All Maine Coon Colors and Patterns: 15 Popular and Rare Shades

Key takeaways

• Maine Coons come in a huge range of colors and patterns — the CFA's breed standard lists well over 70 color and pattern combinations.
• Every Maine Coon coat is a combination of a base color (black, blue, red, cream or white) and a pattern (solid, tabby, tortoiseshell, smoke, shaded, or any of these with white).
• Brown tabby is the color most closely associated with the breed, but solid whites, shaded silvers and dilute torties are far less often seen.
• Chocolate, lilac (lavender), cinnamon, fawn and colorpoint coats are not accepted by the major registries — a "rare" Maine Coon in one of these shades is a red flag.

Maine Coons are one of the most popular cat breeds in the world, and their coat variety is a big part of the appeal. If you've ever tried to look up all Maine Coon colors, you'll know how quickly it gets confusing: the Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA) breed standard lists well over 70 named color and pattern combinations, and breeders use their own shorthand on top of that.

The good news is that every Maine Coon coat can be broken down into two parts: a base color and a pattern. Once you understand those, the names make sense. Below, we cover the six main patterns, the nine colors you'll see most often, which shades are genuinely uncommon, and how to identify your own cat's coat.

Maine Coon Color Chart at a Glance

Category	What it means	Examples
Solid	One even color from root to tip, no markings	Black, blue, red, cream, white
Tabby	Visible striped, swirled or ticked markings	Brown classic tabby, red mackerel tabby, silver tabby
Tortoiseshell and torbie	Black and red (or blue and cream) mixed together	Tortoiseshell, blue-cream, brown torbie
Smoke	Colored tips with a white or silver undercoat; looks solid until the coat moves	Black smoke, blue smoke, red smoke
Shaded and shell	Light undercoat with darker tipping on the back, sides and tail	Shaded silver, chinchilla (shell) silver, cameo
With white (bicolor, calico, van)	Any of the above plus white areas	Brown tabby and white, black and white, calico

The Color of Maine Coon Cats: What You Need to Know

Where the breed comes from

The Maine Coon is one of the oldest natural breeds in North America and the official state cat of Maine. Its exact origins are unclear. A popular story says the breed descends from Norwegian Forest Cats brought over by Vikings, but this is a legend rather than an established fact. Genetic studies place the Maine Coon within the Western European group of cats, with its closest relationship to the random-bred cats of the northeastern United States. Its resemblance to the Norwegian Forest Cat and Siberian is generally explained by similar cold-climate pressures rather than direct descent.

What we do know is that the breed developed as a working farm and ship cat in New England, which is why the original coat colors are those of ordinary domestic cats of the region. That history shows up in its personality too: practical, sociable and adaptable.

Yes, there is a breed standard for color

It's sometimes said that any color goes for Maine Coons. That isn't quite right. The major registries accept a very wide range of colors and patterns, but they set clear limits:

• CFA disqualifies cats showing evidence of hybridization resulting in the colors chocolate or lavender, or the Himalayan (colorpoint) pattern. It also disqualifies white buttons, lockets or spots on otherwise colored cats.
• TICA accepts only colors based on dominant black plus red, and excludes chocolate, lilac, cinnamon, fawn and pointed, sepia and mink patterns.
• FIFe and GCCF similarly exclude the chocolate, lilac, cinnamon and fawn series and pointed patterns.

In practice, this means every accepted Maine Coon is built from five base colors — black, blue, red, cream and white — combined with the patterns below.

6 Common Maine Coon Patterns

Color is the pigment itself. Pattern is how that pigment is distributed across the coat. Here are the six patterns you'll see most often.

1. Solid

A solid Maine Coon is one even color from root to tip, including the tail and paws, with no tabby markings. Accepted solid colors are black, blue, red, cream and white. Nose leather and paw pads usually match the coat — black on a black cat, pink on a white cat.

Solid kittens can show faint "ghost" tabby markings that fade as the adult coat comes in. Because the coat is long and dense, smokes are also easily mistaken for solids (see below).

2. Tabby

The tabby is the pattern most people picture when they think of a Maine Coon. All tabbies have the characteristic "M" marking on the forehead. CFA accepts three tabby patterns for Maine Coons:

• Classic (blotched): broad swirls on the sides, often forming a "bullseye", with a butterfly shape across the shoulders.
• Mackerel: narrow, unbroken stripes running down from the spine toward the belly, like a fish skeleton, with rings around the legs and tail.
• Ticked: each hair is banded with color, giving a fine, peppered look across the body, with tabby markings mainly on the face, legs and tail.

TICA also accepts spotted tabbies, while GCCF currently recognizes only classic and mackerel for showing — so whether a pattern is "official" depends on the registry.

3. Tabby and White (Bicolor)

A tabby and white Maine Coon has tabby markings plus white areas — usually the chest, belly and paws, and sometimes the face. Brown tabby and white is one of the most recognizable combinations in the breed, and you'll also find red, blue and silver tabbies with white.

For show purposes, CFA expects cats in its "with white" classes to have white on the bib, belly and all four paws; cats without those areas are penalized.

4. Tortoiseshell and Torbie

A tortoiseshell ("tortie") coat is a mix of black and red, or in the dilute version, blue and cream. When tabby markings are also present, it's called a torbie (tabby tortie). The color patches can be bold or finely mixed, and no two look alike.

Tortoiseshell Maine Coons are almost always female. The orange gene is carried on the X chromosome, so a cat needs two X chromosomes — one carrying orange and one not — to show both colors. Male torties do occur, usually because of an extra X chromosome (XXY), and they are typically sterile.

Add white to a tortie and you have a calico (or dilute calico, in blue and cream) — see our guide to calico Maine Coon cats.

5. Smoke

A smoke Maine Coon has hair that is deeply tipped with color over a white or silvery undercoat. From a distance the cat looks solid; when it moves, or when you part the fur, the pale roots show through. Black smoke is the most familiar, but blue, red, cream and tortoiseshell smokes exist too.

Smoke can be hard to judge in kittens. According to CFA, it may take months to tell which kittens will be smoke, and the full color sometimes isn't clear until the adult coat comes in at around two years.

6. Shaded and Shell

Shaded coats are often confused with smoke, but the effect is different. A shaded Maine Coon has a pale (usually white or silver) undercoat with darker tipping concentrated on the back, sides, face and tail, so the cat looks noticeably lighter toward the chest and belly. A shell or chinchilla coat has even lighter tipping, giving an almost sparkling effect.

Shaded silver and chinchilla silver are the best-known examples. Cameo describes the red or cream versions (a cream cameo, for example, is cream tipping over a silvery-white undercoat). Golden shaded Maine Coons — with a warm, honey-toned undercoat instead of silver — are recognized by some registries, including FIFe, but not all.

9 Popular Maine Coon Colors

These are the colors you're most likely to see advertised, along with what each one really means.

1. Black

A solid black Maine Coon is black from root to tip, with black nose leather and paw pads. Many cats that look solid black are actually black smokes, so check the roots before assuming. Black is also the base color of the brown tabby and black tortoiseshell.

2. Black and White

Often called a "tuxedo" when the white is limited to the chest, paws and face, a black and white Maine Coon is technically a solid bicolor. The amount of white varies a lot, from a small bib to a mostly white "van" pattern with color only on the head and tail.

3. Blue

In cats, "blue" means a soft blue-gray — the diluted form of black. Solid blue Maine Coons have blue-gray nose leather and paw pads, and their dense coats can look almost silvery in the light. Blue also appears in tabby, smoke, tortie (blue-cream) and with-white versions. You'll see the same color in breeds like the Russian Blue, Chartreux and British Shorthair.

Blue kittens may show faint tabby markings that usually fade as the adult coat develops.

4. Blue-Cream (Dilute Tortoiseshell)

Blue-cream is the dilute version of tortoiseshell: a mix of soft blue-gray and pale cream. Like torties, blue-cream Maine Coons are almost always female. It's one of the shades people often have in mind when they search for rare blue Maine Coon colors, because you see it far less often than solid blue or blue tabby. Blue-cream also comes as blue-cream smoke, blue torbie and dilute calico.

5. Brown (Brown Tabby)

"Brown" in Maine Coons almost always means brown tabby: a warm, coppery-brown ground color with black markings. There's no accepted solid brown — a solid brown cat would be chocolate, which the major registries exclude.

Brown tabby is the color most closely associated with the breed. The first Best in Show winner at the 1895 Madison Square Garden cat show, a Maine Coon named Cosey, was a brown tabby. Brown tabby and white is equally popular, and brown torbies also occur. It's a common coat in Maine Coon mixes and the Maine Coon Ragdoll mix too.

6. Cream

Cream is the diluted form of red: a pale, buff or biscuit shade that can look almost white at a quick glance. Cream Maine Coons usually have pink nose leather and paw pads. Like solid red, solid cream cats often show faint tabby markings, especially as kittens. Cream also appears as cream tabby, cream smoke and cream cameo (cream tipping over a silvery undercoat).

Cream and red Maine Coons are found in both American and European Maine Coon lines.

7. Red

Red (often called orange or ginger) Maine Coons are deep, rich orange with brick-red nose leather and paw pads. Most show tabby markings, because the orange gene doesn't hide the tabby pattern the way black does. A truly unmarked solid red is much less common, and even many "solid" reds show faint markings.

Most red cats are male. As with torties, the orange gene sits on the X chromosome: a male needs only one copy to be red, while a female needs two. Female red Maine Coons certainly exist, but they are outnumbered by males. Find out more in our guide to orange Maine Coon cats.

8. Silver

Silver isn't a separate base color but a modifier: it removes the warm tones from the undercoat, leaving it white or silvery. Combined with the tabby pattern, it produces the striking silver tabby (black markings on a silver ground). The same gene is behind smoke, shaded and shell coats.

A good silver should be clean and clear. Yellowish or brownish tinges in a silver coat — often called "tarnish" — are generally considered a fault rather than a feature.

9. White

A solid white Maine Coon is pure white, with pink nose leather and paw pads. White isn't really a color in the genetic sense: it's caused by a dominant gene that masks whatever color the cat would otherwise be. Because the gene is dominant, a white kitten needs at least one white parent. White kittens sometimes have a small smudge of color on the head that fades with age.

White Maine Coons may have green, gold, copper, blue or odd eyes (one blue, one another color). While the Maine Coon isn't a blue-eyed breed, the CFA standard allows blue or odd eyes in white cats and cats with white.

A note on hearing: the dominant white gene is linked to congenital deafness, and the risk rises with the number of blue eyes. In studies of white cats summarized by Louisiana State University's deafness research, deafness affected roughly 17–22% of white cats without blue eyes, around 40% of those with one blue eye, and 65–85% of those with two blue eyes. Hereditary deafness is present from early kittenhood, so if you're considering a white kitten, ask the breeder whether the litter has been hearing-tested, and talk to your vet if you have concerns about your cat's hearing.

What Is the Rarest Maine Coon Color?

No registry publishes figures on how common each Maine Coon color is, so any "rarest color" ranking is based on breeder experience rather than data. That said, these colors and patterns are generally seen less often than brown tabbies, blacks and reds:

• Solid white — needs a white parent and is often bred selectively.
• Shaded and shell silvers and cameos — depend on the right combination of silver and tabby genes.
• Golden shaded — recognized by some registries but not all.
• Blue-cream, dilute calico and tortie smokes — combinations that require several genes at once, and are almost always female.
• Truly solid reds and creams — with no visible tabby markings.

If you're told a Maine Coon is rare because it's chocolate, lilac, cinnamon, fawn or colorpoint, be cautious. These colors are excluded by the major registries, and their appearance usually points to another breed somewhere in the cat's ancestry.

Brindle Maine Coons: What the Term Really Means

You may see a cat described as a "brindle Maine Coon", but brindle isn't a recognized color or pattern for Maine Coons in any of the major registries. When people use it, they usually mean one of three things:

• A tabby — often a brown mackerel tabby, whose narrow stripes look similar to a brindle dog's coat.
• A tortoiseshell or torbie — where black and red hairs are finely mixed together.
• Brindling in the judging sense — in cat show language, "brindling" means stray hairs of another color scattered through the coat, which is treated as a fault in some colors.

If you're buying a kitten advertised as brindle, ask the breeder what color and pattern is on its registration papers. That will tell you exactly what you're getting.

How to Identify Your Maine Coon's Color

If you're unsure which color your cat is, work through these steps:

1. Look for tabby markings. Check the forehead for an "M", and look at the legs and tail for rings. If you see them, your cat has a tabby pattern; if not, it's likely solid, smoke or shaded.
2. Part the fur. Gently part the coat down to the skin on the back. A white or silver root under dark tips means smoke or shaded; color all the way down means solid or tabby.
3. Check nose leather and paw pads. Black or dark gray pads suggest black-based colors; blue-gray suggests blue; brick red or pink suggests red, cream or white.
4. Look for two colors mixed. Patches or a mingling of black and red (or blue and cream) mean tortie or torbie.
5. Note any white. White on the chest, belly and paws adds "and white" to the name; tortie with white is calico.
6. Check the paperwork. Registration papers and pedigrees list the cat's color. Many European registries use FIFe's EMS codes, where letters give the color (for example, n = black, a = blue, d = red, e = cream, f = black tortie, g = blue tortie, s = silver, w = white) and numbers give the pattern (for example, 22 = classic, 23 = mackerel, 24 = spotted, 25 = ticked, 03 = bicolor, 09 = with white).

Do Maine Coon kittens change color?

Yes, often. A kitten's coat can look quite different from its adult coat:

• Smoke and silver kittens may look muddy or mottled at first, with the silver undercoat becoming clearer as they grow.
• Cream and blue kittens often have faint tabby markings that usually fade with the adult coat.
• Tabby markings can become more or less defined with age.

Maine Coons are slow to mature, and the full adult coat may not be in until around two years old, so a breeder's color assessment of a young kitten is a best judgement rather than a guarantee. For more on spotting the breed's traits early, see how to tell if your kitten is a Maine Coon.

Maine Coon Eye Colors by Coat

The CFA standard allows Maine Coon eyes in shades of green, gold, green-gold or copper, with no link to coat color for most cats. Blue eyes and odd eyes are allowed only in white cats and cats with white. So a brown tabby can have green or gold eyes, but a blue-eyed brown tabby without white would not meet the standard.

Does Coat Color Affect Health or Personality?

For most colors, no. A Maine Coon's temperament comes from its breed, upbringing and individual character, not the color of its coat — a red tabby is no more or less friendly than a blue smoke. If you're choosing a cat for a family home, focus on the individual kitten's temperament and the breeder's socialization rather than its color.

The one well-established color-related health link is the deafness risk in white cats, especially blue-eyed ones (see above). Breed-wide health concerns — such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), hip dysplasia and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) — apply to Maine Coons of every color, so ask any breeder about health testing on both parents. Our guide to Maine Coon lifespan covers the factors that matter most.

Choosing a Maine Coon by Color

If you have your heart set on a particular color, a few practical points will help:

• Expect waiting lists for less common colors. Breeders who specialize in silvers, smokes or whites may only have a few litters a year.
• Ask how color affects price. Some breeders charge more for in-demand colors, while others price mainly on pet or show quality and bloodlines. Prices vary widely, so contact breeders directly and compare like with like.
• Prioritize health and temperament. Color is the one trait that has no bearing on what the cat will be like to live with.
• Be prepared for change. As covered above, a kitten's final color may not be clear for many months.
• Think about grooming. Every Maine Coon needs regular brushing, whatever its color, and lighter coats can show dirt more readily. See do Maine Coon cats shed? for what to expect.

Red Flags to Watch Out For

• "Rare" chocolate, lilac, lavender, cinnamon, fawn or colorpoint Maine Coons. These colors are excluded by CFA, TICA, FIFe and GCCF. A Maine Coon in these colors is likely to have another breed in its background.
• No registration papers. A pedigree Maine Coon should come with registration from a recognized body, which also records its color.
• Color as the main selling point. A breeder who talks more about color than health testing or temperament may not have the right priorities.
• Guaranteed adult colors for very young kittens, particularly smokes and silvers, which can be hard to judge early.

Maine Coon Colors FAQ

What colors do Maine Coon cats come in?

Maine Coons come in five base colors — black, blue, red, cream and white — combined with patterns including solid, tabby (classic, mackerel and ticked), tortoiseshell, smoke, shaded and any of these with white. The CFA standard lists well over 70 named combinations.

What is the most common Maine Coon color?

No registry publishes color statistics, but brown tabby — with or without white — is the color most closely associated with the breed and one of the most frequently seen.

What is the rarest Maine Coon color?

There's no official answer, but solid white, shaded and shell silvers, golden shaded, blue-cream and truly unmarked solid reds and creams are generally seen less often. Chocolate, lilac and colorpoint aren't rare Maine Coon colors — they aren't accepted Maine Coon colors at all.

Is a blue Maine Coon rare?

Blue isn't especially rare. Solid blue and blue tabby are well established in the breed. Combinations such as blue-cream, blue smoke or blue silver tabby are seen less often.

What is the most expensive Maine Coon color?

There's no fixed answer. Some breeders charge more for in-demand or less common colors, but price usually depends more on the breeder, bloodlines and whether the kitten is sold as a pet or for showing. Contact breeders directly for current prices.

Are Maine Coons always tabby?

No. Tabby is the most familiar pattern, but Maine Coons also come in solid, smoke, shaded, tortoiseshell and bicolor coats.

Do Maine Coons change color as they age?

Their coats often do change as kittens grow, especially in smokes, silvers, creams and blues. The adult coat may not be fully developed until around two years old.

Final Thoughts on Maine Coon Colors

Once you know the five base colors and six main patterns, the long list of Maine Coon color names becomes much easier to follow. Whether you're drawn to a classic brown tabby, a striking black smoke or a soft blue-cream, there's a huge range to choose from — just make sure it's an accepted color, from a breeder who puts health and temperament first. For more on the breed, see our interesting facts about Maine Coon cats.