Opinions And Insight: Maine Coon Breeders

[mcguy]

Your cats are gorgeous, some of the best I've seen. Do you breed your own, or did you get them from a cattery?

Gosh, thanks.

Some of it is simply photography with high quality cameras. Most breeders have quite terrible quality photos on their websites so it can often be difficult to tell what their cats really look like.

No we certainly do not do any breeding.

Two of the cats, the brown tabby girl and the silver boy are from Chemicoons: Maine Coon Cats of Chemicoons of Illinois* - This site requires Java
Our torbie girl is originally from Koonbitzky: Coonbitzky Maine Coon Cats of Ohio
Our red male is from McKittycreek: ~McKittycreek Maine Coons~
Koonbitzky and McKittycreek are both long time, well known US breeders. Chemicoons is a more recent breeder but Liz is very serious and professional, and has had great success the last couple of years showing.

Like I said already, just because I don't like the look of MCs with tall ears and wide muzzles, if you do then go for it. I just thought you ought to be aware that some of those breeders are not aiming for standard looking MCs it seems.

[BasedBumi]

Gosh, thanks.

Some of it is simply photography with high quality cameras. Most breeders have quite terrible quality photos on their websites so it can often be difficult to tell what their cats really look like.

No we certainly do not do any breeding.

Two of the cats, the brown tabby girl and the silver boy are from Chemicoons: Maine Coon Cats of Chemicoons of Illinois* - This site requires Java
Our torbie girl is originally from Koonbitzky: Coonbitzky Maine Coon Cats of Ohio
Our red male is from McKittycreek: ~McKittycreek Maine Coons~
Koonbitzky and McKittycreek are both long time, well known US breeders. Chemicoons is a more recent breeder but Liz is very serious and professional, and has had great success the last couple of years showing.

Like I said already, just because I don't like the look of MCs with tall ears and wide muzzles, if you do then go for it. I just thought you ought to be aware that some of those breeders are not aiming for standard looking MCs it seems.

I'll be sure to look into the listed catteries sometime tomorrow. Thanks. =)

But I really do find that the European catteries have a slightly different look to those catteries housed in America. I was looking at MCO guide I believe and a ton of Euro breeders were listed there. Not better or worse, just different.

[candes]

You got quite a deal, I would say!

Thank you. She did cut me a break on the price as a favor for my local breeder that was her friend. And money was no object to me, and the breeder knew this. I actually insisted on paying more than she was going to charge me. She was gonna charge me the $550 amount that my local breeder was gonna charge. DELIVERED!!! And later, I even offererd to give her even more than the $700, and she said no. At least we drove her to her hotel. She was a retired school teacher. And was very nice.

Anyways, BasedBumi, there can even be differences in the same litter. Gosh teddy looked like a baby doll compared to his brother. Obviously I chose the sweet looking one. But you would have loved his rough looking brother. Mind you this pic was of a 3 month innocent kitten. LOL.... I think this moms kittens were gorgeous. (My Teddy is actually striped and spotted. And was an oddball that came out of nowhere. I imagine this is not the norm, but I love it!) But his mom had an emergency hysterectomy on her first and only litter. How sad.

That breeder that you listed with the caring home? I loved it! If everything she wrote was the truth, that was a definate find.

[mcguy]

But his mom had an emergency hysterectomy on her first and only litter.

This is exactly the kind of expense that people don't think about when they wonder why MC kittens cost $800. So this woman paid $200-300 to echo the mom for just one litter, all the normal vet visit costs for mom and kittens, AND several hundreds for hysterectomy surgery. Like I said, you got quite a deal then because your breeder absolutely positively lost money on that litter at her prices. Most people cannot afford to do that however, hence they have to charge higher prices.