How To Introduce A Maine Coon Cat Into The Household

How To Introduce A Maine Coon Cat Into The Household

The Maine Coon Cat is the largest domesticated breed of a cat in the current world, which is visually stunning with its beautiful and distinctive features like its long bushy tail that is raccoon like, tufted ears, large expressive eyes and a ruff around their neck similar to those of a lion.

Their coat is soft and comes in every color and pattern except the pointed patterns.

This Maine Coon breed has an attractive physical appearance with an inquisitive, friendly and an affectionate loving behaviour.

The process of getting a verified pure breed of Maine Coon cat is to buy a pedigree kitten from the breeder.

The breeder should be able to present to you a family tree of your cats pedigree and relevant certification. This process identifying a pure Maine Coon cat requires one to know who are the kittens’ parents are, in order to the viability of the breed.

When you are bringing one home, make sure the journey is as smooth as possible with someone looking after and stroking the cat.

Do everything in order to make the move as less of a traumatic experience as possible. Remember it’s a Maine Coon, so bring a large carrier, especially if it’s an older cat.

First Introduction Of The Maine Coon Cat At Home

When you get the Maine Coon cat out of her carrier container for the first time, your Maine Coon should not be set upon by every member of your households all at once.

If you do so, the cat could flee in terror trying to find the safest and darkest corner they can find in the room.

It’s required to introduce them gradually to try to reduce the trauma as much as possible for the cat, and allow it to adapt and feel at home in their new scenario.

This introducing technique will be a deciding factor in whether or not your new Maine Coon cat adapts to your home immediately by the following day, month or will flee the house altogether.

By way of an example a friend of mine bought a cat home and it immediately bolted upstairs as there were lots of people in the room.

She’s done the sensible thing and made sure the doors and windows were secured, and as she’d had the foresight to get a cat flap she’d made sure it was locked.

She spent hours looking for the cat and couldn’t find it anywhere. Turns out it was hiding under bedside table in the gap underneath, completely unviewable.

So a word of warning, make sure it’s at ease and if it does a runner it will locate itself in somewhere it feels safe.

And it won’t come out, as remember, it’s afraid.

If there are no animals in your house and you are bringing home a Maine Coon kitten, here’s a taste of what you may expect.

Introducing The Maine Coon Kitten To Another Cat

Introducing the Maine Coon cat to other cats if you have other cats in your house requires one to be keen in applying appropriate techniques.

The process involves the following key steps;

Isolation of the Maine Coon cat to a safer room.

The separation of new kitten from other cats gives the visitor time to survey the new home and determine whether is safe to settle in.

This also allows the Maine Coon to have enough rest.

Acclimate the Maine Coon cat to other cat’s scent. As your new Maine Coon is in the process of settling down in a new environment one needs to start encouraging the interaction between the cats through closed doors.

This process of bringing the Maine Coon cat closer to the other cat allows them to smell each other and associate the smell to something positive.

One can try to feed the cats either sides of the door.

Slowly introduce the sight of each other between the cats.

While doing this, give them some food so that they can associate their first encounter with something positive.

At first uncertainty may occur but you need to understand them and give them some space as they develop trust between themselves.

Plan a controlled and safer stage encounter between the Maine Coon and the other cat.

Once the kitten is settled and appears ready for their next adventure, allow the Maine Coon time to explore the whole house as they get comfortable with the new surroundings.

You should not be worried if the cats don’t on get well at first, as there may be issues like hiding.

The current cat will want to assess this new arrival and if they are not keen to get close to each other they will make their feelings clear.

Over time the resident cat will get more comfortable with the new arrival as they grow to tolerate each others presence.

At this point the aggression will start fading and you can start feeding them next to each other.

Also play games that will keep the Maine Coon and the other cat entertained.

This offers an opportunity for integration and a chance to make sure the cats know their boss.

This builds a long lasting friendship between the new Maine Coon cat and her counterpart.

Don’t worry too much, most cats are quite accepting of a kitten as it is not viewed as a threat.

Introducing A Maine Coon To A Dog

Introducing a Maine Coon into the home kept dog is another area that one needs to pay great attention to.

Some home kept dogs are aggressive to new creatures if they are not used to them.

One needs to learn how to introduce the new Maine Coon to the dog in order to lower the tension and fear that may develop.

One should apply the following steps to introduce the new Maine Coon to your canine friend;

Make sure all exits are blocked, all doors and windows are not open and there is no possible way that a bolting cat can escape.

It might be a good idea to leave a trap for it if this happens.

Close all the upper room doors bar one so it has no choice but to go into that one. That should narrow down the search areas.

Give some spare space for the Maine Coon cat to settle in.

Try introducing the Maine Coon upstairs while the dog is downstairs so as not to frighten your new Maine Coon.

This would hamper any direct encounter on the first day of arrival, so as to you allow the cat to familiarize with the new surroundings and with its new home.

Allow for scent swapping.

This can be done through the use of two separate piece of towel to wrap the dog and the Maine Coon the swap the pieces in order to allow the two sniff other’s smell.

Since the two animals are sensitive to smell, they will start to establish a positive relationship without necessarily seeing each other.

Introduce a sight for the home kept animals.

This is done using a transparent material like a glass barrier that will allow the two animals see each other without getting close or touching each other.

This will enable the dog and the Maine Coon to start knowing each other as the cat slowly releases from the fear of the unfamiliar creature.

Face to face encounter. In this stage one needs to control the meeting of the two animals.

It calls for much attention as you monitor the reactions and how they get used to each other, either through open or closed encounters.

You can observe their body posture either relaxed or anxious. If anxious take precautionary measure to try and bring them into terms.

One can hold the Maine Coon on his arms as you play with the dog. This will help develop a friendship.

Ensure regular encounters between the dog and the Maine Coon cat in order for them to get used to each other. This will play a great role in training them to tolerate each other.

With time an everlasting friendship will develop.

Remember, if you are bring home an adult Maine Coon, this may be a considerably larger cat than most dogs are used to.

Introducing The Maine Coon To Small Children

Small children in families are other sensitive creatures who want to explore by themselves whatever new arrives in their house. Curiosity is part of human nature, even when young.

Since the Maine Coon cat loves to stay close to humans, it’s important for one to introduce the Maine Coon to the children so as for them to get used to them.

If not properly oriented to the cat, the children may cause trouble to the newly arrived Maine Coon.

This unnecessary disturbance will bring stress to the Maine Coon thus affecting its settlement.

The following stages are important in orienting the new cat.

To prepare a safe room away from children.

Since the newly arrived cat is always nervous, it requires a sanctuary room free of loud noises which may scare the Maine Coon.

This quiet and safe room will give the cat a much needed silence for the cat to rest as it familiarizes with all the different sounds in that house.

If small children keep on getting into this room, they will cause unnecessary disturbance for the cat, thus affecting its settlement.

Provide the Maine Coon with a hiding place.

New arrival cats like hiding as much as they are getting used to members if the room, especially when they see children.

Provide them with some hiding place in the living room like dropped sheets over chairs for the cat to hide in case the children pose a threat to them.

Again a good way is to put the back of the cat carrier to the wall so the Maine Coon knows there’s nothing behind it, turning the carrier around and placing it on the ground.

Then just open the carrier door and wait for your Maine Coon’s curiosity to get the better of it.

Help your Maine Coon to get used to your kids.

This will be done by trying to play with your Maine Coon alongside the kids.

The games will help the shy kitty to get used to children who with time will come to form a strong and lasting relationship, as most Maine Coons like playing with kids, and are quite tolerant of childrens interest.

Train you kids not to harm the Maine Coon cat. Small children like following instructions along with copying what they see. It’s important for one to show much needed love for their cat through feeding them.

This should be done as children watch, so later they will imitate the action and help ingratiate them with positive affirmative action.

Also put strict precautions against playing scary games like chasing them or even pulling the cat’s tail. These kind of games will affect the process of settling in new environment.

Overall, here’s a video that explains pretty well what you might consider doing;

Common Mistakes That Should Be Avoided Once You Have Bought A Maine Coon Cat

Over the years, there have been a number of common mistakes that people keeping cats in their homes do commit that should be avoided when one wants to bring in a Maine Coon cat. Some of them include;

Firstly, when you open the pet carrier, you should ensure that all exits are blocked and a frightened Maine Coon cannot bolt from the household.

You should not force an issue of any kind. If your Maine Coon is feeling uncomfortable you may need to separate it in order to regain its trust. Over time, animals grow used to each other so time is the relevant factor here.

Not providing constant and regular health care.

Like other animals kept at home, cats should be taken for veterinary care the way they should.

A new kitten will have vaccination programs that may need fulfilling. Never assume that because your cat stays indoors it does not require regular medication like vaccination for prevantative risk.

Before you go for a Maine Coon cat, plan for its medication.

Forgetting to train your Maine Coon.

It is very crucial for one to start training your kitten from the beginning.

Such trainings involves spending some time getting your Maine Coon in a car travel and carrier.

This will make your work easier when having a trip with you cat.

Also train your cat on issues concerning environment, for example where you allow your cat to go and where you don’t want it to.

This training will help restrict your cat to certain social environments like kitchen counters if you don’t want it on them,…… maybe.

Corrective behaviour may be needed if it starts scratching the furniture early on.

Get a scratching post and move it over to it’s new place to scratch when it looks at your antique furniture in a way that you might not want it to.

Poor maintenance of the litter box. Like human beings you don’t want to use a dirty washroom, your cat also doesn’t want to do its business in an unclean environment.

Most people forget to clean the litter box for their home kept cats.

This makes the cats uncomfortable thus its important for you to always maintain the litter box and keep it as clean as possible once you purchase a Maine Coon cat.

Also remember to place the box at its secret place accessed only by the cat because the cat wants privacy.

Lack of identification of your Maine Coon cat.

In years past, people were not used to giving their cats identification numbers.

The identity of a cat is of great importance as it will help you reclaim back your Maine Coon in case of a lost cat.

If they do indeed go missing, then the authorities can at least identify your Maine Coon which certainly expedite their return.

Giving identifying information to your Maine Coon cat can be done in the veterinary clinic. The vet will inject a small chip under the skin of your cat.

The micro-chip contains your contact information.

Therefore, once you buy a Maine Coon cat it’s an important step to give her an identity for informational purposes.

To conclude, as a Maine Coon cat owner, it’s your responsibility to take care of the cat you spent your money on. Nobody wants his or her kitty to get out and fall in a mess.

Therefore spending your precious time with you Maine Coon cat when you are on a lap will help in building a much stronger relationship.

By so doing, you will get to know what is troubling your feline friend and find a lasting solution to the problem.

Since the cat loves playing around his or her boss, the much time spent will provide a good relaxing for you and your meow.

Because of Maine Coon’s behavior, will spend this time playing, touching and rubbing herself on you body, hence contribute to easy settling and happier life in future.

To finish off, please consider watching these videos in order to better understand what’s helpful;