Blue Maine Coon Cats
What the color is, how it is bred, and what it means for you.
A blue Maine Coon is not blue at all. The word is cat-fancy shorthand for a soft slate or smoky gray, and blue Maine Coon kittens for sale are searched for by people who want a cool, quiet color on a large, fluffy cat. The shade ranges from pale pewter to deeper steel, and in a long coat the effect is gentle and glowing.
Below we explain where the color comes from, how it differs from other grays, what "blue smoke" and blue with white mean, and what to expect as a kitten grows. We also say plainly what color does not tell you, because it will not change how healthy or friendly a kitten turns out.
Looking for a Kitten? See Our Other Colors
We have no blue Maine Coon kittens right now. Our orange, black, white, silver and brown tabby kittens are ready to go home, or tell us what you are hoping for and we will keep you posted.
What Color Is a Blue Maine Coon?
A solid blue Maine Coon is an even gray, lighter and cooler than a black cat and without visible stripes. The nose leather and paw pads are blue-gray too, which is one of the details judges look at. Eyes are usually gold, copper or green.
Because the Maine Coon coat is long and layered, the shade can look different across the body. The undercoat is often paler than the topcoat, and the tail and ruff catch the light in a way that makes the cat seem a different tone from one angle to the next. In bright sun, a blue coat can show a faint warm cast, and this is normal.
How Does a Cat Get a Blue Coat? The Genetics in Plain Words
Blue is the dilute form of black. A cat carries a gene that controls how tightly color pigment is packed in each hair, and when a cat inherits two copies of the dilution gene, the black pigment is spread out and the coat reads as gray. The same gene turns red into cream and brown tabby into blue tabby.
The dilution gene is recessive, so both parents must carry it for a kitten to be blue. That means two non-blue parents can produce a blue kitten if each carries the gene, and a blue kitten has to come from parents that both passed it on. It is a simple trait, and nothing about it is linked to poor health in the breed.
What Is a Blue Smoke Maine Coon?
Blue smoke is a blue cat with a silver inhibitor gene. At rest it can look like a solid gray cat, but each hair is pale at the root, so when it moves, the white undercoat flashes through. The face and feet stay darker, while the ruff and sides show the contrast most.
Smoke is not a tabby: a smoke cat has no visible stripes in the coat, though a faint ghost pattern can sometimes be seen on kittens. If you are curious about how the inhibitor gene works across other colors, take a look at our page on silver Maine Coons, or read about the black version on the black Maine Coon page.
Is There a Blue Tabby or Blue With White?
Yes to both. A blue tabby has a soft gray-blue base with darker blue-gray markings, and it often shows a warm, fawn-tinted tone between the stripes. A blue and white Maine Coon pairs the gray coat with white on the chest, belly, paws or face, and the amount of white can range from a locket to a full tuxedo or a harlequin look.
In cats with a lot of white, eye color can be gold, green or blue. White spotting is the reason a Maine Coon may have blue eyes and still be an accepted color. See our white Maine Coon page for how white affects eye color and hearing.
Do Blue Kittens Look the Same as Adults?
Not quite. Blue kittens often carry faint tabby ghost markings that fade as the adult coat comes in, and the first coat can look patchy or slightly brown at the tips. Young cats going through the awkward in-between stage can look dull for a while.
The final shade tends to settle between one and two years of age, and the long Maine Coon coat takes even longer to fill out. Look at both parents and any older relatives when choosing, since they are the clearest picture of how a kitten will look as an adult.
Is a Blue Maine Coon Gray or Silver?
Blue and gray mean the same thing in everyday speech, but silver is a different thing. Blue is a solid dilute gray with no inhibitor gene. Silver, in cat terms, means a coat where the inhibitor gene removes the warm tint from the hairs near the root, leaving a clean white base with dark tipping or stripes. A silver cat is usually patterned or shaded, and a blue cat is an even gray.
A pet owner would call all of them gray, but a breeder separates silver from blue because they are produced by different genes and judged as different classes. A blue-cream, which carries both blue and cream patches, is another variation, and it is covered on our calico and tortoiseshell page.
Does Coat Color Change a Maine Coon's Health or Temperament?
No reliable evidence says that blue cats have a different nature or different health from other colors in the breed. Be careful with any breeder who claims blue kittens are calmer or sturdier. The things that shape a kitten are its parents, the care it gets and the time spent with people.
What matters for any color is a breeder who raises kittens in a home and can answer your questions plainly. Read our guide to Maine Coon health to know what to ask, and see the available kittens for who is looking for a home.
Blue Maine Coon Questions
01Are blue Maine Coons rare?
Less common than brown tabby, but not rare. Because blue needs two copies of a recessive gene, you see fewer of them, and the demand for the color keeps it popular.
02Are blue Maine Coons more expensive?
The Maine Coon price page and the kitten cards show what each kitten includes.
03Can two non-blue Maine Coons have a blue kitten?
Yes, if both parents carry one copy of the dilution gene. Each kitten then has a one in four chance of inheriting two copies and being blue.
04What is the difference between blue and gray?
Nothing in everyday speech. "Blue" is the term cat breeders and associations use for the gray dilute of black, and "gray" is what everyone else calls it.
05Do blue Maine Coons have blue eyes?
Usually not. A solid blue cat has gold, copper or green eyes. Blue eyes appear with white spotting or white coats, not with the blue coat itself.
Hoping for a Blue Maine Coon?
Tell us what you are looking for and we will let you know when a kitten like that is ready.