Best Stud Quarters for Maine Coon

I'm a new exhibiting (future breeding) cattery that is getting into the CFA circuit. Right now, I'm raising my foundation Queen and awaiting the birth of my foundation Sire. I do have a mentor, but I'm also collecting suggestions for intact Maine Coon male experiences. My breeder has never had an issue with any of her boys spraying, but I know that intact males commonly do spray.

I'm in the process of creating a stud room/stud space for my future boy, which I will own outright and will be shown. What are some of your suggestions for stud quarters and experiences with Maine Coon stud behavior? My Queen is only 13 weeks, so I've got time. I still have to wait for my boy to be born, raise him, show him, and then eventually breed him with my more experienced girl. My girl, when she comes of age, will return to her breeder's location, and will raise her first litter while I wait for my boy to come into stud-hood.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Beth

It's such a beautiful breed! Good luck!

I moved your post to the Breeders forum and granted early access to your account, so hopefully others can chime in with advice. I think @GemsGem  has some experience with breeding Maine Coons, so hopefully she can share some tips. I also think @StefanZ  knows a thing or two about stud management in a breeding program. 

Great! Thank you so much!

SunOerSea said:

 
I'm a new exhibiting (future breeding) cattery that is getting into the CFA circuit. Right now, I'm raising my foundation Queen and awaiting the birth of my foundation Sire. I do have a mentor, but I'm also collecting suggestions for intact Maine Coon male experiences. My breeder has never had an issue with any of her boys spraying, but I know that intact males commonly do spray.

I'm in the process of creating a stud room/stud space for my future boy, which I will own outright and will be shown. What are some of your suggestions for stud quarters and experiences with Maine Coon stud behavior? My Queen is only 13 weeks, so I've got time. I still have to wait for my boy to be born, raise him, show him, and then eventually breed him with my more experienced girl. My girl, when she comes of age, will return to her breeder's location, and will raise her first litter while I wait for my boy to come into stud-hood.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Beth

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We have several variations, depending in part, if you really need to separate the stud from the household as such. It may be he is spraying, it may be you dont want to risk uncontrolled matings.  It may be he is too territorial a male... Or even not really friendly.  

So, one solution is he has his own room - or typically a cottage.  where he lives with a companion cat - a spayed female or neutered male... The idea probably nNot to have someone to hump without any risk, as is easy to think, but most cats do prefer company...  If possible have a little garden with net around and above. A voljere almost as with birds.   Otherwise, a netted in balcony or even netted in "french door" is OK, so he / they gets fresh air and can get all the smells and sounds.

You humans do visit them in there of course, cuddle etc...  Possibly lead out to walk on leashes

A bivariant of this, is, he is having his own quarters, but a couple of hours every day you let him into the house to enjoy company of his cat friends and humans.  You can use "trousers" to prevent spraying (and mating).

If he is a friendly non-sprayer, its sometimes possible to have him in the house, together with all the others.  Especielly if the intact all the others are of the same breed.

How come?   Its quite common cats, whom live toghether, dont "ignite" on each other.

But as its easy to imagine, you need some precaution - "accidents" may happen.  And the precaution is they are of the same breed - if an oops litter happens, you can still register the kittens and pretend everything is oK...   [this is no big problem for you whom are planning to let them mate with each others - but here in Sweden we try to actively find new combinations, so we tend to lend stud services from others]

Ok, so what is the trick here, when you WANT them to mate?  Easy.  You have a especial mating room.  Not too small, not too big.  There is litter, food, water, a couple of laying places, perhaps even some toys.  A couple of shells, so the male has somewhere to run and flee onto after the first mating...

This room looks different than their usual quarters, they are left here alone, and both realize this is something unsual, they are supposed to do something together.  The penny falls down, etc...

Of course, let both of them visit the room beforehand, so they feel comfortable in the room...

Btw, this room you use also if you accept visiting ladies from other breeders...She has usually her gears with her, but usually they use togehter the same litter, food and water plates.

  You let him visit the room.  Take him out, you let her visit the room. Have her into her carrier in the room.  You are there ready to talk down the situation.  You let the male in, he comes, smells on her, if there are no open hostility and perhaps just one hiss,  you open the carrier but let her be.  After a while she comes out...  They may be friends from beginning. If he is very hostile (it happens he doesnt recognizes its a visiting lady) be prepared to step in and if necessary stop him.   Its quite common the female is hostile, or at least - pretends she is reluctant and even hostile...  A good male is courting and belegeuring,  sits a meter from her, makes friendly sounds, circles around.  She tries to swats and makes some hisses - BUT its very seldom they fight for real.  Ie its an exhibit of the old play of lovers to be....  He hopefully will not go forward in force before she is ready - you see it by she lays immediately down when he steps in...  Sometimes she lays down into positions entirely by herself - these are the easiest cases....  He mounts her holding her neck,  when he is almost done she begins to sound, when he is done he runs of quicker than a flash, and flies away, and she after him with murder in her face shrieking... She never gets him.  She throws herself down and rolls around, as in pains,  (nay, she isnt in pains, she doesnt wants to be comforted). She licks herself -  this way you know the mating took.   After the first time they usually gets friends and sits together on some of the shelves...  This too may be seen as a sign they mated succesfully.  The next matings are much easier for both.

Let them mate several times to be entirely sure.  But not a too long period of time of matings, two days at most.  You dont want to riskt the babies were conceived at totally different days - cats manage often too long pregnancy, but too short prengnancy is dangerous to the kittens...

Be sure the stud sees when the visiting lady is taken into her carrier and is carried away.   As they get good friends, he will miss her otherwise and seek after her...  This with him seeing she is leaving, makes the loss and the seeing lesser...  Btw, the same routine with all departures, including funerals.

Ok, how we did with our studs?  We had just the studs. So they were our friendly family members and lived inhouse.  Non sprayers, or at least, very seldom.

We used such a mating room.  worked nice...

In the beginning we were afraid to leave them alone. But with time we noticed, if they hadnt began to fight at once (and they never really did - in part because both our studs were friendly) - they never fought for real, even if they both were living in the mating room for days. 

A experienced stud will tend to come to the business quicker than an inexperienced.  This is also in part individual - our younger stud tended to be quicker, one day or two...  Our older was more cautious and took his time of courting and belegeuring, it could be a couple of days before he made his decisive step..

A very experienced stud can do it in a couple of hours, even if he is friendly and courting.

SunOerSea said:

 
 I know that intact males commonly do spray.

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Just an FYI - girls may spray too! I can't help with Maine Coon quarters but my stud (Persian) has his own room with 2 of my girls who can't have kittens. It is where we have our television so we are in there frequently. Good luck! If you are in the northeast, we may see one another at a show.

Thanks so much for the advice! I'll definitely set aside the special place for them to mate. We'll have only our girl and our boy for the first few years, I imagine. I'll definitely look into those trousers for both sexes then! I definitely cannot have spraying and need to prevent it. I'm also planning on having both the males and females indoors with different areas of the house separating them. With diligence and especially since it's only myself and my husband, I think we can keep them each in their own quarters so there aren't any oops litters.

@posiepurrs,

I am, in fact, in the Northeast of the US (although I will show the majority mid-west as I'm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) and I would definitely love to chat in person at a show if we both attend the same one. Companion cats may be an option for us; I'll have to chat with my mentor about it. I don't want my boy to get lonely, but I also plan on raising him on his own through kitten class as my girl reaches breeding age and returns to her original breeder for a few litters as part of our agreement, so he'll be well socialized and very loved! We're planning on equally dividing our attentions between both cats when our girl returns (this might be easier as we start out with two).

I'm sorry for the delayed response; I'm actually visiting family in West Springfield, MA and Martha's Vineyard this week, so we journeyed north and have limited internet and cell service.

My site is sunoerseacattery.com. We're just getting our initial start in the show world and Maine Delite has graciously provided us with an amazing kitten, Maine Delite Nimue of Sun O'er Sea to start our journey. I'm mentoring with Maine Lvrs and am acquiring my stud eventually from her. He won't be open and he can only be used with females I own. How did you begin your breeding program? Did you start with multiple queens and a stud or one of each?

If you are in West Springfield, you are only about 20 miles from me! Welcome to Massachusetts. I do show sometimes in Pa., but mostly in the eastern part- Matamoras, Easton and Kimberton. I got started backwards. I got a girl first ( first mistake) and by the time the boy I got figured out what to do she had to many heats and couldn't conceive. Persians are VERY slow sometimes to reach maturity. I am happy you have a mentor so you can avoid some mistakes sometimes made by newbies. I got 2 girls first, then my boy, but all within a year of one another. With the first I wasn't entirely certain about wanting to breed, but once I got her I knew that was what I wanted. I am taking a break ( guess I should just say I am retired) from breeding. My Cattery is Posiepurrs If you want to check it out, I do have a website.

I'll definitely check it out! I've just arrived back to Pittsburgh from Martha's Vineyard, so I'm sorry my response took so long. I have the girl first, but my boy should be born in September if all goes well. Our girl was an unexpected surprise (right time, right place) and for her first few heats, I've agreed to let her breeder (my mentor's mentor) have her back for the first two litters at least until my boy is of age. I also entered into this unsure if I was going to breed, but after a lot of research and no lack of passion, I decided this is for me; I had attended shows and knew I wanted to exhibit and then I just fell head over heels for the Maine Coon standard and have a desire to preserve and continue it. Hopefully we see each other at some shows! I know I'm planning on doing a good deal of travel if she decides to love it. She hasn't aged in yet; her first show is on August 13th.

SunOerSea said:

 
I'll definitely check it out! I've just arrived back to Pittsburgh from Martha's Vineyard, so I'm sorry my response took so long. I have the girl first, but my boy should be born in September if all goes well. Our girl was an unexpected surprise (right time, right place) and for her first few heats, I've agreed to let her breeder (my mentor's mentor) have her back for the first two litters at least until my boy is of age. I also entered into this unsure if I was going to breed, but after a lot of research and no lack of passion, I decided this is for me; I had attended shows and knew I wanted to exhibit and then I just fell head over heels for the Maine Coon standard and have a desire to preserve and continue it. Hopefully we see each other at some shows! I know I'm planning on doing a good deal of travel if she decides to love it. She hasn't aged in yet; her first show is on August 13th.

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She really is beautiful.  Question - how many litters do you plan for her?  Am I correct that no more than one per year and 3-4 litters total is considered best practice?  I'm just curious about timing with your boy.

We're planning 1-2 litters a year for her; I'm not sure how many total she will have. My mentors and I will decide that as she ages, but we definitely will not tax her. After she's done, she'll be spayed and retired. Unlike our future cats, she'll stay with us as our pet when she retires instead of being placed with an adoptive family. The timing should work out fine. By the time our boy ages, she'll have raised at least one litter. Breeding really depends on how hard she cycles and it differs individually; what applies to one cat may not apply to another. Many Maine Coons have two litters per year, from my understanding, but I know some breeders only do one a year. Depending on how she does, that will decide how many times she will breed.