Maine Coon Colors: Guide to variations
When it comes to the Maine Coon colors, like many other breeds, there are so many variations and so much terminology it can get very confusing. Most breeders don’t use the official terminology unless they are talking to other breeders because it can be quite complex. However, for anyone who has ever heard the phrase “blue smoke tortie” or “black silver shaded” and not had any idea what people meant, this is for you. I am going to talk about the following color of Maine Coon cats individually and add pictures. Therefore, this is going to be a VERY long article. If you want to read it, great! If you want to skip ahead to the color you are wondering about, all the colors below will send you right to that section.
There is a lot to know about Maine Coon colors and how the colors interact with each other when breeding. But who doesn’t love looking at cute kittens, right? So, here’s a bunch of cute kittens and cats so you can decide what your favorite color is!
To qualify as just a straight up black Maine Coon, with no other caveats, the cat can have no lightening like you often see and no white spots. They are very striking cats and one of my personal favorites.
Blue is simply the diluted version of the black Maine Coon. They get a special gene called a dilute gene, which only some cats carry that turns the black into blue. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference but just like the black Maine Coon kitten, they must be solid.
Also commonly referred to as orange, the red Maine Coon cat/kitten is definitely my favorite, mostly because they are commonly accompanied by a wild personality! They must also be solid. Although it is called red technically, orange is also widely accepted. This only usually occurs in males because of the way the red gene attaches to the cat, but an odd orange girl here and there is not unheard of!
Following the trend, cream is the diluted version of the red Maine Coon, which operates the same way as the blue color. They can vary a lot in how lightly colored they are and can look almost fully white.
This is one of the two base tortie Maine Coon colors that you will see. The tortie coat is pretty random in its markings and it is rare to find two torties that have exactly the same coloring.
This is the other most common coat for torties. I have found there to be an even split between people who prefer black torties and blue torties. With blue torties, each color including the orange is affected by the dilute gene.
The phrase “Smoke” will come up quite a lot as it can be seen in most variations of color. This is on top of the base color such as red, cream, tortie, black, etc. The color also develops more as they grow as their hair gets longer.
Blue smoke, as you could probably guess is just the blue variation of the same thing. I personally like how the smoke effects these guys more because I think they look even more blue.
Following with the trend, but these guys are harder to identify. They can often end up looking just like cream and without a detailed understanding of their parents' genetic makeup it may be impossible to tell. The best way to figure out which one you have is to look at their registration or look at their parents. Although it is a bit easier to tell when they are little.
This is another one where it is very difficult to see a distinction unless you know what the parents are. Usually referring to the breeder is a safe bet. Most of the time there’s not a ton of variety visually between different coat types in red cats.
These guys are pretty cute and quite common. With their colors not being as dramatically stark against each other, they have a very popular coat.
These kittens are one of my favorites from a coat standpoint because I like how the colors in their fur blend together. They have very soft color features which can make them look extra cuddly and furry!
The distinction between the different silver Maine Coons can be difficult to see to the naked eye, and if you were to ever attend a cat show you will see the judges pulling back fur to see towards the skin because they can ‘kind of’ tell from there. This is a good graph of the difference. This won’t change their color, it just changes how the color shows in their fur.
There is the common look of a ‘tabby cat’ that most people think of when they see this. For the most part, who cares what exact kind of tabby cat you have at the end of the day. However, they can look quite different in fur, and it may be helpful distinction to have if asking a breeder for an exact look. Here is a breakdown of how the different tabby’s look.
The classic tabby is what most people see from house cats and rescues. Even from catteries they are by far the most common. However, ticked tabby’s can also be seen quite often. If you need more distinction looking up a specific coat will give great insight and likely help you pick which one you like best. It has been my experience that people care less about the type of tabby and more about the individual look of the cat. Especially because, even within these categories, there is a TON of variance.
There is a lot of controversy surrounding this color, but it is not something that I will be going into in this post. White Maine Coon kittens are affected by a cover-up gene of sorts. All white Maine Coons have a base color and an additional gene that turns them white. This means that, in theory, if you were to breed two white Maine Coons the only way to tell what color kittens they could have is to look back through their ancestry to try to determine what color they are covering. They are very pretty and very stark! Our Xavier is a perfect example of this and, while we suspect we have an idea what color Maine Coon kittens he may produce, we cannot wait to see his first litter!
Overall, Maine Coon cat colors are complex. You can look up a guide to what kind of kittens your chosen male and female may have and they are pretty accurate. However, it is never an exact science. I, for example, have cats that carry dilute or polydactyl genes that don’t show it at all. I would have no way of knowing if I had not had them DNA tested, or until I had kittens and had one of them show obviously enough. This is a very, very basic writeup.
The four base colors that Maine Coon kittens (cats) come in are red, black, blue, and white. Everything else goes on top of it and creates thousands of color variations to the naked eye. Although having an idea of what color cat you may like is a good idea, keep in mind it will mostly be decided on a kitten-to-kitten basis.
