bathe once every two to three weeks. Unscheduled bathing is indicated for severe pollution, when fighting parasites, a few days before the show. Maine Coon cats are bathed no earlier than 4 hours after eating.

Cats differ from other domestic animals in some biological ways. So, for example, cats are aggressive to rodents, well adapted to environmental conditions, weakly sensitive to electric current. Therefore, getting a cat under a "short circuit" does not necessarily end with its death. Some time after release from the current, the cat comes to life.

Normally, the body temperature of an adult Maine Coon ranges from 38.0 to 39.5 °C, in kittens these indicators are higher. Already at a young age, a cat should be taught to measure temperature. A thermometer smeared with petroleum jelly or some kind of fat, carefully so as not to cause pain to the animal, is inserted into the anus at 1/2-1/3 of its length. Having accustomed a cat to this at an early age, it is possible in the future within 10 days, registering temperature indicators, to establish its individual temperature.

The pulse is measured by pressing a finger on the femoral artery located on the inner side of the thigh, as well as by heartbeat, usually it is 100-120 beats per minute. The respiratory rate is 20-30; in young Maine Coons, it reaches 40 respiratory movements per minute. Don't be alarmed if your pet breathes with an open mouth. This is most likely due to arousal of the animal or an increase in ambient temperature. This is how the cat normalizes its heat exchange.

Adult Maine Coons sleep up to 16 hours a day, while they mostly doze in a special, "cat" nap. After all, they are predators, they have no herd instinct. The cat guards, catches, eats and sleeps. She doesn't need to do anything else besides this. Aging cats sleep less than younger cats, they are less active and more often just rest rather than sleep. A sleep-deprived cat becomes irritable, her appetite disappears, but her activity increases greatly. This happens infrequently, cats do not suffer from insomnia. Sleepiness comes unexpectedly due to warm weather or overeating. Moreover, it can precede the illness. However, if your cat sleeps an hour more per day, you are unlikely to notice. Even with a fever, the Maine Coon sometimes sleeps, comfortably lounging or sitting upright and motionless, like a sphinx.

Maine Coons choose cool places to sleep, they do not like warm bedding and closed houses. If the Maine Coon does not have the opportunity to walk in a cool aviary, he will prefer to sleep in your bed, sleeping on cool tiles, on a windowsill, in a sink or in a bathroom. Like all large animals, Maine Coons must have free space for movement.

The Maine Coon cat breed is such that they have an amazing sense of touch. They love to be stroked on the coat, and sometimes they themselves look for this affection, but if you stroke it too hard or against the coat, it will cause discontent in the animal. Another feature of cats is their dislike for sweets.

Cats have an excellent sense of smell, which is manifested when animals communicate with each other, when males mark their territory. Some odors influence the behavior of cats in a certain way, for example, smelling the urine of a female "in the hunt", the cat freezes, stretches its neck and, opening its mouth, wrinkles its upper lip. Likewise, many cats react to the smell of catnip. The substance contained in this plant causes 50 percent of cats to be intoxicated, and they stomp on it, rub, roll on the ground, as if before mating, meowing and getting very excited.

There are odors that turn off cats, such as the oil from the leaves of the aromatic bush, rue. The leaves of this plant ward off cats and even cause rashes on sensitive skin. Another remedy is regular onions or garlic. By rubbing a raw onion over a place that needs to be protected from "cat litter", you can permanently get rid of the animal's attention to this corner of the house. The third remedy is vinegar. Cats literally hate him. The sour-tart specific aroma irritates their delicate nasal passages, so they carefully bypass the place "where at least one drop of vinegar evaporates".

Well, about the favorite smell of cats has already been said many times, and their attraction to the cat root (maun) is well known. In medicine, this root is called Valerian officinalis. If a cat finds such a plant, then she cannot move away from it, and in this case the instinct of attraction prevails over the instinct of affection for the owner. The owner is not able to lead away and distract the cat, which instantly relaxes, lies down, becomes numb, rolls from side to side. This feature of cats is still unclear. It is only known that, possessing a strong, peculiar smell and a spicy, bittersweet taste, valerian has a magical effect on all representatives of the cat family.

Cats have binocular vision. Their eyes are large, unblinking. They turn their heads to look directly at what interests them. The eyes are designed so that they can refract a light beam emanating from a source at night. Perhaps anyone knows how cats' eyes glow in the dark. In the inner corner of the eye, you can see the blinking membrane, or the third eyelid, which serves to cleanse the cornea of the eye from dust, protects the eyes from injury or when moving in a thorny bush. Since the eyesight of cats is very strong, and the eyeball is constantly at work, it is constantly washed abundantly with a tear, which is released quite a lot for such animals.

The eyes of cats are positioned so that their fields of view are superimposed on one another, giving a stereoscopic image (unlike animals, whose eyes are located on the sides of the head and register two different images). Each eye has a viewing angle of about 205° and is able to accurately estimate the distance to any object. There are not as many color receptors in cat eyes as in human eyes. Cats are less able to see motionless or close objects. The twilight gives the cat tremendous benefits. The iris of the eyes opens until the pupil is completely round, letting in the maximum amount of light. This allows her to see in what we would call pitch darkness. But in complete darkness, the cat still does not see.

When it's time to feed your cat, look closely into her eyes. If she is hungry, then the moment a bowl of food appears, her pupils will dilate. The vertical slits will turn into dark circles in which the expectation of the animal is unmistakable. More often, the change in the size of the pupils depends on the illumination. The more light enters the eyes, the more the pupils contract — to vertical slits, and when the illumination decreases, they expand, becoming round dark "puddles". This happens throughout the day, when the animal goes from light to shadow and returns back to the illuminated place.

The distance to the object of observation also affects the pupils of the cat: the closer it is, the more the pupils narrow; when the object is in the distance, the size of the pupils hardly changes. This change is often overlooked, believing that the whole thing is again in the illumination. There are also two very different types of mood changes in which a cat's pupils dilate significantly. If you notice a sudden dilation of the cat's pupils without any change in illumination and regardless of the distance to the object, then the animal is experiencing a strong emotional shock at the moment. It can be pleasant, as, for example, when a bowl of favorite food appears, or unpleasant when the figure of a large aggressive enemy appears. In both cases, the pupils are enlarged from their usual size, as if in an attempt to increase the flow of information about the object of interest.

In addition to changing the size of the pupils, mood can be signaled by how wide open or, conversely, how tightly closed the eyes are. In an alert cat, the eyes are completely open, and this condition is always observed in the presence of strangers, whom the cat does not really trust. If her eyes are half-closed, this means complete relaxation. The cat's eyes are completely closed only in two cases: when the animal is asleep or when the cat is absolutely peaceful. When two cats fight, the losing bout turns away from the winner and closes her eyes. This is mainly a defensive action, an attempt to save the eyes, but also a way to relieve tension. The winner regards such actions as a sign of surrender.

It matters for a cat and a long look with wide eyes. It is a visual signal that means aggressiveness. In other words, when a person looks at a cat in their usual manner, it perceives it as a threat. But we like to watch the animal, to admire it. The solution is simple: stare at the cat when it is not looking at you. So, by a slight compromise, you can improve the relationship with your pet, and the cat will feel much calmer and more confident.

Maine Coons live on average from 10 to 12 years, but some animals live up to 20 years. In older animals, corresponding signs are noticeable, for example, loss of teeth, hair, etc. Determining the age of a cat is difficult, since signs of grinding of teeth, changes in the lens, coat color are not as noticeable as, for example, in dogs.

Maine Coon cats reach sexual maturity at the age of 8 months. Cats become sexually mature usually at 5-9 months of age. Without harm to health, cats can produce offspring, starting from the age of 1 year, no more than once in eight months. Maine Coons are also distinguished by the peculiarity in the mating of sexually mature individuals, which, like other animals, occurs during the hunt of the female, however, the period of hunting in cats is short and the cat is "given" to the male with some difficulty. Only his continued courtship leads to success. During the peak of sexual arousal, the female does not resist cage and coitus. The cat, being on the back of the female, is fixed in one position with all four limbs (claws), and with its teeth for the mating period, it firmly grabs the cat by the scruff of the neck. Another feature of Maine Coon mating is privacy from people. Maine Coons are multifarious breeds, bringing on average 5-6 kittens.