Colors

Maine Coon Colors

Brown tabby is the classic, but Maine Coons come in almost every color and pattern. Here is what each one is.

What color are Maine Coon cats? Almost any color a domestic cat can be. Brown tabby is the look most people picture, but the breed also comes in orange, black, white, blue, silver, calico and tortoiseshell, with or without white, and in dozens of combinations of those. The big shaggy coat and the tufted ears stay the same whatever the color.

This page is a map of the whole palette. It explains the main groups, how coats change as a kitten grows, which colors the cat associations do not accept, and what color can and cannot tell you about a cat. Each group has its own page with more detail, and you can see which kittens are ready to go home on the available kittens page.

The Maine Coon Colors

Auggie, a red tabby Maine Coon girl kitten, basking on a patterned rug in a patch of sun

Orange Maine Coons

1 kitten available now

Sherkhan, a black smoke Maine Coon girl kitten, lounging on a quilted bed in the afternoon sun

Black Maine Coons

2 kittens available now

Argo, a white, odd-eyed Maine Coon boy kitten, sitting on a cream cushion by a glass door

White Maine Coons

1 kitten available now

Kotik, a silver tabby Maine Coon boy kitten, stretched out along a dark tabletop

Silver Maine Coons

3 kittens available now

Elvis, a brown tabby Maine Coon boy kitten, stretched out on a bed of French-print linen, mid-meow

Brown Tabby Maine Coons

3 kittens available now

Blue Maine Coons

Soft gray, the dilute of black

Calico Maine Coons

Calico and tortie girls

Also: polydactyl Maine Coons (extra toes) and giant Maine Coons.

What Colors Do Maine Coon Cats Come In?

Both big registries, CFA and TICA, accept Maine Coons in nearly every color and pattern. The groups you will meet most often are these:

Tabby: brown, silver, red (orange), blue and cream tabbies, in classic or mackerel patterns. Brown tabby is the breed's signature, covered on the brown tabby Maine Coon page.
Solid: black, white, blue, red and cream with no visible pattern. See black, white and blue.
Smoke and shaded: a pale undercoat with a darker tip on each hair, which flashes silver when the cat moves. See silver Maine Coons.
Tortoiseshell and calico: patches of two colors, with white added in a calico. See calico and tortoiseshell.
Orange and cream: warm gingers and soft pale creams, on the orange Maine Coon page.

Any of these can also come "with white", meaning white on the chest, belly, paws or face. Bicolor and van patterns carry more white still.

Which Colors Do the Cat Associations Not Accept?

The associations leave out colors that point to a past cross with another breed. Chocolate, cinnamon, lavender (a pale pinkish gray) and the Siamese style "pointed" pattern with a pale body and dark face, ears, legs and tail do not appear in the CFA or TICA Maine Coon standards. The reason is history rather than health: those colors came into other breeds, and a Maine Coon showing them suggests Siamese or similar ancestry somewhere behind it.

A cat like that can still be a loving pet, but it is not a purebred Maine Coon by the standard. If an ad promises a "chocolate Maine Coon" or a "lilac point", be careful: those colors point to another breed in the background.

Do Maine Coon Kittens Change Color as They Grow?

Yes, and sometimes a lot. Kittens are born with a baby coat and the full adult coat arrives slowly over the first year or two. A few common changes:

Smoke and shaded kittens often look solid at first. The pale undercoat shows as the adult coat grows in.
Black kittens can show faint tabby stripes, called ghost markings, that fade as they mature.
Silver tabby kittens may look dark and muddy, then clear and brighten.
Eye color shifts too. Every kitten starts with blue eyes, and the final green, gold or copper settles in over several months.

What does not change is the genes underneath. A reliable breeder can tell you what a kitten will most likely become, but pale-tipped colors in particular are still a bit of a guess at eight weeks.

How Does a Maine Coon Get Its Color?

Genetics sounds scary, but the basics are simple. Cats have two pigments, black (eumelanin) and orange (pheomelanin). Everything else is a modifier. The dilution gene turns black into blue and orange into cream. The inhibitor gene strips yellow from the base of each hair, which gives silver and smoke. The dominant white gene hides every other color.

The orange gene sits on the X chromosome. Males have one X, so one copy makes a male orange. Females have two, so they need two copies to be fully orange, and a female with one orange and one black copy becomes a tortoiseshell or calico. That is why most orange cats are male and nearly all calicos and torties are female.

Is There a Rarest or Most Expensive Maine Coon Color?

People search for this a lot, and the honest answer is that rarity depends on where you look. Solid white, solid black, and some smokes and shadeds are harder to find than brown tabby, simply because fewer litters produce them. Tortoiseshell and calico males are genuinely rare, because a male needs an extra X chromosome to wear both colors.

Rare does not mean healthier, nicer or better in any way that matters at home. For how pricing works, read the Maine Coon price page, and look at the kitten cards for what each cat actually involves.

Does Color Affect Personality?

Not in any way that has been shown. You will hear that orange cats are goofy, tortoiseshells have "tortitude" and black cats are mellow. Some small surveys have found hints, but nothing reliable, and they mostly measure what owners expect to see. Maine Coon temperament comes from the breed, from the parents, and above all from how early kittens are handled and socialized. See the Maine Coon personality guide for what to expect. Pick the color you love, then pick the kitten whose behavior suits your home.

If you are still deciding on size, the size guide is a good next stop.

Maine Coon Color Questions

What is the most common Maine Coon color?

Brown tabby, often with white. It is the classic look, and the one most people picture first.

Can a Maine Coon be solid black or solid white?

Yes to both. Solid black is accepted in the show standards. White is accepted too, with blue, gold, green or odd eyes, though white cats with blue eyes have a higher chance of deafness, so ask about hearing.

What color eyes do Maine Coons have?

Green, gold and copper are the usual shades, and blue appears in white cats and in some cats with a lot of white. All kittens are born with blue eyes that change at around two months or later.