Maine Coon Colors: The Whole Palette, Straight from the Standards

Every Maine Coon color the five major registries actually recognize, the three they all exclude, eye-color rules, and what blue-eyed buyers should ask about.

By Nora

Published August 20, 2026Updated August 27, 2026 6 min read

Photo: Pumbonis · CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Contents

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Ask five cat registries what colors a Maine Coon comes in and you get an answer with a plot twist: almost everything, except three things they quietly agree to refuse. This page is the map. The full recognized palette, the exclusions with each registry's own words, the eye-color rules (which genuinely differ by country), and the one conversation every buyer of a blue-eyed kitten deserves to have before money changes hands.

What colors do Maine Coon cats come in?

All five major English-language registries ( and in the US, in the UK, in Canada, in Australia) recognize the same core family:

Solids

black, white, blue (the registry word for gray), red, cream

Tabby

classic and mackerel patterns everywhere; ticked is a genuine dispute, see below

Tortoiseshell

and its dilute versions

Silver, shaded and smoke

the dramatic pale-undercoat family

With white

bicolor, parti-color-and-white, calico, and the mostly-white van pattern

Brown is the coat everyone pictures, the breed's default reference. But 's show standard alone lists some ninety named color classes. If you came here to identify one cat, jump to its page: black, orange (ginger), blue, white, calico, tortie, or black smoke.

Black

Orange (ginger)

Blue (gray)

White

Calico

Tortie

Black smoke

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The three colors every registry refuses

Here is the part most color lists skip: chocolate, lilac (lavender), and the pointed Siamese-style pattern are not standard Maine Coon colors in any registry that states a position. 's standard says the quiet part out loud: those colors are disqualified as "evidence of hybridization," meaning a chocolate Maine Coon suggests another breed slipped into the family tree. puts it flatly: chocolate, lilac and Siamese points are not allowed. 's current standard goes further and also excludes cinnamon, fawn and caramel, plus the sepia, mink and pointed coat categories; Australia's list is longer still.

So if a listing offers you a "rare chocolate Maine Coon," you are not looking at a rare Maine Coon. You are looking at a cat no major registry would register as one.

One real disagreement: ticked and spotted tabby

Registries do not perfectly agree, and pretending otherwise would be tidier than true. Ticked tabby (each hair banded, like an Abyssinian) is showable at , banned from the ring by in the UK, and registerable but not showable in Canada, where adds a breeder's warning about the gene's dominance. Spotted tabby gets the same UK and Canada treatment, while Australia's standard reads as permissive. 's documents are silent on spotted. If you plan to show your cat, this is a check-your-registry moment; if you just love your cat, it changes nothing.

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Maine Coon eye colors, registry by registry

For every non-white Maine Coon, eyes run green, gold, green-gold or copper, and no registry ties eye color to coat color. Blue and odd eyes (one blue, one gold) are where the rules split by country:

Registry	Blue or odd eyes allowed for
(US)	White cats and ANY cat with white (the broadest rule)
(US)	Whites and particolors
(Canada)	White, bicolor and van patterns
(Australia)	White, or cats with white in van or bicolor
(UK)	Pure white cats ONLY (the strictest)

The UK's rule surprises people: a British bicolor with blue eyes cannot be shown under , while the same cat sails through a ring in the US.

Blue eyes, white coats, and the hearing conversation

This section is information, not a diagnosis, and it matters most before a purchase.

Two separate things link striking eyes and coats to hearing in cats. First, the long-known association between all-white coats, blue eyes and deafness that runs across every cat breed; it is graded, not automatic, and plenty of white cats hear perfectly. Second, and specific to Maine Coons: a 2024 peer-reviewed study of 58 cats identified a "dominant blue eyes" trait in one specific lineage, blue eyes with barely any white, where every one of the eight blue-eyed cats given a formal hearing test showed reduced or absent hearing in at least one ear. A second, unrelated blue-eyed line carried none of it. Blue eyes in this breed are not one thing genetically, and neither is the hearing risk.

Before you buy

The practical takeaway is one sentence. US breeders commonly price blue-eyed and kittens at a premium, roughly $600 to $2,100 above standard on the price lists we checked. A simple, painless hearing test (called ) exists. If you are paying extra for those eyes, asking the breeder "has this kitten had a BAER test?" is a fair and normal question. A deaf cat can live a wonderful indoor life; you simply deserve to know what you are bringing home. And if anything about a kitten seems off: something wrong with your cat means call your vet, out of hours an emergency clinic.

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Why colors work the way they do, briefly

The deep genetics deserve their own sourced treatment, but three visible rules help read any litter. Dilution is recessive: it softens black to blue and red to cream, which is why two blue parents do not throw black kittens. White is a mask worn over whatever color the cat genetically is underneath, which is why a white Maine Coon's kittens can be a surprise. And the orange family is carried on the X chromosome, which is why torties and calicos are almost always female and an orange male is just an orange male.

Is there a rarest Maine Coon color?

Honestly: no registry ranks colors by rarity, and nobody publishes population counts per color, so every "top 10 rarest" list you have seen is guesswork. What the standards do reveal, in their fault language, is which coats are hardest to keep pristine: Canada's standard objects to a "smokey undercoat or rust tinge" on black cats, and the UK's flags "tarnishing" on silvers. Clean solid black, true white and bright silver are hard-won coats, which is the honest version of the rarity story. Expect the word "rare" in a kitten ad to mean "more expensive," and check what the premium actually buys on our price page.

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Frequently asked questions

What color is a Maine Coon cat, most typically?

Brown classic tabby is the breed's default reference coat, though the recognized palette spans solids, tabbies, torties, silvers, smokes and every one of those with white.

What is the most expensive Maine Coon color?

US breeder lists we checked put the premiums on unusual eyes and coats: blue- and odd-eyed lines, some rare-color lines, at roughly $600 to $2,100 above standard pricing. See the price page for four-market figures.

What color eyes do Maine Coons have?

Green, gold, green-gold or copper for non-white cats. Blue and odd eyes are reserved for white or white-marked cats, with each registry drawing that line differently (table above).

Do Maine Coon kittens change color?

Kitten coats commonly deepen and settle as the adult coat grows in through the first year, and smoke or silver cats in particular can look different as the pale undercoat develops. The class a kitten is registered under can be a poor preview of the adult coat.

Can a Maine Coon be chocolate or pointed?

Not per any major registry: chocolate, lilac and pointed are excluded everywhere a position is stated, and CFA treats them as evidence of another breed in the line.

Community questions

Got a question this page doesn't cover? Ask it: the best ones get published here with their answer.

Comments

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This is information, not veterinary advice, and it cannot tell you what is wrong with your cat. Our rule is a simple one: if something is wrong with your cat, call your vet, and call an emergency clinic if it is out of hours. Nothing you read here is a reason to wait.

Medical information applies to every reader. Prices, legal duties and common practice do not: unless stated otherwise, they are given for the United States, and they differ in the UK, Canada and Australia, and often between states or provinces. Check with your own vet and your own local authority.

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Maine Coon Colors: The Whole Palette, Straight from the Standards

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