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Grooming advice wanted. (LH cat parents, please come in)
Ok, so every week, I have an epic battle of wills in my household. Yes, grooming time.
I have a variety of tools, the furminator (my favorite!) a zoomgroom, a slicker brush, a grooming mitt, and a soft bristle/pin brush that I don't really use.. (I really got this brush when JB got sick and I had to brush out his pants/belly every time he went to the bathroom to brush off the cat litter and untangle any dribbles he had along the way.) ANYHOW...
I mainly use the furminator and run the mitt over the cats to finish. My DSH tolerates being furminated, (I wouldn't say he loves/likes it, but he sits still and lets me brush him, and sometimes even stretches out for me.) My Persian mix, on the other hand, fights me, tooth and nail (LITERALLY!!!) when it comes time for him to be brushed.
So, in desperation, I searched for "persian grooming" on youtube and found some videos and of course, I got conflicting information. Some say not to use slicker brushes because the bristles are sharp. Some swear by them. Some say to use slicker brushes with the little plastic balls on the ends because that's safer for kitty's delicate skin, while others say the balls can pull the hair and cause pain. ::headdesk:: I figure I am just getting a little overzealous with the furminator, since I get SO. MUCH. HAIR. off of both my cats with it, and it probably does hurt a bit when I'm getting towards the end, when my LH cat starts fighting me. I'm looking to add another tool (or two?) to my routine to help eliminate some of the need for the furminator, besides a couple swipes down their backs/around their necks instead of relying on it for the entire grooming session.
What tools do you use? Do your cats enjoy grooming time? What do you do to make it less of a traumatic experience? LOL Please, enlighten me!
Re: Grooming advice wanted. (LH cat parents, please come in)
Honestly, one of our long haired cats gets shaved. I know, some people think that's terrible, blah blah blah--but she HATES being groomed and she does not keep herself clean and her fur mats really badly when she has long hair. She's ridiculous. So we take her to the vet and they shave her. We just started doing it this year and she is much, much happier. And so am I.
As for other tools, we have about the same stuff you do for our second long haired cat--mostly we use the mitt brush though. She rarely gets tangles or mats.
Does your cat get a lot of mats?
ETA: The long haired cat that we shave is not a Persian, and I don't know anything about Persian fur, just as an FYI. So really, I'm probably not helpful at all. lol
Why is it terrible to shave your cat? LOL, that's what my parents did with the cat they had when I was a kid! I always thought he looked silly for a week or so, but it worked for them!
J doesn't really mat (he's just over a year old, so knock on wood there.) but my problem is dealing with the shed on the furniture, carpet and clothes. I realize I will have some, it's a price you pay when you have pets. But I can definitely tell when they're due for a brushin'! And if I skip a grooming session, forget about it. There's hair all over the place.
The furminator works so well, and is so awesome. I always get HUGE mounds of hair off of BOTH my persian/ragdoll cat and DSH, and they can lay on the bed or couch without leaving behind lots and lots of hair. The other tools I use don't get nearly that much hair off of them, so I feel they are less effective. But thinking about how hard J fights me with his grooming sessions, it's really getting to the point where I can't get away from him without being bitten or scratched and bloody. There's GOT to be a better way, and I really don't want this fight. I'm not quite at the point where I throw in the towel and take him to a groomer, but I was just wondering what kind of implements everyone else uses.
about the persian hair: from my understanding, persians have a double coat. A fluffy undercoat and a silky top coat, which just makes their hair super thick. Josey is a mixed breed of persian and ragdoll, but he has persian fur and ragdoll coloring.
Thank you for your response, I really wish I felt the mitt brush worked better for me. That seems like such an easy thing. "Come here, J, I just want to pet you!" lol.
I know something of what you're going through. Though she's no longer with us, sadly - I had a Himalayan cat for 14 years (himmies are Persians, with a cream body and colored "points" - so the fur type is the same). After much trial and error, hissing and scratching - we figured out that the best grooming implement for her was a long-toothed pet comb. Something like this (sorry it isn't clicky - and ours only had wide bristles on one side)
http://www.petco.com/product/14265/JW-Pet-GripSoft-Double-Sided-Combs.aspx
I found that this could get through all those thick layers of hair really nicely without pulling or tugging her in uncomfortable ways. Also, we got a LOT of loose hair out with this thing without the agony that the Furminator seemed to cause. She always yelped and growled with the Furminator - even though it's a good tool and gets a lot of hair, somehow I feel it used to hurt my cat. This comb - she wasn't a huge fan, but also didn't try to kill us each time it came out, so I think it didn't hurt her nearly as much.
Hope this helps!
Need tips for surviving cat allergies? Check out my bio!
My thoughts exactly! Thank you so much for your input. I'm surprised that you got a lot of hair off with the comb--what was the frequency of grooming with the comb? Did she still shed a lot?
I remember the two weeks when Jack was sick, before he passed, I would brush him out with a dull slicker brush (one with the rounded ends) to keep his hair from matting up with kitty litter and any other bathroom stuff that would inevitably get stuck to his pants, since he was unable to groom himself. BUT even with doing this daily, and not getting much fur besides some tangles, there was black shed all over the place. It was bad, but as much as he hated being furminated, I couldn't bring myself to torture him in his last days with us; so we just dealt with the shed.
I'm definitely going to pick up a comb next time I'm at the pet store. Thank you for replying! I appreciate it!
PS, I *almost* got a Himalayan kitten before I found Josey. They are gorgeous cats!
I agree - they're gorgeous
There used to be a pic of my cat in my profile. She was quite the looker.
Yes, the comb used to get a LOT of hair out. My cat was a pretty decent shedder - I'd notice shedding more in certain seasons of the year than others, and I don't know if that's normal, related to weather/temperatures, etc. Though I always intended to groom her at least 5 times a week, truth be told I probably only did it 2-3 times a week. I would totally find her long, white stray hairs balled up in corners of the house though, even doing this and vacuuming frequently. The comb wasn't necessarily a success in ridding the house of cat evidence - it reduced it, but didnt resolve it altogether. However, it DID help prevent, and detangle mats, and it definitely helped reduce the frequency of her having to cough up hairballs (if that's an issue you're dealing with, too).
Need tips for surviving cat allergies? Check out my bio!
So, I found a new tool that I *just* used on Josey. I was going to get a furminator for long haired breeds, but I couldn't justify all the money without knowing that there actually was a difference between the LH version and the SH version. So, I was poking around the pets section at walmart today and I found this:
http://www.amazon.com/ShedMonster-De-Shedding-Tool-Medium-Coats/dp/B0052YFPWM/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
and I just used it on Josey. He PURRED the whole time. I got a good fistful of fur off of him, without hardly any added pressure from me. No pulling or pressing on his skin, therefore, no blood drawn for me! :-) I'm a happy camper. This has kind of a J shape to the individual teeth, so it's smooth on the skin, but the long hair gets caught on the lower part of the teeth, and comes off. All the fur I got out was the undercoat. We love it. I can't wait to try it again!
Thanks for your advice!