Contacting Breeders - Question For Breeders

[British Girls]

She's home!
No name yet - we're tossing a few around and I'm letting my husband take the lead but I'm nixing ones that I really dislike. At the moment, Eclipse is in the forefront but not sure if it will stick

She's very very sweet. Extremely well socialized as promised. A bit shy but that's expected since it's her first day with us but we're able to get her playing and once she's involved she forgets her trepidation and goes about being a cat. Allows belly rubs, has given us little face nudges, is quite talkative, and right now is curled up on our guest room bed in my husbands arms. She scoffed down her wet food dinner like a champ. Likes all the stuff we have for her in her playpen where she'll be safe and sound for a week or so except for when we take her out to interact with her.

Cocoabean, has been camped out in front of her door quite a bit. She absolutely knows there's a cat in there even though we sneaked in with her really well. Is NOT perturbed at all. Is not hissing. Is not angry. Is not annoyed. Acting completely normal other than wanting to come into the room. I get the feeling it will go very smoothly once she sees the kitten but for the sake of both of their health and safety, we'll continue to keep them separated at least until Friday when the kitten sees our vet. We'll judge the situation once that happens.

She's a lot smaller than I thought she would be - which I'm happy about. I thought I might miss out on that tiny kitten stage since she's already 16 weeks but, apparently not.

Oh and, the breeder backtracked and now feels she indeed is solid black. Her kitten coat went through some changes I guess but now that she's older, she looks pure black, not smoke, which it seemed she might be a few weeks ago.

Anyway here's a couple of photos I shot today. I am learning kittens are not easy to photograph, as you all probably know, the move around a LOT!

My husband took this one of her ears

She is GORGEOUS! Congrats!

 

[sivyaleah]

We have a name!

Luna

She's settling in wonderfully

 

[posiepurrs]

Like it! She is a beauty!

 

[sivyaleah]

Like it! She is a beauty!

Thank you Lynda - I appreciate your input being you are a breeder, although not of MC's, I'm sure your "eye" is pretty good overall for other breeds!

 

[posiepurrs]

She reminds me of that adult MC photo making the rounds of Facebook. That cat has a human looking face.

 

[sivyaleah]

She reminds me of that adult MC photo making the rounds of Facebook. That cat has a human looking face.

I don't know that one - I haven't been on FB for years and years. MC's in general though are really expressive!

 

[neely]

sivyaleah Congrats on your absolutely stunning MC girl, Luna. It looks like your DH is on cloud 9.

 

[jcat]

Oh, she's gorgeous and looks quite content!

 

[sivyaleah]

Yes, thank you jcat and neely she's settled in really well!
She's a firecracker. It's a whole new experience for me and I'm loving every minute of it.
We haven't yet had her and Cocoa meet - hoping to jumpstart it this weekend. Cocoa knows she's here for sure. I think it was Thursday, my husband said she was at the door and hissed and growled a bit while Luna was in the room running around loose, but, calmly walked off with him to our bedroom where he reassured her she's still the Queen of the house. He said she was relaxed - just momentarily jarred. And since they hasn't shown any unusual behavior when walking near that door other than one moment where it looked like a double take, but she continued onward.

We've been doing scent exchanges and Cocoa has been sleeping frequently on a blanket the kitten was using and, gosh we certainly must smell like Luna constantly and she hasn't pushed us away. In fact, she seems a bit more clingy if anything, even sleeping in our bed the past few nights which she rarely does.

We'll going to get a heavy piece of see-through plastic from Home Depot, hopefully one with some holes in it, to put across the door so they can see/smell each other today and see how that goes. Fingers crossed for the best!

 

[sabian]

Just ran across this thread sivyaleah . That's a good looking MC you got there! It may be just the light but it kind of looks like there's some silver in her mane. A silver mane on a black MC would be so cool! I read through the whole post but I didn't see it, if you named the breeder. I'm researching breeders and hoping to get another MC soon. I seen you are in NJ. I am leaning toward a breeder in NJ at: ClassicCoolCattery - Home Page. She breeds a more traditional style of MC for CFA competitions and high/low whites which I'm partial too. However, I seen you are in NJ and am always keeping an eye out for good breeders that are actively showing. I've compiled a pretty good list and looking for someone within driving distance. I'm in western NC a would be willing drive 15 hours for pickup.

I have a Siberian lookalike that I rescued about 2 1/2 yrs ago. I wanted to get him trained and acclimated before I brought in another cat and I think he's about ready! So if I could that info it would be much appreciated!

If you've never had an MC, your going to love it. They are the most chilled cats and for that reason I have a feeling that the introduction will go smooth as silk. It's like MC's have an ora about them. My MC's got along with every cat they ever met. I never took my last MC to the vet in the carrier and everyone loved him at the vet. Several made the comment that they wished all the animals that came in was like him. When I took him in and he got diagnosed with cancer. The head vet tech just let him walk around the clinic and she followed him around. A couple of the girls told me that she didn't even really like cats but, for some reason she's always loved him and that they had never seen her act like that. She was usually strict. Will be interesting to see if your girl is the same way.

Please do post how the introduction goes. My Manny is a rescue and he had his issues when I got him. He's made progress in leaps and bounds but, introducing another cat to the house has me kinda scared even though, I do think he would like to have a companion.

 

[sivyaleah]

Just ran across this thread sivyaleah . That's a good looking MC you got there! It may be just the light but it kind of looks like there's some silver in her mane. A silver mane on a black MC would be so cool! I read through the whole post but I didn't see it, if you named the breeder. I'm researching breeders and hoping to get another MC soon. I seen you are in NJ. I am leaning toward a breeder in NJ at: ClassicCoolCattery - Home Page. She breeds a more traditional style of MC for CFA competitions and high/low whites which I'm partial too. However, I seen you are in NJ and am always keeping an eye out for good breeders that are actively showing. I've compiled a pretty good list and looking for someone within driving distance. I'm in western NC a would be willing drive 15 hours for pickup.

I have a Siberian lookalike that I rescued about 2 1/2 yrs ago. I wanted to get him trained and acclimated before I brought in another cat and I think he's about ready! So if I could that info it would be much appreciated!

If you've never had an MC, your going to love it. They are the most chilled cats and for that reason I have a feeling that the introduction will go smooth as silk. It's like MC's have an ora about them. My MC's got along with every cat they ever met. I never took my last MC to the vet in the carrier and everyone loved him at the vet. Several made the comment that they wished all the animals that came in was like him. When I took him in and he got diagnosed with cancer. The head vet tech just let him walk around the clinic and she followed him around. A couple of the girls told me that she didn't even really like cats but, for some reason she's always loved him and that they had never seen her act like that. She was usually strict. Will be interesting to see if your girl is the same way.

Please do post how the introduction goes. My Manny is a rescue and he had his issues when I got him. He's made progress in leaps and bounds but, introducing another cat to the house has me kinda scared even though, I do think he would like to have a companion.

Hi @sabien !

Thank you! Luna is a Black Smoke. She originally was listed as solid black. Then, the breeder said she thought she would be black smoke. When we picked her up, she again said, maybe black again lol and put black on her registration paper. However, we've now had her for 3 weeks and she's black smoke for sure. I'm sending in the registration as is though, since we have no intention of ever showing her.

I never mentioned her breeder because I didn't want to until I was positive we had her. She's from Coonalley Maine Coon Cats in Malaga, NJ. Elaine Magee is the breeder.

Coonalley Maine Coon Cats

She used to have a website but only works through Facebook now which was inconvenient for me personally, as I only have a throwaway account there not under my real name. I met Elaine several years ago but had put her out of mind as we weren't seriously looking for a purebreed at that time. We have a "look-a-like" but also wanted a true MC. We managed to get on the list of another well known breeder out in Arkansas (Metatrone Eyes) but, we are not able to get a kitten from them for yet another nearly 2 years. So, I suddenly decided to look up Coonalley again (one of her cats has become Instagram famous since I'd met her - chef Bobby Flay's cat Nacho) and by coincidence hit her at the end of kitten season and she had available kittens.

She seems to work differently than other breeders. She does not work from a list as far as I can tell - and, does not seem to need to do so. Not only is she breeding, but she's also involved in other aspects of the cat world and is an extremely busy person; getting hold of her was not easy and she was admittedly not great with returning emails or messenger texts. However, once you got her on the phone she was very easy to speak with.

We also had an opportunity to meet her in person at the NJ Cat show and also, one of her other "customers" who was showing one of her cats - that happened to be a black smoke from the same line as Luna (same father). The guy took quite a bit of time to chat with me about MC's in general which was quite helpful. I also got to meet 2 of Elaine's cats that were there on show (not showing)- both very lovely and social.

Also, do not expect visits to her home - again - she's too busy. I decided to put my trust in her completely as far as that was concerned. If a famous person found her worthy of purchasing from, well, that was good enough for me (I suspect another famous chef has 2 of her cats also but can't confirm). It worked out for us - when we picked up Luna her home was spotless and she was very gracious spending over an hour with us answering all our questions and giving us all the info we needed.

Best, Luna is PERFECT. Seriously. I now understand why people pay for purebred companion animals from reputable breeders (reputable being the key word). She was kept with her family for 16 weeks - this made a huge difference as she really learned her cat manners well. Sweet, playful, unafraid, fearless, intelligent, completely litter trained and eats great. She did have coccidia which I found out is common in kittens no matter where they come from but was asymptomatic; was treated and is fine. I let the breeder know so she could treat the remaining kittens in her home. Other than that, she's great and already gained a pound.

I have to run off to work - will finish this later on once I get there to update more, mostly on the introductions. We only just began them last Saturday so barely a week in to it (and my husband didn't even bother one of those days as he wasn't feeling well).

 

[sivyaleah]

Ok onward sabian

FYI the breeder you're looking at, has gotten some of her cats from Coonalley. So you certainly can't go wrong with ClassicCool. I thought the name was familiar (I'm sure I looked I met them at the cat show also back when) and I just looked at their website and sure enough I see that some of the cat names start with the Coonalley cattery name. Both are CFA registered.

FYI if interested this is the other breeder we are still on the wait list with. Not sure if we will pull ourselves from it or not. I LOVE their cats but getting to Arkansas from NJ will be problematic - there aren't any direct flights and we will not drive that distance. Adding in travel costs to the price of the kitten for us is doable but, not sure if it makes sense especially now that we have a relationship with Coonalley established should we want another MC down the road. We also still want to rescue - so that's another concern and we don't want to be over-run with cats either LOL. So, for now, staying on it since we have time to decide but you may enjoy looking at it - their cats truly are something beyond beautiful.

MetatronEyes Maine Coons

Introductions are moving forward. We started officially last Saturday after doing scent exchanges for the past couple of weeks where she didn't really do much reacting to although she did hiss at me one day after I was holding the kitten for an extended amount of time. Cocoabean has been hissy/growly but that's expected and we've done this before so not worried by that. We've been putting the kitten in her carrier and bringing her to Bean sometimes and other times, Bean will on her own, come upstairs to the kitten room door to see inside (there's a gate). We've also started doing room exchanges - letting the kitten have play time in our bedroom and Bean explore the kitten room.

As of last nights last meet/greet things were a little bit less heated from Cocoabean. She came upstairs herself, sat outside the room - Luna came over and politely sat on her side of the gate, quietly looking at Bean. Only one short hiss from Bean and then she wound up laying down on the floor for nearly 10 minutes - both just looking at each other calmly. That was pretty good. I finally had to get up and leave the bedroom so that broke the spell LOL but my husband and I were pretty stoked with that meeting. Cocoa has been acting perfectly normal otherwise; no issues with her eating, behavior or anything at all so we think she's not overly annoyed with Luna being there - she just needs to figure it out that she means no harm to her. Just hoping that by 10/5 they are friendly enough to be in the house together completely because we have Madonna tickets and it will be really disappointing if our cat sitter/friend has to worry about keeping Luna locked up in that room still especially since it's our guest room which she'll need to sleep in!

Anyway here's a couple of recent pix. Luna has gained a pound since she arrived 3 weeks ago already She's now going on 18 weeks. I'm assuming she'll be a big girl!

 

[sabian]

sivyaleah

Thanks for the info! I ran across the Coonally site at one point but, I wrote it off at some point. It may have been due to lack of activity on the site, not sure. Like you I don't do facebook but, do have a throw away account. I can't remember if I looked at their FB account or not.

I ran across ClassicCool and then seen that they had bred Samson dubbed, the largest cat in NYC. I had seen video's of Samson but, had no idea who bred him. Once I seen their cats and learned this, that pretty much sold me.

It makes sense that they may have used some of Coonally's cats to breed with since they are so close and showing. I can see a lot of similarity's in some of their cats.

I have toyed with the idea of getting a Siberian since I have a Siberian lookalike as I mentioned but, I'm just partial to MC's.

Wondering how the introduction has progressed with Luna? If you get a spare moment would love to hear how it's going.

Thanks again for the info!

 

[sivyaleah]

sivyaleah

Thanks for the info! I ran across the Coonally site at one point but, I wrote it off at some point. It may have been due to lack of activity on the site, not sure. Like you I don't do facebook but, do have a throw away account. I can't remember if I looked at their FB account or not.

I ran across ClassicCool and then seen that they had bred Samson dubbed, the largest cat in NYC. I had seen video's of Samson but, had no idea who bred him. Once I seen their cats and learned this, that pretty much sold me.

It makes sense that they may have used some of Coonally's cats to breed with since they are so close and showing. I can see a lot of similarity's in some of their cats.

I have toyed with the idea of getting a Siberian since I have a Siberian lookalike as I mentioned but, I'm just partial to MC's.

Wondering how the introduction has progressed with Luna? If you get a spare moment would love to hear how it's going.

Thanks again for the info!

Introductions are going as one would expect between an adult and a kitten; Cocoa is barely tolerating her and Luna wants to be friends. It depends on how persistent Luna is, and how close she gets. We've noticed Cocoa is ok with her until about a 2' radius and then which is about the closest she'll let her come without vocalizing her annoyance. She'll hiss, occasionally growl and once or twice has swiped at her (although not harmed her at all). Luna for her part, takes it pretty much in stride and is not intimidated by it at all which is good and bad.

I have noticed Luna is getting better at being a bit more polite about being near her and Cocoa, for her part, is not reacting as quickly the past couple of days. I've managed to get them to eat in the same room a couple of times. Yesterday they had one moment of touching noses, but then Cocoa remembered "oh yea, I should hiss now" and, another time Luna was half asleep in my arms (she had her rabies shot yesterday and was having a slight reaction making her clingy and tired) and Cocoa actually calmly walked over to us, right up to Luna and looked at face to face. But then again had that moment of "I should hiss now" and did.

Overall it's not too bad. We're able to keep Luna downstairs with us the entire day now. Cocoa, in spite of being periodically annoyed, is not running off to other parts of the house to be left alone. She stays in the area with us and doesn't seem overall entirely annoyed; still eating ok, still loving to us, using her box fine, etc. She recovers from her hissy fits quickly too. Plus not much we can do to keep them apart now anyway because Luna figured out how to jump over the barrier we erected. In almost month we've had her, she has gone from looking like a tiny kitten to now looking like a leaner more pre-teen cat. She's gained over 2 pounds also. She's probably going to quite large!

At night, however, we do still keep her in her room with the door shut so that Cocoa can roam the house at peace, as well as us getting a good nights rest too. Luckily so far Luna hasn't been banging at the door to get out in the middle of the night but I'm sure, that will be happening any day now. We have scheduled her for her spay at the beginning of November, she'll be 5-1/2 months at that point; a little younger than the breeder recommended and the vet prefers to do surgery, however, waiting until December will be impossible for me for work reasons and I certainly don't want to wait until January and possibly have her go into heat at that point (even December may be pushing it).
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