Maine Coon Grooming

About the Maine Coon

The Maine Coon carries a genuine double coat: a dense insulating undercoat with a longer, coarser, water shedding top coat over it, plus a heavy ruff at the chest, tufted ears and a full plumed tail. It was a working farm cat in a cold climate and the coat is doing the job it was built for.

That makes it a different proposition from a Persian, and confusing the two is the most common mistake with this breed. A Persian coat is fine and silky with little undercoat. A Maine Coon coat is coarser on top and dense underneath, it is less prone to felting, and it sheds far more.

It also means the rules that apply to a Golden Retriever apply here, which is unusual to say about a cat and is exactly the point.

What a full groom involves

Closer to a deshedding appointment than a haircut, which is the same shape as the appointment a double coated dog gets.

A comb and rake through dry first, working the ruff, the trousers, behind the ears and the belly, which is where this coat actually needs attention. Then a bath, which many Maine Coons tolerate surprisingly well, using a shampoo that lifts the undercoat and a conditioner to help it release.

Then the dry, which is the part that does the work. A dryer on a low setting drives the loosened undercoat out of the coat while it dries, and the amount that comes out of a Maine Coon is startling the first time. The coat has to come out genuinely dry: this is a dense coat and damp undercoat left against the skin mats and, on a cat, can cause skin trouble.

Then combing again to remove what has been freed, and the detail work: nails, ears, the sanitary area trimmed, and the hair between the pads taken out, which on this breed grows in generous tufts.

Around an hour and a half, and less than a Persian because the coat is less prone to felting.

How often, and what happens if you stretch it

Combed at home every few days and professionally every six to eight weeks, with more attention during a seasonal shed. Maine Coons blow coat like any double coated animal, usually heaviest in spring, and it is a substantial event on a cat this size.

Stretching it produces accumulation rather than an immediate crisis. Undercoat that should have come out stays in, and retained undercoat is what mats. So a Maine Coon left for months is not usually pelted the way a Persian would be, but it is carrying a felted layer in the ruff, the armpits and the trousers, and it is shedding into your house all of it.

The specific risk on this breed is the britches and the tail. A long plumed tail and heavy trousers pick up litter and waste, and a Maine Coon that has become less flexible with age or weight stops managing that area first.

As with any cat, weight gain, arthritis or dental pain will accelerate everything, because all three reduce how much of itself the cat can reach.

The coat problems a Maine Coon actually gets

Shedding is the biggest one and there is no grooming decision that stops it. This is a large cat with a dense undercoat and it produces a genuinely impressive volume of hair. What grooming changes is where it ends up: combed out and disposed of, or on your furniture and swallowed by the cat.

Hairballs follow directly from that, because everything a cat pulls out it swallows. On a coat this size that is a lot of hair, and combing is a more effective answer than any dietary product because hair removed by a comb is never ingested. Repeated unproductive retching, lethargy or a cat that stops eating is a veterinary emergency rather than a hairball.

Matting, where it happens, is in the ruff, the armpits, the trousers and behind the ears, and it is undercoat rather than top coat. Check by pushing the coat backward and looking at the skin rather than running a brush over the top.

And the same absolute rule as every other cat: never cut a mat out with scissors. Cat skin lifts into a fold under a mat and sits directly where the blade goes, and the resulting injuries are common, long and serious.

What moves the price

Size, unusually for a cat. A twenty pound Maine Coon is a substantial animal to bathe, dry and handle, and it takes noticeably longer than an average cat.

Coat condition second. A maintained coat is a comb and a deshed; a felted one takes far longer and may need clipping in places.

Whether it is a seasonal shed, third. The same cat in April and in November is two different appointments.

And temperament, which with cats is a larger factor than with dogs. Maine Coons have a reputation for being easygoing and many are, but a large cat that objects is a large cat that objects, and a good groomer prices for time rather than rushing.

Then scarcity: fewer salons take cats at all, and that shows.

What to tell your groomer

Say the weight, because it genuinely changes the booking. A twenty five pound cat needs a different amount of time and sometimes a different pair of hands than an eight pound one.

Ask for a deshed rather than a haircut. This coat is not clipped as a matter of routine, and a groomer who reaches for clippers on a healthy Maine Coon coat is not the right groomer.

If the cat is genuinely matted and a clip is proposed, that is a different conversation and it is reasonable. A cat coat does not carry the regrowth risk a dog's double coat does, so a clip to resolve matting is recoverable. It is a fix rather than a routine.

Ask whether they work without sedation, whether the cat can be kept away from dogs, and what they do when a cat has had enough. Any cat groomer will have an answer.

And mention any change in weight or mobility. It is the single best predictor of what the coat is about to do.

Keeping the coat between grooms

Common Questions About the Maine Coon