5 Maine Coon myths that make owners ruin their cats' health

No owner harms their cat on purpose. The harm usually comes from the best of intentions: spoiling the cat with food, feeling sorry for him and letting him out, not dragging him to the vet without a reason.

Here are the five beliefs we hear most often, and where they lead.

Myth 1. "The Maine Coon is a hardy breed, nothing can go wrong"

The breed really is hardy. But every breed that has been bred for several decades has its own list of hereditary problems, and for the Maine Coon every item on it has a name: hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, pyruvate kinase deficiency, spinal muscular atrophy and hip dysplasia. The first three are picked up by a DNA test, the fourth by X-ray.

The breed's main diagnosis is treacherous because it runs without symptoms for a long time. The cat looks healthy, plays and eats, while the wall of the left ventricle is quietly thickening. Sometimes the very first sign is a thromboembolism.

Breeders test both parents before mating and give them a heart scan every year. A DNA test alone isn't enough: the known mutation doesn't explain every case, and there is also a form of the disease that has nothing to do with it.

For the owner, this comes down to one thing: a heart scan once a year from about the age of three. It's the one check-up that everyone who lives with a Maine Coon should put in the calendar.

Myth 2. "A real Coon weighs twelve kilos, and the bigger the better"

A healthy male weighs six to nine kilos, a female four to six and a half. Anything well above that means excess weight, not outstanding breed type.

Three extra kilos on a big frame mean strain on the hips, breathlessness after play and a harder time under anaesthesia for any operation. In cats, obesity leads to diabetes and fatty liver disease (hepatic lipidosis).

Weight goes on especially fast after neutering: the metabolism slows down but the portion stays the same. In six months a calm cat becomes a heavy one, and the owner only notices when the change is visible at a glance.

That's why catteries work out portions by weight and cut them straight after the operation, without waiting for it to show. Body condition is checked by hand: you can feel the ribs under the coat without pressing, and from above there's a visible waist behind the ribs.

Incidentally, the judge in the show ring doesn't weigh the cat either: they look at the rectangular body, the width of the chest and the bone. Excess weight spoils exactly that impression, because the proportions get lost.

Myth 3. "A cat needs to go outside, it's only natural"

On average, a pet cat that roams outdoors has a noticeably shorter life than an indoor one, and the difference is measured in years.

The reasons are mundane: cars, dogs, infections caught from street cats, antifreeze and rat poison. A Maine Coon is also big and eye-catching, which is a drawback outdoors: a cat like that is more likely to fall prey to people than to dogs.

Windows are a story of their own. An insect screen won't hold a cat: it falls out together with him. All the more so with a nine-kilo cat, and "mine doesn't jump" holds true right up to the first pigeon outside the glass.

In catteries every single window has a cat-proof screen on a metal frame, and some contracts with buyers include this as a separate clause.

If you want to give your cat the outdoors, there are safe ways to do it: a harness he has been trained to wear, a fenced enclosure, or a balcony that is fully netted in.

Myth 4. "Milk and fish are what cats eat"

The picture from children's books has lasted for decades.

Most adult cats can't digest lactose: the enzyme that breaks it down is produced in kittens and almost disappears with age. Cow's milk usually ends in an upset stomach. If you really want to give your cat a treat, there's lactose-free milk for cats.

Fish is more complicated. Fish as a regular part of the diet causes several problems at once: too much phosphorus and magnesium hits the urinary tract, which is a weak spot in a neutered male anyway. Raw freshwater fish contains an enzyme that destroys vitamin B1, and it carries parasites.

Boiled boneless fish once every couple of weeks won't do any harm, but as the basis of the diet it will.

Catteries feed a complete commercial food or a properly calculated home-made diet based on meat, even if the cat would rather have something else.

The same "seems harmless" list includes cheese, sausage, sweets, onion and garlic. And lilies are deadly poisonous to cats, every part of the plant, pollen included.

Myth 5. "If the cat isn't complaining, everything's fine"

This is the most dangerous of the five beliefs, because it sounds logical.

Cats hide pain for as long as they possibly can. It's an evolutionary mechanism: an animal that shows weakness becomes prey. By the time the owner sees that "something's wrong", the problem has usually been going on for a long while.

So you have to go by indirect signs: the cat jumps less, no longer jumps up to places he used to, sleeps longer than usual, eats more slowly, doesn't groom himself as well. People put all of this down to age and character.

Breeders have a calendar for this: a yearly check-up with vaccination and parasite treatment, a yearly heart scan from the age of three, and after seven, a blood biochemistry panel and a full blood count to catch age-related kidney changes before any symptoms appear.

Once a month, count your cat's breathing rate while he's asleep; it costs nothing. More than thirty breaths a minute at rest means it's time to see the vet.

And if something about your cat's health has changed, start by messaging the breeder you got him from. They know the line and what his relatives have suffered from, and a couple of questions are often enough for them to tell what's normal for his age from a real problem. You'll then arrive at the vet with the cat's history rather than a blank page.

What all five have in common

Each of these myths is convenient: not testing is easier than testing, pouring out a bit extra feels nicer than measuring, and letting the cat out into the yard sounds like freedom. What sets a cattery apart from an ordinary owner isn't love of animals but the fact that the breeder has seen what all five myths do to real cats.

We cover hereditary diseases and HCM in detail in separate articles. Our breeding cats' test results are open to everyone on the Females and Males pages, and the vaccination schedule is described in Cat vaccination.

Home in Raksi Maine Coon cattery, St Petersburg. You can see our kittens on the Kittens page, and you're welcome to ask questions in our VK group (in Russian).