Are Maine Coon Cats Rare?

Published: June 02, 2026

When you start typing "Maine Coon" into Google, one of the suggested searches that pops up is: are Maine Coon cats rare?

That's an interesting one! Because Maine Coons are actually one of the most popular cat breeds in the world. So why do so many people ask it?

Well, it depends on what someone means by "Maine Coon."

There are really two completely different conversations happening at once.

➤ The person asking is usually seeing fluffy cats everywhere, hearing about waitlists, seeing $2,500-$4,000 kittens, and watching people claim every longhaired shelter cat is a Maine Coon - and trying to make sense of all those mixed signals at once.

Why the Answer Gets Confusing

Here's the thing. Many people use "Maine Coon" to describe a look rather than a breed.

A fluffy cat with a bushy tail, large paws, or ear tufts gets called a Maine Coon all the time. These are striking features, and the comparison is an easy one to make.

Here on MCCN we've spent years watching this exact conversation play out in comments, emails, and photo submissions.

It's one of the most common questions we get, and one of the most fun to explore. A cat who makes you wonder where he came from is a pretty special cat.

The average cat person doesn't think about breeds the way dog people do. Most people understand that a Labrador is a Labrador, and a German Shepherd is a German Shepherd.

With cats, though, many people think in terms of appearance rather than breed.

In their minds, fluffy cat equals Maine Coon. Gray cat equals Russian Blue. Colorpoint cat equals Siamese.

So when someone asks "are Maine Coon cats rare?" they're often not even asking about the actual breed population. They're asking how common it is to see a cat that looks like that.

Cats that look like that are definitely not rare!

Why People Think They're Rare

Several things contribute to the feeling that Maine Coons are hard to come by.

For one, they're expensive. Purebred kittens often cost significantly more than the average pet cat, and that alone can make them feel like something unusual or exclusive.

Many reputable breeders also maintain waiting lists, sometimes taking reservations before a litter is even born. When you can't just go get one this weekend, it creates the impression of scarcity.

Their size and appearance don't help, either. Maine Coons are hard to miss.

People notice them in a way they might not notice other cats, which makes them feel more remarkable than their actual numbers would suggest.

And there are simply far fewer Maine Coon breeders than there are sources for ordinary kittens. You can find a domestic kitten almost anywhere.

Finding a purebred Maine Coon usually takes a more intentional search.

Can You Find One at a Shelter?

Yes, occasionally! Purebred Maine Coons do end up in shelters and rescues from time to time. It's not common, but it happens.

Owners become elderly, circumstances change, and sometimes - as hard as it is to imagine - a beloved cat gets left behind. His pedigree may be lost, but that doesn't make him any less of a Maine Coon.

With that said, many cats labeled as Maine Coons in shelters are not pedigreed Maine Coons.

A cat can have long fur, a bushy tail, ear tufts, and a big personality and still be a domestic longhair. Resemblance alone isn't proof of ancestry.

Without registration papers or a known pedigree, there's really no way to know for certain whether a cat has Maine Coon heritage - and that's okay! A cat doesn't need papers to be extraordinary.

How Easy Is It to Get a Maine Coon?

Finding a purebred Maine Coon isn't particularly difficult, but it does require some planning.

Waiting lists are common, especially with reputable breeders. Some take reservations well before a litter arrives.

Depending on where you live, you may also need to travel or arrange transportation rather than finding a breeder just down the road.

The breed is in high demand, which means the best breeders often have buyers lined up well in advance.

Maine Coons aren't exceptionally rare, but they're also not something you can usually pick up on short notice the way an ordinary kitten might be. A little patience goes a long way!

Are Maine Coon Mixes More Common?

Much more common, yes. Cats believed to be Maine Coon mixes are far more prevalent than pedigreed Maine Coons. Some of these cats may genuinely have Maine Coon ancestry somewhere in their family tree.

Others are simply large, longhaired, or tufted domestic cats who share some of those wonderful features we all love about the breed.

This is actually one of the biggest reasons people disagree about how common Maine Coons are.

If you count every cat that resembles the breed, they seem to be everywhere. If you're talking specifically about registered, pedigreed cats, the numbers look quite different.

Without registration papers, a known family history, or DNA testing, it can be genuinely difficult to know whether a cat has Maine Coon ancestry.

There's a whole section of this community devoted to exactly that - cats who might be Coons, who carry that look and that personality, and whose owners are pretty sure there's some Coon in there somewhere.

So, Are They Rare?

Maine Coons are not one of the world's rare cat breeds. They are, in fact, one of the most popular and recognizable breeds going today.

At the same time, they aren't something most people just stumble across. If you're looking for a purebred, you'll need to search with some intention - through breeders, rescues, or breed-specific networks - rather than waiting for one to wander into your life.

And none of this is meant to draw a hard line around who belongs in this community.

The people here love Maine Coons, love cats who look like Maine Coons, love cats who might be Maine Coons, and love cats who have absolutely nothing to do with Maine Coons but showed up and made themselves at home anyway.

That's always been what this place is about. Whether your cat has a pedigree going back ten generations or showed up on your porch one Tuesday, he's welcome here!

« There's a lot more to this breed than meets the eye. For more, the Maine Coon Cat Breed page is a great place to explore.

⇧ Back to Top