Maine Coon Colors
While black tabby Maine Coons are the most common, this breed comes in over 75 different color and pattern combinations. Red is also a common color.
Maine Coons are more likely to be tabby than solid since roughly 80% of domestic cats in the world are tabby.
The most common Maine Coon pattern is the tabby. The rarest Maine Coon colors are shaded silver and gold.
Common Maine Coon Colors
Maine Coons come in more than 75 different combinations of colors and patterns, including these.
The most common Maine Coon color is black, which gets its color from the pigment eumelanin. The only other pigment in cats is called pheomelanin, which is responsible for the color red.
A third type of gene, known as a white spotting gene, masks over eumelanin and pheomelanin, and results in the color white.
The color black in cats occurs in the “B” gene and can be either:
- B
- b
- bl
All cats have two copies of this gene, which can be expressed as, or any combination of the following:
- BB
- Bb
If a cat has one or both copies of the B gene, its coat will be black.
However, should they inherit only b or b1 genes, then their coat will be a much rarer chocolate or cinnamon color, though these colors are not part of the Maine Coon breed standard.
Dominant B Gene
The B gene is dominant, meaning a cat needs just one copy for the trait to be expressed.
Cats are much more likely to be black because the B gene is dominant over many other genes responsible for coat color.
This is also why most Maine Coons are tabbies. About 80% of cats in the whole world are tabbies!
The tabby gene is also dominant and more likely to be expressed than other patterns (source 1).
Learn more about Maine Coon cat genetics, in this awesome guide to cat genetics.
Maine Coon Colors
This cat breed comes in a grand spectrum of Maine Coon colors and patterns.
1. Black
This is the most common Maine Coon color.
A black cat must have at least one copy of the dominant B gene.
Black tabbies may look like they are brown with black stripes, but the brown parts are an illusion from the striping of their fur.
2. Blue
Blue Maine Coons have at least one copy of the dominant B gene and two copies of the recessive d gene.
Two copies of the d gene result in less pigmentation, turning the black color of eumelanin to a grayish-blue.
3. Red
Female red Maine Coons carry two copies of the OO gene, while male red Maine Coons carry just one copy.
This is because the gene responsible for red coloration is only found on the X chromosome.
Red Maine Coon cats are otherwise known as Orange Maine Coon cats.
4. Cream
Cream Maine Coons have either two copies of the OO gene if they are female or one copy of the O gene if they are male.
They also must carry both copies of the recessive gene d, which dilutes the red gene into a cream color.
5. White
White Maine Coons either have a copy of the masking gene W or two copies of the albino gene.
6. Solid
Solid cats have just one coat color covering their entire body.
7. Parti-Color With White
These cats have either red or black fur with the addition of a white spotting gene that covers part of their body.
8. Tortoiseshell
Tortoiseshell cats are female cats whose red genes are expressed as Oo, causing their coats to be both black and red (or some combination of the diluted forms of those genes)
9. Tricolor
Tricolor cats are female cats that have both black and red as well as a white spotting gene.
Maine Coon Patterns
There are also many different patterns that Maine Coons can come in, with the most common Maine Coon pattern being tabby.
The table below details all the 7 Maine Coon patterns you will likely encounter whilst buying a Maine Coon kitten:
| Pattern | Description |
|---|---|
| Solid | Solid cats have no pattern and their fur is evenly colored throughout. |
| Classic Tabby | Classic tabbies have thicker stripes than mackerel tabbies, and the stripes often swirl into a bullseye on the flank. |
| Mackerel Tabby | Mackerel tabbies have a stripe running down their backs with striped bars running down the flank on either side. |
| Ticked Tabby | Ticked tabbies may not look like tabbies at first; their coat appears solid, but it is slightly flecked. They also have the usual “M” on their forehead that marks a tabby. |
| Smoke | Over half of each hair on the cat’s body is tipped with either red or black, and the rest is white. |
| Shaded | Shaded cats have moderate amount of tipping at the end of each fur, and the rest of their fur is white. |
| Shell | Also known as chinchilla, shell cats have a small amount of black or red tipping on the end of each fur and the rest of the the coat is white. |
Rarest Maine Coon Color
If you are looking for a rare Maine Coon coloring, the Maine Coon gold and silver shaded are the rarest of all, though these rare Maine Coon colors are considered more of a pattern than a color.
Gold or silver-shaded Maine Coons have just a bit of black or red on the tip of each fur, while the rest of the coat is white.
The terms smoke, shaded, and chinchilla refer to how much tipping is on each hair.
Read more about the smoke Maine Coon cat in this incredible cat guide.
Cats with the most tipping are called smoke, while cats with the least amount of tipping are called chinchillas.
Breeders still do not know exactly which genes are responsible for these patterns, so it is often a pleasant surprise when breeding cats produce a litter of shaded kittens.
The other rare Maine Coon colors are cream and blue, which are not terribly rare but are much less common than their counterparts red and black.
Rare Maine Coon Eye Colors
The rarest Maine Coon eye color is odd-eyed, where one eye is blue and the other is a completely different color.
Maine Coons also come in a wide range of eye colors. Here is a list of the different colors their eyes can be (source 1,2):
- Green
- Gold
- Green-Gold
- Copper
- Blue
- Odd-Eyed
Discover some more fascinating Maine Coon eye facts, by clicking on the picture below:
Popular Maine Coon Colors
Overall, the most highly sought-after Maine Coon colors are:
- Gold
- Silver Smoke
- Shaded
- Chinchilla
Breeders have a harder time producing cats of these colors as even experts do not know exactly which genes cause such beautiful patterns.
As a result, gold and silver-shaded Maine Coons have a much longer wait time than other colors, and they are significantly more expensive (source 1).
Do Maine Coons Change Color?
In most cases, kittens look pretty similar to how they will as adults, but in some cases, their coats can change in hue.
In Maine Coons, this is most commonly seen in cats who have the following patterns:
- Smoke
- Shaded
- Chinchilla Pattern
It takes several weeks before the breeders can determine whether a kitten is truly shaded or not, and the unique pattern can take as long as a year to fully grow.
If the little blue-eyed kitten you brought home is starting to look a bit different, then you might be wondering if Maine Coon cat’s eye color changes?
Like humans, all kittens are born with blue eyes, which eventually change into their adult color after a few months (source 1,2).
Color Calculator
Breeders can use Maine Coon genetics to guess the potential colors and patterns a breeding pair might produce.
Of course, there is still a lot we do not know about genetics, and it is impossible to judge which genes a cat carries solely based on looks.
Example
For a simple example, imagine a breeder is planning to mate a black female cat and a blue male cat.
In this case, the female has two copies of the B gene and two copies of the D gene, which is responsible for dilution.
The male’s B gene is expressed as Bb, while its D gene is dd, resulting in a diluted black color known as blue.
Breeders can use Punnett Squares to look at the range and likelihood of possible outcomes.
The first table is a Punnett Square for the B gene. The mother’s genes are written on the top (in bold) and the father’s genes are written on the left and highlighted in bold.
| Mothers Gene | B | B | |
| Fathers Gene | B | BB | BB |
| Fathers Gene | b | Bb | Bb |
Looking at the chart, we can conclude that this particular pair of cats will produce kittens who have either BB or Bb genes.
This means that any kitten born from these parents will be black rather than chocolate or cinnamon.
Now let us take a look at the dilute genes.
| Mothers Gene | D | D | |
| Fathers Gene | d | Dd | Dd |
| Fathers Gene | d | Dd | Dd |
The mother’s dilute genes are listed along the told in bold, and the father’s dilute genes are down the side and also highlighted in bold.
Even though the father carries two copies of the dilute gene, each kitten will only receive one copy of the father’s gene and one copy of the mother’s.
As a result, kittens born from these parents will be entirely black, but they will carry the dilute gene.
Maine Coon Color Chart
The Fédération Internationale Féline, also known as FIFe, is an international association for cat fanciers.
FIFe uses EMS, which stands for Easy Mind System, to refer to a cat’s coat.
The beginning of each code uses three capital letters, which define the breed. Maine Coons use the letters MCO. After that, a small letter is used to describe the coat color.
Here is a list of the Maine Coon color codes.
- n – black
- a – blue
- d – red
- e – cream
- f – black tortoiseshell
- g – blue tortoiseshell
- s – silver
- w – white
- y – gold
Then, a number is used to describe the coat pattern.
- 01 – Van
- 02 – Harlequin
- 03 – Bicolor
- 09 – Unspecified amount of white
- 11 – Shaded
- 12 – Shell
- 21 – Agouti (unspecified tabby)
- 22 – Classic Tabby
- 23 – Mackerel Tabby
- 25 – Ticked Tabby
Finally, another number is added to describe the eye color:
- 61 – Blue
- 62 – Copper to Deep Orange
- 63 – Odd-Eyed
- 64 – Green
You can learn more about the Maine Coon color codes, in this article.
Conclusion
If you want to know what is the most common Maine Coon color, it is black, though these cats can come in a dazzling spectrum of colors and patterns.
Tabbies are the most common pattern, while the rarest of Maine Coon cats are silver and gold smoke, shaded, or shell.
Black Maine Coons and other common colors and patterns such as solid, tabby, and red are much cheaper than the rarer colors and patterns.
