What to expect in a Maine Coon country KITTEN?

Your new kitten might be a little apprehensive when first introduced to you or a new home, but this should go away quickly. We have taken the time and work to accustom every kitten to a family home. Kittens are raised in our home and are rarely outside, because there are just too many diseases and parasites that can kill a young kitten. Even fully vaccinated kittens can catch a feline virus, so we are vigilant on sanitation and keeping any other animals away from them at this tender age. Each kitten gets the recommended kitten vaccines explained on the health page. We also make sure they start following mom up onto litter box and are using it every time they potty. You can rest assure that your Maine Coon Country kitten is the healthiest, happiest it could possibly be.

Before kittens are even born we start the nurturing process by providing a calm, quiet, safe, and comfortable environment for mom, while giving her extra attention and feeding her the best food and supplements and keeping her totally stress free. To keep your kitten feeling safe and comfortable please read the KITTEN CARE page of our website to have your home all set up and ready.

Maine Coons are very affectionate, playful their entire lives, and sometimes even goofy. They are not an aggressive breed, and love to cuddle. They are happy hanging out next to you or on your lap. They are incredibly intelligent and tolerate all people, even young children. If you do have young children, please teach them to be nice and hold pet correctly. Also always give your cat a way and place to get away from people or other pets if wanted. Tall cat trees are wonderful for this as well as a baby gate that the cat can jump over but small children cannot.

When you first have your kitten home it is best to keep him/her in a small area until he/she has used the toilet or litter box several times and is more relaxed in his/her new environment. If you want to try actual toilet training, please read that info below. Feel free to play with your kitten in short sessions with toys the very first day. After a week or so you can start to teach your kitten to fetch a ball or favorite toy. Our boy Raja will fetch little spring cat toys. That is his favorite toy. You can get them on Amazon. They also love the wand fishing pole type toys, and can be very funny to watch jumping in the air to catch the bate toy. Maine Coons sometimes have a few minutes a day where they seem to have a rush of energy and jet from one side of room to other attacking things in play. We call this the Zoomies and is hysterical to watch. Some Coonies even growl as they jump from spot to spot.

 

Introducing to another pet: If you are introducing your new kitten to another pet: Please take it very slow, first impressions are a big deal in the cat world. It is best to keep them apart with a cage or baby gate or screen door so that they can see and smell eachother, but not touch eachother for a few days. You can then have short sessions where they can be in same room for a few minutes, supervised a few times a day until you know they are happy with eachother. Remember to always give your pets a way to get away from eachother if they are cranky or scared.

 

How to get your kitten to come when called: You can do this a few times a day. Get out your kitten’s favorite treats. Go over to your kitten wherever he is. Say your cats name and rustle the bag to make a noise. Then give your kitten a treat. Very quickly the kitten will realize when he hears his name or the sound of the bag he gets a treat. So he will eventually chase you down every time you call his name. After a while you can just pet him as a reward instead of giving a treat every time.

 

TRAINING A MAINE COON TO POTTY IN THE TOILET:

Your kitten comes already trained to use a litter box. But you can teach your pet to go in a toilet if you have the time to do so. I have trained our Raja to potty in an actual toilet. I can not explain how wonderful it is when your cat goes potty in a toilet. NO MORE LITTER BOXES! If you have more than one cat It is best to train all your cats at one time and not have any litter boxes in the house after they are using the toilet, because they would always prefer to use a box. Therefore, it will only work if you will be doing it with all your cats. Keep in mind not all cats take to the toilet method. So if you have a cat already, it may not learn to use the toilet if its personality is not open to new things. Below are photos of different time frames in the process when I was toilet training my own cat. I used the FuzzyMilky Cat Toilet Training System 2022 off Amazon, Get the one with the extra bowl in case you need it later. I did use it in a different way then the directions… Here is how I used this system, Keep in mind it is easiest to have a toilet dedicated to this training system or you will have to take it off every time you use the toilet yourself. Cat does not learn to go to every toilet. He will be learning to go to the toilet you set the system up on and train him to. If you want him to learn to use a different toilet at a later date you will need to set the “litter ring” up on the new toilet with a little litter in it and lock him up in that bathroom until he uses it several times. You will need to flush the toilet several times a day and add more litter as needed. Remember to only use litter that is flushable and safe for your sewer system type. I have used Swheat Scoop Natural Wheat litter because we are on a septic system.

1. If cat goes potty in a litter box: For first few wks put litter box next to the toilet and also put kitty litter in the bowl of the training system, so cat could use either one. I then start raising the litter box on the floor a few inches every few days until it is at same level as the toilet seat. After cat uses the Toilet litter system a few times you can remove the old litter box so he can only use the toilet system.

2. This is where I use the potty system differently than the instructions. The directions tell you to eventually put water in the clear bowl. My cat would not have anything to do with it when I added water to it. So I did this instead; After a few weeks of the cat using the full set up system and not having any accidents, I put a dime size hole in the middle of the plastic bowl and still kept litter in it. I made the hole with a power tool with a larger size drill bit attached, (hole with diameter of a dime was made). I took scissors and cut around hole to make sure it was a clean hole without and sharp edges or dangling plastic pieces.

1. Every week or so I would double the size of the hole, still always having litter in it, until you get to about half the bowl having a hole, so will no longer hold much litter at all. I reduced the litter as I make the hole bigger anyways…
2. You can then use the clear plastic bowl with big hole in middle with no litter at all. But still having litter in the white litter ring. After a week of no litter in bowl you can take the bowl out and only have the white litter ring with litter in it on the potty. After a week or two, you reduce the amount of litter in the ring and eventually can take the ring off.
3. When you take the litter ring off you still need to put a little bit of litter on the toilet seat itself close to where the ring was, so cat knows its still is its potty spot.
4. After cat is using the toilet for several weeks you can stop putting litter on it because your cat is then COMPLETELY TOILET TRAINED… YAY

There are several things to keep in mind during this training process:

1. You will need to flush the toilet several times a day, and add new litter as needed. Your cat will drink and play in the water from time to time, no way to stop that.
2. Wipe off seat as needed, keep in mind your cat might play in the water or have a foot get wet several times while he learns to straddle the seat. In fact this is the hardest part of the whole thing, my cat kept wanting to put his feet in the toilet bowl and you will need to slowly reposition him while he potties to teach him where to put his feet. We still have this issue, and my current fix is to just put the clear plastic bowl with large hole in middle, (second pic below), with no litter in it, back on and so he sets his feet in the clear plastic bowl, then I’m adding double sided tape to the inside of the bowl to teach him to not want to put his feet in the clear plastic bowl, if this does not work, I will try putting the clear bowl that has NO hole back on and filling that with water, to see if that deters his feet positioning. Even if he always has to have a plastic bowl with big hole in it I still count it as a win because once you get to this point its amazing not having to use litter anymore.
3. Cats prefer to hide their waste, so while training for several months you will need to make sure to keep up any baskets of clothes, pile of dirty clothes in a bathroom, or house plants or dirt, really any place a cat might consider a better litter box than the toilet. I personally locked my cat in my bedroom which has its own bathroom and only let him out after he pottied and would supervise him while out of the room. If your cat has an accident, you should clean it with the cat spray cleaner that breaks down the urine proteins in cat urine. No reason to punish or get mad at your cat. He forgot he peed as soon as he is done peeing. If you clean it up and remove the clothes or whatever it was then he will most likely not do it again. It maybe best to keep your cat in the actual bathroom or bedroom with ajoining bathroom so the cat does not have full run of your home unsupervised. It took me about 4 months to fully potty train. It can take others shorter or longer time frame. Have patience because the reward is well worth the wait and work it took. I do not have to worry about my main house cats having a stinky litter box or having to deal with litter or cleaning it every day. Now I just wipe the toilet and flush. The only litter boxes we use now are when we have kittens and so moms are training their babies, or when cats are in the outside pen playing… It’s amazing not having to deal with the litter boxes we once had to….