Pets: Cat Grooming

Society | March 19, 2004, Friday // 00:00

Although cats are fastidious in looking after themselves, it is a good idea to groom your pet once or twice a week. This can remove a lot of dead hair if she is moulting excessively, and also give you a chance to give her a health check all over.

Grooming should be done on a daily basis, if possible. If you leave long-coated animals ungroomed then tangles, and eventually matts, will develop in their coats. These are painful and time consuming to remove. Grooming will become an unpleasant chore for you and a time of anxiety for your pet. It is much more sensible to spend a few minutes each day in a session that both you and your pet will find relaxing and rewarding. In terms of short-coated animals, daily grooming will greatly reduce the amount of hair shed all over your house.

You don't need a lot of fancy equipment to keep your cat looking good. You should have a slicker brush and a flea comb. Long-haired cats also need a wide-toothed comb to pick apart tangles. Most good pet stores will stock all this equipment.

In long-coated cats, it is essential to brush out all layers of the coat. This requires you to lift the coat and brush down each section until you get to the top layer. Too often people make a lovely job of the topcoat but leave the undercoat a tightly matted mess. It is removing the matts next to the skin that is most important in terms of the health of your animal's skin.

If you come across a matt, use the wide-toothed comb held at a perpendicular angle to the matt and gently pick apart the matt. It is sometimes possible to do this with just your fingers.

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