Are my cats kittens DLH? I heard that an "M" on the forehead means Maine coon is that true? Here are some pictures. 
mama kitty
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does an "M" on the forehead Mean Maine coon?
- Thread starter j balderas
- Start Date
No, that's just a cute little story that somehow got started. An M on the forehead means that the cat is stripey enough to have the stripes meet in an M pattern. That's all.
Now, the kitten doesn't look longhaired. . .is his tail fluffy? You can usually tell if the kitty is longhaired or shorthaired by this age.
Now, the kitten doesn't look longhaired. . .is his tail fluffy? You can usually tell if the kitty is longhaired or shorthaired by this age.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #3
I think you have some little Brown Tabby and White Domestic Shorthair kittens. Kitten coats tend to be kinda fluffy and it can be a bit hard to tell if they will turn out shorthair or semi-longhair. But if the tail looks shorthair, the kitten is probably a shorthair. The photos look like shorthair to me.
An M on the forehead is part of tabby markings, seen in millions and millions of cats all over the world. It goes back to the cats' wild ancestors and is the dominant cat pattern. It has nothing to do with any specific breed. Of course tabby markings vary, and the M shape is more distinct in some cats than others, but that doesn't mean anything about breed either.
There are a few legends about the tabby M . There is a Christian version that says it's for Mary, and a Muslim version that says it's for the prophet Muhammad.
A lot of Maine Coons are tabbies so maybe that's how that story got started? But there are also many other Maine Coons who are not tabbies and thus do not have an M. And > 99.9 % of tabbies are not Maine Coons.
This story that the tabby M meant Maine Coon really got spread around when the TV show Cats 101 idiotically put it in their segment on Maine Coons. Apparently the script writer knew nothing about cat patterns and breeds, and nobody there was doing fact checking. ( Not the only mistake there has been on that show! ) So they confused a LOT of people who started thinking they were seeing "Maine Coons" everywhere!
An M on the forehead is part of tabby markings, seen in millions and millions of cats all over the world. It goes back to the cats' wild ancestors and is the dominant cat pattern. It has nothing to do with any specific breed. Of course tabby markings vary, and the M shape is more distinct in some cats than others, but that doesn't mean anything about breed either.
There are a few legends about the tabby M . There is a Christian version that says it's for Mary, and a Muslim version that says it's for the prophet Muhammad.
A lot of Maine Coons are tabbies so maybe that's how that story got started? But there are also many other Maine Coons who are not tabbies and thus do not have an M. And > 99.9 % of tabbies are not Maine Coons.
This story that the tabby M meant Maine Coon really got spread around when the TV show Cats 101 idiotically put it in their segment on Maine Coons. Apparently the script writer knew nothing about cat patterns and breeds, and nobody there was doing fact checking. ( Not the only mistake there has been on that show! ) So they confused a LOT of people who started thinking they were seeing "Maine Coons" everywhere!
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