Cats are generally good at cleaning themselves, but long-haired breeds and elderly cats still need the odd grooming and and
...
there. Watch to learn some of the basics in cat grooming.
Tags:Grooming Cats,caring for cats,cat care,cat care tips,cats,kitten care
Grab video code:
Transcript
Cats are pretty good at keeping themselves in good condition. They groom themselves. They use their rough tongue to clean their coat and get rid of any dead fur but it is important that your cat gets used to grooming especially if they’re a long-haired breed because long-haired breeds find it difficult to keep their hair in really good condition and they are at risk at getting matted and furballed and even a short-haired cat like Jill, when she gets older and she gets a bit lazier and a bit stiffer, she will struggle to keep herself in good condition.
So, you need to get them used to it young and the type of brush you’ll want to use is something like this: it’s a little cat slicker brush and it’s just got some fine… there’s metal wires there and they just help strip out any dead hair from the coat to leave all the nice, new, fresh hair in there. So, just gently run that through your cat’s coat and try and do that on a regular basis and just do a little bit of the time to get used to. Most cats will actually love it and you can see all that hair is coming off there. And if you’re really brave, then you can have a comb at the tummy and, you know, most cats will tolerate it for a little while.
They might think it’s a bit of a game like this and, you know, you are at slight risk of having a cat pounce on your hand but if you treat it as all good fun and play, it’s also a great way of just checking your cat over from head-to-toe because you’re going to notice any lumps, any bumps, any scratches or any crazies that are going on there quite easily by doing that.
Now, if your cat does do a lot of grooming, if they’re a long-haired breed, they are also at risk of getting fur balls and everyone knows that when cats get fur balls – and the classic symptoms are the retching sounds. So, it sounds like they’re really trying to bring out their intestines. They’re going, “Rrrr!” and retching up. And that’s when they get a big lump of fur and it’s all stuck together in their stomach.
If this happens, what you need to do is pop down to a vet and get something like this, which is a 1:56 –based paste. And you apply this, generally, to the cats paws and they quite like the taste of it. But if you put something a cat doesn’t particularly want to take and it’s in a paste form and you just wipe it on to their paws, the cats will groom themselves and they just lick it off their paws so it’s a very good, easy way of getting something like a 2:15 paste into a cat is just to put it on their paws and they’ll lick it off like that. And if you do that, groom them regularly; you shouldn’t have any trouble with fur balls.
Comments