Changeling cat maybe part Maine Coon?

cattleyas2

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A very young female stray showed up at our rural home just before Thanksgiving. She was thin and hungry but obviously a pet. We never were able to find her owners. At that time she was what I would have called brownish black, and a regular domestic longhaired cat. Nine months later she looks like a different cat. She has white tuffs between her paws. Behind her ears are extremely long silver tuffs, and her hair is tipped with silver. She weighs over 9.5 pounds. I've never seen a cat change their appearance so dramatically. The vet said she may be part Maine Coon. Is the transformation common for that breed?

 
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maewkaew

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Those long tufts behind the ears are really wild!  

Maybe the vet was thinking of Maine Coons often having tufts on the tips of the ears?  

 I  don't think that such a color transformation is something especially common to Maine Coons specifically.     and I can't even see her well enough to see if she looks like one. 

 However  a seasonal coat wouldn't be unusual. either in Maine Coons or many other longhair cats.     it may be that part of what is going on is a combination of seasonal change and the cat starting to get better nutrition.     when a cat has a coat that is different layers,  sometimes the undercoat may be a different color  so there can be some color changes depending on whether there is more or less undercoat.  

  Does she have white roots and white undercoat?    The Inhibitor gene ( silver)  can do some pretty wild things.  
 

maewkaew

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Oh!   Also  i just re-read and saw "very young".    So add "growing up and growing adult coat" to the list of things that can cause changes , sometimes even in some color. 

 she may end up growing a big ruff now too.  
 
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cattleyas2

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"Ruff" is a good word for what she has. Her coat is incredibly silky, but mats easily. The earlier picture was to show the extreme tuffs behind her ears. It may just be her age and diet making the difference.


 
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cattleyas2

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It's an incredibly thick coat for a Mississippi summer, but she just keeps getting fluffier and more silver. I looked and it does appear that her undercoat is the silver color. I never realized that before.
 

maewkaew

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OK that white undercoat,  that's explaining some. Now what about the outer coat hairs?  Are they white at the roots ?   ( not just a few but all over).     A Smoke or Silver has not just the white undercoat but the outer coat has white roots.    In a smoke it may be just a bit so you have to part the fur to see it.    That would make her  a Black Smoke . 

 I just wonder what that coat's going to end up like if this is what the cat looks like now in the summer in MS!  

  You are going to need to comb the coat at least every other day.  don't just brush, it usually  does not keep out the mats from the undercoat so well.  Get a grooming comb or combs,  one comb ( or one end of the comb) with the teeth wider apart  and the other comb ( or other end of the comb)  with teeth closer together. 

  For some examples go on  a site with grooming products like petedge  and look at combs and rakes.  

Black is so hard to photograph.  
 
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cattleyas2

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Sometimes I think she is more hair than cat - especially on her belly. She looks fat, because she is so fluffy, but she really isn't.
 
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cattleyas2

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Thanks for grooming advice! I'm looking at grooming combs now. This cat, Dali, is really good about being combed as is Sally Kitty, another of the longhaired cats. The oldest, Mandy, hates it.
 

maewkaew

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  Lucky that at least Dali and Sally Kitty are tolerant about grooming.   Looking at Dali, it is VERY VERY  lucky,  with a coat like that!        

She is very beautiful. She does look a bit like a MC in that photo...  her head looks a little broader than most of the females.     The coat is making me wonder if she might have a bit of Persian in her.  
 
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cattleyas2

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Thanks for your help, maewkaew! We think all girls are beautiful, but then we love them. :)
 

mother of byron

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I wondered if you ever found out what kind of cat she is? I was looking for information because I was

wondering what my Byron is. I saw the pictures of your kitty and OMG!! Her and my Byron could be 

brother and sister if he didnt live in PA!! Her picture and description of her is exactly like Byron-including

the silver tufts behind the ears. I love those tufts.

Please let me know if you have found out anything about the possible breed of cat this might be.

Thank you.
 

blueyedgirl5946

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I wondered if you ever found out what kind of cat she is? I was looking for information because I was
wondering what my Byron is. I saw the pictures of your kitty and OMG!! Her and my Byron could be 
brother and sister if he didnt live in PA!! Her picture and description of her is exactly like Byron-including
the silver tufts behind the ears. I love those tufts.
Please let me know if you have found out anything about the possible breed of cat this might be.
Thank you.

You have posted here in a thread that is almost a year old. Why don't you try starting your own thread and include some pictures of your cat.
 
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motherofmaus

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Cattleyas2 and Mother of Byron, it looks like you definitely have at the very least a Black Smoke Maine Coon mix. They may not be purebred Maine Coons but who cares, right? They're gorgeous! I have been doing a ton of research as well because our cat had kittens and after a while those little silver tufts grew out at the base of a few of the kittens' ears. I'd never seen anything like it before, I call them their wings :-) It never dawned on me that our cat was a Maine Coon mix until I saw those babies and now the more I look at her I think, "Duh, why didn't you notice that before?" She is changing as she gets older though as well and so are the kittens. I just thought she was a beautiful fluffy cat with a short "lion's mane".The hilarious thing is I've wanted a Maine Coon so bad lol. Now we have not just one but a few and they are so beautiful. Do yours have the hair tufts on the bottom of the feet as well? 

I know this is an old thread but I came across it so I wanted to reply. Have either of you started a new thread? I'm new to this site - I had to sign up just to post this.

Cheers!

Mama of Maine Coons
 

fostermommy66

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My cat Oreo who is 17lbs and not fat has the same tuffs behind his ears as well. I foster cats and kittens and fell in love with him as a teenie kitten. I had no idea he was going to get so big as his mom was an all black short haired kitty and his 8 siblings looked nothing like him.
 

motherofmaus

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My cat Oreo who is 17lbs and not fat has the same tuffs behind his ears as well. I foster cats and kittens and fell in love with him as a teenie kitten. I had no idea he was going to get so big as his mom was an all black short haired kitty and his 8 siblings looked nothing like him.
That's the same thing with us! Some of ours are sleek, short-haired cats that look nothing like Maine Coons whatsoever, then there are the few that look like Maine Coons. And yes! Those are the "wings" I'm talking about lol They are so cute. However I have noticed that as our bigger cats get older, they are starting to get more of a mane. They're short but they're filling out more and getting fluffier. Very strange that the traits aren't coming out until they get older.
 

savannah leigh

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I'm starting to think this is a whole new breed emerging! I found and rescued two a little over a year ago. One has since passed away. :( He was black but he changed to silver in a sort of patchy/stripe pattern, especially behind his ears, when we first got him. May have been different diet than he was used to, but they also had fleas really badly. After last summer, he went black again. He was semi-long haired and had a fluffier tail than the rest of his coat. He did still change color some though, from time to time. Very sweet, loving, playful cats. And BEAUTIFUL! His brother I still have. He's a great cat. He's black and white semi-long hair, but his hair is longer than his brother's was. He has the long tufts behind his ears JUST like this! They are kind of a silver-brown color. He also has tufts between his toes. Both had fairly green eyes. I have Googled and Googled trying to find cat breeds that have long tufts behind their ears (the one that passed away didn't really have those, but they both had lion's manes). I have found absolutely nothing until I looked here, and it looks like all our cats are the same breed, but it's a breed no one has heard of! Haha. It would be nice to have some information on this breed so I could know if he's done growing, what health problems they are prone to if any, etc. But regardless, he's a great cat, and I'm so glad I was able to rescue him and his brother.
Here are some pics. The black one is the one that passed away, and the black and white is the one I still have.

 
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miiszpsycho

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I think my Jax is a maine coon. Looks like it to me. He has very long whiskers hairy ears and big hind kegs along with a fluffy tail. My oldest looks nothing like he does when he was little. So i been trying to figure out what he is. I saw the M mark makes a huge difference in telling but it looks like he has that M mark.
 
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smahoney

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I just rescued a little girl cat bout 3 months and she has blond/silver tufts behind her ears.  This if the first place I found her.
 
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