MAINE COON COLORS

 Solid-colored Maine Coons have a coat that is essentially one uniform color from the roots toward the tips, without a visible tabby pattern. CFA recognizes five solid colors in the Maine Coon: white, black, blue, red, and cream.
“Blue” does not mean blue in the usual sense—it is the cat-fancy term for a soft blue-gray color. Likewise, “red” generally describes what people may casually call orange, ginger, or marmalade, while “cream” is a much lighter dilute form of red. CFA uses these formal color names when describing pedigreed cats.
Even solid kittens can sometimes show faint “ghost” tabby markings, particularly while their juvenile coat is developing. These markings can become much less noticeable as the adult coat develops. 

 Tabby describes a pattern—not a color or a breed. Maine Coon tabbies can appear in many different color combinations, including brown, red, silver, blue, cream, and others. The pattern determines how the markings are arranged across the cat's coat.
The classic tabby has broad, swirling markings along the sides, often creating a distinctive “bullseye” or marble-like appearance. The mackerel tabby has narrower, more vertical stripes that run along the body, while the ticked tabby has much less obvious body striping because individual hairs are banded with alternating areas of color.
Maine Coon tabbies can also occur with white markings or with patches of another color. For example, a brown tabby with areas of red is called a brown patched tabby, commonly referred to as a torbie. The combination of color, pattern, silver, and white can create an enormous variety of appearances.
This is why two Maine Coons can look dramatically different while both being correctly described as tabbies. Learning to separate the cat's base color from its pattern makes Maine Coon color identification much easier. 

 Silver and smoke are not simply two names for the same color. They describe different ways that color and lighter hair bases appear throughout the coat. A silver tabby has a pale, clear silver ground color with darker tabby markings, while a smoke has a light or white undercoat with the colored portion concentrated toward the ends of the hairs.
A smoke Maine Coon can look almost like a solid-colored cat when the coat is resting. When the cat moves or the fur is parted, the lighter undercoat becomes much more obvious. CFA recognizes colors such as black smoke, blue smoke, cameo smoke, cream smoke, tortie smoke, and blue-cream smoke.
Silver can appear with several tabby patterns and color combinations. CFA recognizes silver tabbies, silver patched tabbies, blue-silver tabbies, and blue-silver patched tabbies, among others. TICA likewise recognizes silver-patterned Maine Coons in combinations such as black-silver, blue-silver, red-silver, and cream-silver.
The easiest way to remember the difference is: silver tabby shows its pattern against a pale silver background, while smoke can look solid until you separate the coat and see the lighter roots.  

 Tortoiseshell and calico describe color patterns rather than a specific breed or single color. A traditional tortoiseshell Maine Coon has black with patches or softly intermingled areas of red. A blue-cream Maine Coon is the dilute version, with blue and cream instead of black and red.
Calico is different because white is a major part of the pattern. CFA describes a calico as white with distinct, unbrindled patches of black and red, with white predominant on the underparts. A dilute calico replaces black and red with blue and cream.
You may also hear terms such as “torbie,” which is commonly used for a tortoiseshell or patched tabby. The important thing to remember is that color and pattern can be combined in many ways, so identifying a Maine Coon's color may require looking at both the individual hair color and the overall pattern.
Tortoiseshell and calico patterns are strongly associated with female cats because of the way the genes controlling orange/red coloration are carried on the X chromosome. Males with these patterns are uncommon and typically have an unusual sex-chromosome combination. 

 White can appear in many different Maine Coon color and pattern combinations. A cat may have a relatively small amount of white, while other cats may have extensive white covering much of the body. The amount and distribution of white can change the way the cat's overall color and pattern is described.
In CFA's Maine Coon standard, bi-color classes include black & white, blue & white, red & white, and cream & white. For these bi-color classifications, white is required on the bib, belly, and all four paws.
White can also occur with tabbies, tortoiseshells, calicos, smoke, and shaded colors. This is why you may see descriptions such as “brown tabby & white,” “silver tabby & white,” or “tortoiseshell & white.” The white doesn't replace the underlying color or pattern—it becomes part of the complete color description.
White cats and Maine Coons with white can also have blue or odd-colored eyes. Eye color and coat color are separate characteristics, and we'll look at that more closely in the next section.  

 Maine Coon eyes are large, expressive, and one of the breed's most striking features. Eye color can range through beautiful shades of green, gold, green-gold, and copper. Unlike some breeds, Maine Coon eye color generally isn't tied to a particular non-white coat color.
Blue eyes and odd eyes are also permitted in white Maine Coons and Maine Coons with white. “Odd-eyed” means that the two eyes are different colors—for example, one blue eye and one green, gold, or copper eye. TICA likewise permits blue and odd eyes in white and particolor Maine Coons.
Eye color and coat color can make each Maine Coon look remarkably unique. A kitten's eye color can also develop and change as the kitten matures, so a young kitten's eyes may not yet show the intensity or final shade they will have as an adult.
When identifying a Maine Coon's color, remember that eye color is a separate characteristic from the coat's color and pattern. The two should not be confused when describing the cat.