Two sellers can both say HCM tested and mean completely different things.
Maine Coon
Maine Coon
Maine Coon
Maine Coon
Maine Coon
Maine Coon
Maine Coon
Maine Coon
Nearly every Maine Coon listing says the parents are HCM tested. HCM is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart muscle that makes the heart work harder than it should. The phrase does a lot of work and explains almost nothing, because it covers two different pieces of veterinary work that cost different amounts and answer different questions. One is a cheek swab done once in a cat’s life. The other is an ultrasound scan of the heart, read by a specialist, that has to be repeated. Sellers who do the cheap one are not always lying to you. They often believe it is the same thing.
What “HCM tested” can mean
A serious breeder does both and will say so without being pushed. If a seller cannot tell you which column they are describing, you have learned something useful already.
Short answer
How old were the parents when they were scanned? Maine Coons are usually diagnosed at around two and a half years old. A clear scan at one year was done before the breed typically shows anything, so it tells you far less than a clear scan at four.
Researchers compared 344 cats with heart muscle thickening across five breeds and found the ages diverged sharply. The median age at diagnosis was 2.5 years for Maine Coons, against 8 years for domestic shorthairs and 11 for Persians.[3] In most breeds a heart problem is a middle-age event. In this one it lands while the cat is still young enough to be producing litters.
That is why a date on a report matters as much as the result on it. A breeding queen scanned clear at twelve months has been checked before the window in which her breed usually declares. The same queen scanned again at three and four years old, still clear, is telling you something real. Both sellers can honestly write “mother scanned clear” in the advert.
What to ask, and what a real answer sounds like
None of these are awkward questions to a breeder who has done the work. Reluctance to answer them is itself the answer.
One more thing worth knowing before you accept a reassurance. Many cats with this disease have nothing abnormal to hear through a stethoscope, so “our vet listened and said the heart sounds fine” is not screening.[2] It is not bad news either. It is simply not evidence.
Short answer
Not automatically. The published risk rises sharply only when a cat inherits two copies. What matters is that both parents were tested, so you can be sure two carriers were not bred together.
A study DNA-tested 1,855 cats, then used heart scans to measure how often carrying the A31P mutation actually produced disease. Cats with one copy: 8 percent. Cats with two copies: 58 percent.[4] That gap is the whole point. A single copy in one parent is a fact to note. Two carriers bred together is the pairing that can produce kittens with two copies, and it is entirely avoidable with a swab that costs very little.
So the useful question is never “is either parent a carrier”. It is “were both parents tested, and what did each one say”. A breeder who tests both and shares both is managing the risk properly. A breeder who tested one cat, or neither, cannot tell you what they have produced.
The same logic applies to spinal muscular atrophy, a condition that weakens the muscles controlling movement. It needs two copies to affect a kitten, so a clear result on either parent rules it out completely.[5] That test is exact and it never expires, which makes it one of the easiest things on this page to check.
Short answer
We are not going to invent a number. No registry or veterinary body publishes breed purchase prices, so every confident range you find was made up. Check the asking price against work the breeder has genuinely paid for instead.
Screening is the reason a well-bred Maine Coon costs more than a poorly bred one, and it is the part you can actually verify. Annual cardiologist scans on both parents are a recurring bill for as long as those cats are breeding. That expense is real and specific to this breed. Treat a kitten priced well below other Maine Coon litters as a prompt to ask whether both parents were scanned.
What should already be included
Then there is the cost that arrives after the kitten does. A 2025 study of pet ownership costs put the lifetime figure for a cat at $20,073 to $47,106 across 15 years, and found that owners typically predict under $6,000.[6] A Maine Coon sits toward the upper end of that. It eats more than an average cat, it needs regular grooming, and it needs a larger version of nearly everything you buy.
Short answer
Two rules cover most of it. Never pay before you have seen the kitten where it lives, with its mother. Never accept a health claim you cannot see a document for.
Reasons to stop the conversation
None of this requires expertise. It requires being willing to ask one more question than the seller expected, and being willing to leave. A breeder who has done the screening finds these questions normal, because they are the questions they would ask.
Short answer
With this breed the case for an adult is unusually strong. A grown Maine Coon has already reached its size, its coat and its temperament. If it has also been scanned, its heart is a known quantity rather than a forecast about its parents.
Buying a kitten means buying a prediction, and with a Maine Coon the prediction runs longer than usual. This breed keeps growing for three to four years, so the cat you collect at twelve weeks is a long way from finished. Adult size, adult coat and adult energy are all guesses at that point.
An adult is the opposite trade. What you see is close to what you get, and the current owner has lived with the cat and can tell you how it behaves. On the heart question specifically, an adult that has been scanned recently gives you information about the actual cat, which is strictly better than any claim about its parents. You can see Maine Coon cats available for adoption on the same platform.
Petmeetly connects owners to each other. Whichever you choose, the part that protects you is the same: see the cat, meet whoever has it now, and pay for what you can verify on paper.
It means one of two very different things. It can mean a one-time cheek swab checking for the A31P mutation, or it can mean an ultrasound scan of the heart read by a cardiologist and repeated every year. Ask which one the seller means before anything else.
No. The gene test looks for one known mutation, and Maine Coons that test negative still develop heart muscle thickening from causes no current test looks for. The ACVIM consensus statement calls the ultrasound scan the gold standard for diagnosis.
This is the question almost nobody asks and it matters more than any other. Maine Coons are typically diagnosed around 2.5 years old, so parents scanned clear at one year were scanned before the disease usually shows. Ask for the date on the report and work out the age.
The cat’s name and microchip number, the date, the name of the cardiologist who performed it, and the findings. A photograph of a certificate with no name or date attached proves nothing, because it could belong to any cat.
They can, but it is not screening. The ACVIM consensus statement notes many affected cats have nothing abnormal to hear through a stethoscope. A quiet chest is reassuring and it is not evidence, so treat it as neither good nor bad news.
Not automatically. In a study that DNA-tested 1,855 cats and heart-scanned a subset, 8 percent of cats with one copy developed heart disease against 58 percent of cats with two. What matters is that both parents were tested, because two carriers bred together is the pairing that produces cats with two copies.
Spinal muscular atrophy weakens the muscles that control movement, and it appears at around three to four months. It needs two copies to affect a kitten, so a clear result on either parent rules it out. The test is exact and results never expire.
We will not quote a number, because no registry or veterinary body publishes one and any confident range you find was invented. What you can do is check the asking price against work the breeder has actually paid for, which is what the section above lists.
Ask what the price leaves out. Annual cardiologist scans on both parents are one of the largest recurring costs in breeding this breed. A price well below other Maine Coon litters is worth understanding rather than celebrating.
A vet health check, age-appropriate vaccinations, worming and flea treatment, a microchip where local rules require one, and copies of both parents’ test results. Ask for the records themselves rather than a summary of them.
Most experienced breeders keep kittens until twelve weeks, and in some places the law sets a minimum age. Check what applies where you live rather than taking a seller’s word. A seller pushing an eight-week-old kitten is worth walking away from.
A 2025 study put the lifetime cost of a cat at $20,073 to $47,106 across 15 years, and found owners typically predict under $6,000. A Maine Coon sits at the upper end, because it eats more, needs more grooming and needs larger everything.
Sources
Fact-checked against the ACVIM consensus statement on feline cardiomyopathies and peer-reviewed feline cardiology in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine.
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