Maine Coon kitten 14 weeks

Hello. We have finally gotten our kitty about 2 weeks ago. He is the sweetest kitty and very affectionate. Plus is very good with my young girls. But I do have a few questions.

Sometimes Prince Charming, my girls named him, needs a little help in the cleaning his butt from poop department. So I give him butt baths when he needs that kind of help. I know his mother would normally clean him but was wondering how long before he doesn't make a mess of himself? He doesn't do it all the time. But the poor thing hates it when I have to give him butt baths. He is all white so if the smell doesn't hit you the site will. I found these bath wipes for pets that I was going to try until he gets the hang of it. Any insight into this would be greatly appreciated.

Next and last question. Prince likes to lay on my chest. Mostly along my neck. Then gives me little licks and 'love bites' on my chin. Is he showing affection to me or is he getting even for the butt baths? LOL Normally he just grazes his teeth over my chin but sometimes his teeth will sink a wee bit and that can hurt a little. Any thoughts? I was lucky to find Prince with an excellent breeder.

He's such a cute little guy and our family is so happy that he is with us. Thanks for you thoughts.

Hi Diana Marie, I'm...well...Diana-Marie There are so few Diana's out there and I've never met another Diana Marie! Cool

About your kitty's bum cleaning problem: I have a Turkish Van mix who had very long fur as a kitten and he also had a tough time in that department and with the beautiful white fur, it was kinda nasty! But his hair shortened up about about 6 months and he became absolutely obsessive about keeping his luxurious coat clean. Until he got the hang of it, though, I used cat wipes I found at Petsmart. He didn't LIKE it, but he didn't bite me, either He eventually got used to it.

I also had a Russian Blue mix and when he got a little older and a lot fatter he became very very lazy in the entire cleaning department. I used those wipes on him every day until he died (last July). There are some kinds which come in the form of a mit that is slipped overy the hand and you just vigorously pet the cat with it. It also gets them used to being rubbed on their tummies.

As for the love licks and bits, my Pookie guy does the same thing. I take this as affection. He didn't have a mama (she abandoned him or was killed when he was very young), so I'm his mama. These are things that kittens would normally do to their mother. As a matter of fact, I raised an abandoned mama cat and her 3 kittens; the mama died of cancer 2 years ago and the last of her kittens is now 9 (the Russian Blue mix was another of her kittens). The kittens did this to her their whole lives. They snuggled, kissed, and gave little love bites.

So be honored, not offended. He is young yet and if you say "OUCH!" and move your chin away when he bites to hard he'll learn that he needs to be gentler. Cats are smart and learn fast!

Good luck and congrats on your new baby boy!

Yay! A maine coon! I have three kitties and my oldest is a maine coon who turns 3 on june 3! He is the reason I have three cats! i got him and then fell totally in love with cats in general. Maine coons have the absolute GREATEST personalities. It like a little person is trapped in their bodies! Mine is very large (17 lbs) and has very long hair. DiMa mentioned above that her turkish van's hair shortened up. My maine coon's hair has done nothing but get longer and longer (and also prettier I should add). Some parts of his coat are very near three to four inches long, including the hair around his behind! And yes, there have been several dingleberry incidents (including stray dingleberries that find their way out of the hair and on to my floor! Ewww!)

As far as my cat goes, he is also very immaculate about grooming. Cats are pretty clean creatures and are more offended by the whole dingleberry incident than you are. I dont really know of a lot of cats that like getting groomed and mine certainly doesn't, but i think his vanity makes him a little more cooperative with letting me clean and brush him. Usually he puts up a little fight at first, but once he realizes that I'm just taking good care of him and cleaning him, he relaxes. it like he realizes that I'm helping him out with that pesky stuff he couldn't reach, and then he seems grateful. And I am sure yours will be more cooperative too. But it might take a while- kittens are pretty squirmy anyway.

What ABSOLUTELY DID NOT WORK for me was a full-on cat bath. When my kitty, Action, was around 11 weeks or so, he started to really stink and the poor thing's back was getting all greasy because he just didnt really get the hang of the whole bathing thing yet. So we were naive, and thought he needed a good bath. I won't go into it, just know THIS DID NOT GO WELL. People always say maine coons like water. Although mine is curious about water, he does NOT like to get wet. I mean, he really thought we were trying to kill him. I've never seen such a panic. Don't even try this. Just stick to the wipes and as he gets older, he will get better at cleaning himself, and in the meantime, you will just need to fill in the gaps for him.

What has worked for me is a combination of the wipes (I buy "all natural" baby wipes from the grocery store. non-toxic and pretty much the exact same thing as pet stores, but less expensive and you get 10 times more), a small pair of scissors, and a good brush. And you can put them in the microwave for just a few seconds, and that will make it where its not so cold and shocking to him. Prince Charming will have a lot of hair and will also need to resign himself to getting a few uncool haircuts, especially around the backside. His hair will be so thick that this is often the easiest and quickest way to get the job done, and the most sanitary. You might have to cut out some mats in his hair too. No matter how much i brush Action, he gets real bad mats on his lower chest area where he cant reach so good, and also in his little armpit areas. The hair there is just so fine. As far as a brush, I recommend you have a slicker thats meant to remove loose hair, as well as a very fine tooth comb and a nontoxic detangler, which helps for loosening mats. Also, make sure the slicker doesn't have metal teeth. I had one, and it did work faster to remove hair, but i think it scraped his skin too much and made him uncooperative. Then i bought one with plastic teeth, and little beads at the end of each tooth. That one always gets a little protest once the brushing starts, but then he starts purring, so i think it feels good to him. That makes all the difference- how comfortable they are while you are doing it. And as cheesy as it sounds, when i groom my kitty, i whisper sweet things to him, so he sees the entire process as me trying to treat him, not restrain him. And timing is key too. Catch him when he's sleeping, and start by petting him, then ease on in to using a comb or wipes.

As far as the nibbling, as long as it isnt forceful, it's a sign of affection. He doesn't know it hurts. Same thing when they are "making biscuits" on you with their claws. Hurts like mad, but they certainly don't mean for it to hurt you. When a cat means to hurt you, or is acting out of some kind of aggression toward you, there won't be any doubt. If their love bite hurts too bad, a good thing to do is let out a short but tart yelp. Make sure its non-threatening. Its not meant to scare them off, just alerts them that it hurts you. And they will stop, and over time they will condition themselves to adjust pressure with teeth and claws around you. Make sure to teach your kids how to properly respond to this too, so they won't appear overly aggressive to Prince Charming. That just starts a bad cycle.

I'm very long-winded here, but I am just so excited for you and your family! If he has most of the common maine coon characteristics, this little guy will end up being one of the best pets you've ever had, which will be a great memory for your kids in years to come! They are a very interactive breed, and most of them will probably never be a "lap cat" but will always let you know that they appreciate you.

Originally Posted by Diane Marie

Next and last question. Prince likes to lay on my chest. Mostly along my neck. Then gives me little licks and 'love bites' on my chin. Is he showing affection to me or is he getting even for the butt baths? LOL Normally he just grazes his teeth over my chin but sometimes his teeth will sink a wee bit and that can hurt a little. Any thoughts?

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I'd like to hear what others have to say about this one too... I've always thought of the licking as being a sign of affection. My cats groom each other and they groom me as well. My boy Clarence is at times a little over zealous with the licking thing and often times it leads to him biting... and he's not very good about not biting hard. In watching him for a while though I find he's the same way with my other cats. When he gets too rough with them they give him a good swat upside the head and he normally either backs off or starts to wrestle with them. He just takes less time to get a little over stimulated. Normally when it looks like he's going to start biting me I take my hand away until he calms down before I start petting him again and that generally works for that time, but eventually he gets over stimulated again and looks to get a bite in and again I take my hand away.

I'd love to hear some thoughts on how to change the behavior entirely, but my guess is that some cats are just like that and I just need to keep being aware of when he's going to start biting and take my hand away.

-Monica.

About the poopie issue, another thing that I've had done by my vet recently was what I would call a Butt Cutt, though I'm sure there is a more technical term for it. Basically when I took my cats into the vets for their routine visit, I asked them to give them a little fur cut in the butt area to help keep the poo out of their fluffy fur back there!

Are the poopie business more on the soft side? Maybe a change in food would do the trick? I have two Norwegian Forest cats, they are very much like Maine Coons, but not quite as big, and we have not rear end problems. The poop should be hard/solid (I am not sure about the right expression in English, but hope you understand what I mean) enough not to stick to the fur.

Hi there,

I have a 3 y/o female Maine Coon, and she too has butt problems sometimes. In the rare occassion that she has soft stool and it gets stuck to her butt, we do have to give her a butt shampoo. However, if normal poop gets stuck to her butt, we can usually brush it out. Something that we do and it helps a lot from these problems is to trim her butt. We just give her lots of treats, and we use a pair of those short manicuring scissors. She loves it, and shows it to the whole world after we trim it. It works wonders!

Thank you all for responding to my post. Little Prince is doing much better in the butt department. I haven't had to give him a butt bath since I posted. whew Sorry it has taken me so long to reply. It gets a little crazy here with 2 kids under 5 and now an active kitty. Thanks again.