Is my cat a Maine Coon or another long haired breed?

[reeses pieces]

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• reeses pieces
• Jan 2, 2014

View media item 195578he is very affectionate, very vocal and as you can see, very fluffy. I have been looking around and she fits the description of a Maine Coon but then I saw a description for a Norwegian Forest Cat which sounds a lot like her also.

Thanks!

 

[journey2heaven]

I just wanted to say what a beautiful cat! Love that mane!

 

[StefanZ]

The answer consists of two parts:

What look alike?   I would say  Maine Coon, esp if you live in USA, so there may be quite some akinship with Maine Coon.... Statistically speaking.

What breed?  Now, breeds is really not about looks, but about ancestry.  And very most cats doesnt belong to any breed, unlike dogs.   With dogs, people try to breed them at least to a type.  With cats, owners typically just let their female out a few hours when she is in heat and they wants kittens.

So cats are usually a free  combination of these genes which are common in their area. They are almost all "moggies"..

Although it is a nice pastime to guess what look alike to a purebred  sort they are.

With Maine Coon it is somewhat extra.  There WAS this type of cats, living commonly in north east USA.  And some expecielly individuals were picked up from among them, and was purebred into the Maine Coons of today.

But their "wild" cousins are still out there.  they had not disappeared.

Somewhat similiar is with the Norwegians and Sibirians from Russia.

And this is the reason such MCO- look alikes are quite common in USA.  Sometimes the similiarity is quite surprising.

Although adult  purebred MCO are usually quite bigger and heavier than our average moggie.  Even small MCO are noticeably bigger.

So, if you do have a look alike MCO, who also is big and heavy without being fat, you can suspect he is more than a look alike, he has probably also near MCO ancestors.

Norwegians may be quite alike.  They have typically more triangular muzzles.  MCO are also in average somewhat bigger.   Although it is sometimes not easy to see, there are sometimes barely any difference if you arent a conneisseur..  

I would say, if you arent happy with the MCO look-alike label, consider looking into the Siberian- lool alike label. 

I hope my answer helped you some, about your gorgious prettie.

Good luck!