The rarest Maine Coon color always seems to be the one you want! Breeders aim to breed the colors that most people enquire about and so some colors tend to be harder to find. What is the rarest Maine Coon color?
In the Maine Coon world, the rarest color is a true solid red where all of a cat’s fur is one single shade of red. This color is so rare that you are unlikely to ever see it. However, some Maine Coons are classified as rare solid red if their coat contains just red fur of similar shades.
Only 1 in 5 red Maine Coons are females which means, in reality, a solid red female Maine Coon is the rarest cat of all.
What is a solid red Maine Coon?
A cat is said to have a solid red color coat if each strand of fur is one color from root to tip and all of its fur is this same color with no visible pattern at all.
There is more than one shade of fur that falls into the red category, varying from very pale gold to very dark ginger. These can also be described as:
- Yellow
- Amber
- Gold
- Apricot
- Marmalade
- Orange
- Ginger
- Bronze
It is very unlikely that you’ll ever see a red Maine Coon without a smoke or faint tabby pattern. In fact, if you apply the rule for solid coats, solid red Maine Coons are so rare that they probably don’t exist at all.
However, Maine Coons are classed as solid red if they have slightly different shades of red fur but do not have white or any other color fur.
The cat in the photo below is my red smoke Maine Coon, Fred. Though his fur is shades of red, he’s not classed as a solid red as he has a smoke coat where his fur is paler at the roots.
He also has faint tabby markings around his legs, and the dominant tabby M marking on his forehead.
What colors can Maine Coon cats be?
Five basic colors make up the various patterns of Maine Coon cats. These are:
- Black
- White
- Red (also known as orange or ginger)
- Blue (also known as grey or gray)
- Cream (also known as buff)
Red, blue, and cream coats can vary from very pale to very dark shades. If a cat has just one color in its coat, it is referred to as having a solid coat.
Combinations of two or more of these colors give rise to a variety of Maine Coon patterns classed as either:
Other rare Maine Coon colors
After solid red, the solid black Maine Coon is quite a rare cat. Many cats that appear to be solid black are in fact black smoke as their coats are paler at the roots.
Solid white Maine Coons are also quite rare, followed by solid cream.
Are red Maine Coons rare?
In general red Maine Coons are not rare, only those with a solid coat are.
Red girls are rare than red boys as statistically they only make up 20% of the red Maine Coon population.
The next photo shows Harry, our red classic tabby Maine Coon, when he was 17 months old.
Most red Maine Coons are red tabbies with one of the following patterns:
- Mackerel (striped)
- Classic (whorls)
- Agouti (ticked)
A red Maine Coon without a pattern is quite likely to be a red Smoke. These can vary from pale to dark red fur at the tips but always have white roots. Our 15-month-old Maine Coons, Oscar and Fred in the next photo, are both red smokes but look completely different.
Are Black Maine Coon cats rare?
Whilst solid black Maine Coons are quite rare, black smokes are more common. Many Maine Coon patterns contain black or a diluted version of black, and there is also a tuxedo Maine Coon with black and white fur.
You can tell a solid black and black smoke Maine Coon apart by examining their roots.
Are orange Maine Coons rare?
Like solid red Maine Coons, solid orange Maine Coons are extremely rare. However, orange tabby Maine Coons are not particularly rare.
Orange is a term used to describe red Maine Coons with a bright, vibrant coat, a color often referred to as ginger.
How rare are blue Maine Coons?
Solid blue Maine Coons are rarer than those with blue-patterned coats but are more common than the other solid coat colors.
Blue is a dilute version of black and occurs when a black Maine Coon inherits a dilution gene. There are various blue shades from pale and silvery, to slate grey.
Are gold Maine Coons rare?
A solid gold Maine Coon is as rare as a solid red. Technically speaking, gold is just a descriptive word to describe a particular shade of red.
A gold Maine Coon has a pale, yellowish-cream to golden coat. Bear in mind that gold itself has varying shades depending on its carat, so gold Maine Coons can also vary in color
What is the most popular Maine Coon color?
The most popular Maine Coon is the brown classic tabby. Officially this cat is a black tabby but it does appear to have mainly brown fur.
If you look back at the history of Maine Coons, you’ll discover that most early Maine Coon had the black tabby pattern. Selective breeding programs over the years have produced the vast array of Maine Coon colors and patterns available today.