Looking to become a Maine Coon Breeder

i would, but there are no other breeders here. Who's stud could i use if there is no other?

Where do you plan on getting your MC's from? Whichever breeder you use, then you should go back to them to use their male for her. Even if it means shipping her there for a few weeks.

well, i plan to get my female from either greece, hungary, bulgary or russia, somewhere close to my country

You're in a really tough spot then. Unless you are close enough to get her back to another breeder. I wish you the best of luck.


Is this the cattery you are looking at in Romania?

http://www.freewebs.com/irisglowen/interestinglinks.htm

yeah, they're the ones, but i really don't like their cats and they don't mention anything about their cats beeing tested or anything...

I agree with you - IMO they are more pet quality. The male is not bad (he did get champion) but if you compare them to USA Maine Coons - those would be pet quality against our cats And she only has those two, so you can't breed back to her male. She's pretty limited.

Shame you are not in another country with better selections.

You might wanna try to co-operate with this breeder for the simple reason that you'll have a very hard time establishing the breed in your country on your own. You can check if the breeders cat are tested for HCM at Pawpeds.com (they might be tested outside this health program though) and you can check the cats in her cats pedigrees.

Even if you don't like the type it might be smart to co-operate with her. It's easier to establish a new breed if you're many working together.

Would it be possible for you to start up with maybe two females and import a male later? Or maybe breed abroad? In Sweden more and more Devon Rex breeders are travelling to other countries in Europe in order to breed their cats. If you would start up with two unrelated females you could (maybe) breed one of them abroad and then keep a male you can breed with the other female. That's one alternative.

True - good point. The OP could use the red boy as long as the females are better then he is. Then you'd have more to work with.

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

I agree with you - IMO they are more pet quality. The male is not bad (he did get champion) but if you compare them to USA Maine Coons - those would be pet quality against our cats

And she only has those two, so you can't breed back to her male. She's pretty limited.

Shame you are not in another country with better selections.

Click to expand...

Didn't I say that Fife cats are slightly different in type to CFA cats? Very good example of that in that website! CFA cats would have a squarer muzzle and broader heads. Of the two cats represented there, I actually prefer the female.

If you have the funds, what some people do here in Malaysia for "new" breeds is to buy a complete cattery - ie. buy 3 females and a male at one go. The male and at least one female needs to be a proven breeder, not necessarily Granded but from good lines. The other two females should come from complimentary lines (lines that are known to work well together). However, this means you jump in head first into breeding. Not recommended sure but if there's no choice, there's no choice...

If you do this, your first year as an MC breeder would obviously be not cost effective - the prices for shows alone would kill you!

CFA is getting very big in Europe so one of your main considerations would be - which registry you want to register with. Once you've made that decision, things would be slightly easier because you then know at the very least what type of Maine Coon you should be getting!

Wow i learned something new But you are right - it would depend on which association you show in as to the "look" you will need.

Over here its not much difference between CFA, ACFA, TICA. Most breeds (if the cat is good) can grand in all three. CFA is slightly more extreme with some of the breeds, but overall you should be able to switch associations and still champion/grand with little problems.

Actuarally, those Maine Coons aren't well typed even according to the FIFÃ[emoji]169[/emoji] standard. I'm not a Maine Coon breeder but I show a lot and visit shows and FIFÃ[emoji]169[/emoji] Maine Coons generally keep higher standard than those two. The male isn't all bad but the female looks like she could be a foundation cat (which she according to the pedigree isn't there isn't even a foundation cat in her pedigree so she just has poor type).

It's possible you'll find some Maine Coons of good quality in Russia (Russian breeders usually get good breeding stock from the US) but it might be hard for you to find suitable lines in eastern Europe. There aren't very many breeders there. In the Netherlands and Sweden (possibly Belgium and Germany too) there are quite many Maine Coon breeders and the catteries have been running for quite some time so there are quite many cats of high quality there. In Sweden breeders regulary import breeding stock from the US and I believe we have quite nice looking (and healthy) Maine Coons here.

Of course you could aim for the US, but maybe it's easier and cheaper to start out at least within the borders of Europe.

Thank you again for the advice
My first thought was to get a US Maine Coon, but as you said, it's pretty pricy.
I've seen nice catteries in Greece and Germany, some in Hungary as well. We'll probably start of with a cat from there. From what i understood the Iris Glow cats were from a hungarian cattery, but i really don't like that. However the advice to cooperate with them is a good one after all.

And if you get one or two REALLY typey females, you can improve her lines too