What cat breed is this?

December 2, 2014 2:42 AM

What cat breed is this?
posted by dfreire to Pets & Animals (11 answers total)

It looks like a Maine Coon to me.
posted by Fig at 2:47 AM on December 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: This is a small cat. 4 to 5 Kg.
posted by dfreire at 3:00 AM on December 2, 2014

It's an American long hair, aka, Maine Coon. The tufts in the ears give it away and I'm betting there are paw tufts too.
posted by ftm at 3:15 AM on December 2, 2014

Cute! Looks a lot like my current cat. He is pretty small too, about 8 lbs. People who have lived with multiple Maine Coons and Main Coon mixes think he looks like one, too, but he isn't, he's what the shelter called an American Medium Hair (basically a fluffy mutt). He doesn't have any of the typical Maine Coon behavior but he does have the ear tufts and paw tufts. And I suppose he's a total goofball, which my previous Maine Coons have been as well, but that's certainly not specific to the breed.
posted by Mizu at 3:21 AM on December 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Most cats are mutts, for lack of a better term, and it's very likely that he's a domestic longhair (cat pedantry time: non-breed-specific cats are known as "domestic" + hair length; American Shorthair is a specific breed, and one you don't see a whole ton outside of shows and cat food commercials). A lot of the "giveaways" for Maine Coons are actually typical features of either long haired cats (tufted paws, plumed tail) or tabbies (the "M" forehead marking).

There aren't many longhaired cat breeds to begin with, and we can likely eliminate the breeds with distinctive face shapes (he's clearly not a Persian, Oriental Longhair, or Scottish Fold) or markings (not a Turkish Van). The most "normal" looking breeds that allow brown tabby markings are Maine Coons, Norwegian Forest Cats, Siberians, and Ragamuffins, all pretty beefy breeds (over ten pounds). And of those, only Maine Coons are relatively common.

So, maaaaybe Maine Coon mix, probably generic domestic longhair. But regular kitties are just as beautiful and fun, if harder to get in the specific color you want.
posted by Metroid Baby at 4:06 AM on December 2, 2014 [15 favorites]

He looks like my cat, who is also a domestic longhair but looks a lot like a Norwegian Forest Cat (I have my doubts about his pedigree as he is a rescue). Mine weighs around 13 lbs.
posted by Emperor SnooKloze at 7:07 AM on December 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

Could also be a Siberian forest cat or a Norwegian forest cat. We had a female Siberian forest cat and she didn't get to more than 10 pounds.
posted by ethidda at 9:08 AM on December 2, 2014

Tom Kitten with hair.
posted by serena15221 at 11:47 AM on December 2, 2014

Probably a domestic long hair. Could be Maine Coon, could be a Forest Cat, but if it doesn't come with papers, it is a mutt. And mutts are fantastic, typically healthy, and generally well tempered cats. I've got a big fat brown tabby DLH, and he's as good a cat as you can get.
posted by wotsac at 1:18 PM on December 2, 2014

Voting Domestic Long Hair. Otherwise known as the American Shedder, the Hairball Hacker, or the Felis soulsuckeris catus.
posted by BlueHorse at 4:03 PM on December 2, 2014 [3 favorites]

Pattern-wise, looks like mackerel tabby, but tabby pattern is a characteristic and not a breed.
posted by sarahkeebs at 8:08 AM on December 9, 2014