General Advice for Buying a Maine Coon

Avoid breeders that offer kittens at a very cheap price, example: kittens under $1500 (The in red statement is my example)

 (A single 1 way flight cost for 1 parent from Russia, China, Spain, Italy or the UK entirely will run between $1500 & $3500 USD). 

Anything under these prices are either scams or something is not quite right with the lines: As I personally spend a minimum of $9000 per king or queen before shipping. I save and save and save for what I want. "Heart related health problems" are a serious concern when buying a Maine Coon as are serious diseases such as feline parvo which can kill your entire pride. 

Avoid all social media platforms that use the words: "rehoming, adoption, & free" as we specialized husbandry programs try very hard to avoid these word to sift real breeders from scams, this includes scammy cheap back yard breeders (byb) who provide no information or testing.

Avoid breeders that don't do their testing VIA Blood and DNA and X-ray scans & heart echo's. More sources and more information the better. If you take home uncertainty you will regret it down the line. Mind you there are some lucky flowers that can ride by with a cheap MCO, however theirs far too many that don't get that chance causing so much stress and heartbreak in the end. Spending thousands on medical treatments when you have not even had the cat for 1 year is not fun.

Avoid breeders that sell kittens at 8-12 weeks as this is too young for a kitten to be taken from its mother, kittens are still learning lessons and habits during that time (they are still children), Maine coons take 5 years to finish growing out completely, this doesn't mean they stop growing mentally or what have you at a specific age, as we even as humans are ever growing and learning. So this is just overall physically in size, shape and hair length. If the kitten is released too early it can cause major psychological issues that can lead to big medical bills down the line and really bad habits that are hard and more often then not impossible to break due to the severity of the mental damage. We do NOT release our kittens until 16+ weeks (Sometimes longer depending on the needs and personality of the kitten). This gives us time to make sure they are growing well, healthy and it gives us a chance to make sure everyone is ready to go when THEY are ready, not when we are ready.

Ask advice from a cat/breed club and/or other breeders on the veracity of the pedigree and breeder and from multiple sources. Pawpeds is an OPEN source for pedigrees as pedigrees are PUBLIC information - We only use this program to keep track of breeding lines and pedigree information. Look for previous buyers or hunt them down on Facebook or ask the breeder for multiple references.

Avoid a breeder that does not disclose ALL and ANY information pertaining to their King(s) and Queen(s) overall health as part of their kittens health guarantee for breeding. We will NOT hide any information pertaining to our cats and we try our absolute BEST to give as much information we can on our cats as possible.

Avoid breeders who have more than 3 litters at the same time as providing multiple breeding rights from all the kittens and litters. It should be about controlled breeding practices and the health and safety of the breed and overpopulation control (HONESTY). We will not allow breeding rights from every kitten or from every litter. If we have multiple litters, there may be only one Queens litter that has a single kitten available as a breeding kitten (if that and that's if we don't choose to keep it). All others are automatically spayed/neutered before they go home. We want to only select the best to push back into the gene pool to help control future issues. And as it stands now there are way too many animals in the shelters. Please do adopt! Save a life, get a friend for your baby or YOU! 

Avoid breeders who do not take multiple pictures and videos, or refuses to take new ones for you PERSONALLY if and when requested. We will upload pictures/videos on our YouTube channel and Facebook starting at time of birth, of course if I (kosmos) am not being 15 people doing 15 different jobs... I get distracted and forget, I'm very overworked!! BUT the future is bright and I must push on. The link to our YouTube can be also found on the Plans page.