cat fur

Oh God I have the same problem, times 3 though!!! Can't help but is the furminator any good? My clothes are covered in cat hair recently. I look like a weird cat lady and have resorted to carrying a lint roller in my handbag ?

Mum uses a curry comb on their labrador, and it works a treat. It might be a bit to sturdy for a cat though. What about using a damp cloth and stroking her down with it - that might pick up more hair.

or, just shave/wax her.....

(joke)

Yes, it works well if the little bleeder will stay still and not turn into a gremlin

Want to swap him for two dogs? I vacuumed yesterday and had to empty it three times! I'm thinking of shaving them ?

We stroke Marmite with a rubber glove on & all the hair sticks to it, I also use this on the rugs, chairs & anywhere else she's decided to de-fluff herself!

We've also got a wire brush with little hooks at the end of each bristle which helps to keep the hair in one place while you brush her.

If possible can you brush your cat outside?

We have the same problem, again times 3. Most of the cats are fine being groomed, but our biggest cat Tanis tends to bite the brush and then the hands. We use a cat comb now and it seems to work a bit better.

You know how Nigella marinades meat in one of her freezer bags? You need to take a similar approach.

Take one tough plastic bag, one shedding cat and four tubes of Veet and a high pressure hose. Empty tubes of Veet into bag. Add cat to bag and tie bag off. Squish and smoosh the contents of the bag together until cat is well covered. Leave to soak for a few moments, and then turn out. Use high pressure hose to wash off remainder of Veet (you don't want to be cruel!)

wahhh ?

been tempted to exchange mine for those hairless sphynxes, its a shame they scare the bejeesus out of me though.

When it comes to pussies, i do love a hairless sphinx

You mean Pigpen, not Linus. We had a cat like that - he never learned to wash himself though, so when the other cats died (they used to clean him) he gradually got worse. He solved the problem by persuading the dog to wash his face, and my mum to hoover him directly. He used to prostrate himself in front of the hoover and stretch out to be cleaned.

Assuming you can't get yours to do that, can you distract him with tuna / chicken / fois gras while you use the furminator? Ours can only cope with being brushed for short times before lashing out - but in their case it's because they love it too much / it's too stimulating. I found little and often works best and I can now get most of one side done at a time and I stop before they lash out.

Thats it, pigpen. i ve been calling him linus for months ?

he likes the soft brush, but after a while he does lash out after purring himself half to death. i ve tried the food thing, feeding him bits of aged rib of beef ?, and it works for a few moniutes but not long. he s scared of the hoover, so that wont work i m afraid.

I have exactly the same problem, although they will let MrM brush them for hours, the best brush by far is a wire dog brush from Wilkinson's, 2.99 and gets the cat smooth and defurred in no time at all, you can also pull the hair easily out of the brush. I don't suppose you would be popping into Wilkinsons for anything else though, but honestly it's the best thing by far and i have tried practically every brush in pets at home and similar. Failing that a human paddle brush does a pretty good job and covers a large area of cat with each brush so even a quick groom with that every other day should keep him under control.

You need to stop the brushing before he lashes out, not afterwards, that way you will gradually extend how long he'll go before lashing out.

Lashing out makes you stop brushing - so if you stop brushing before he lashes out then he doesn't need to lash out to make you stop brushing. I'm not explaining this very well, am I? ? Accept for a short while that you won't be doing much brushing, but that if you stick with it you'll be able to brush him without a problem for longer. So, bit of beef, one stroke of the furminator and then put it away. Do that a few times (and pick times when he's already quite relaxed) and then see if you can build up etc. It shouldn't take long.

We use the scrubber side of a washing up sponge (dry, obv.) on our cat, works a treat! I can't remember why on earth I started "brushing" the cat with it, but it really gets the hair out, and it works on fabric too.

As a bonus, the cat loves it and rolls over when he sees me with it. He hates the normal brush and I'll only get a few brushes with that, but he'll happily have 5 minutes with the pan scrubber ?

*Disclaimer - I don't use the same pan scrubber for the cat and the washing up. That would ming.

My cat drives me mad with his fur. I actually have 2 but one has an obsession about pulling his fur out if he doesn't get his own way! If he doesn't get fed right on time or can't get into the bedroom he wants to go into he stands and meows and then pulls his fur out. I have never heard of the Furminator before so will look into them. Are the quite good?

Lock him outdoors ??

I feel your pain....ours has long fur and it's everywhere. He has also gone a bit matted where he has been crawling through the undergrowth. I keep finding twigs and all manner of crap hidden underneath.

I've had a nightmare couple of weeks with ours - he has never been tangled or knotted despite being very long haired so brushing has always been a treat rather than a necessity. His idea of being brushed is me holding the wire end of the brush up whilst he rubs his face against it* but he went all funny a couple of weeks ago, his undercoat fur went like cotton wool and just matted in a horrible mess - all dry and grey...the top coat was fine so you could only notice on close inspection.

I googled and it seemed he couldn't shed his coat, so I ended up spending most of the weekend locked in the bathroom with him (the only way of 'enclosing him') and a rabbit comb, gradually getting each and every knot out - his fur came away in clumps, at one point I was going to take him to the vets as it looked like we were going to end up with a bald cat.

I was covered in bites and scratches but the end result was worth it - try it, a small room, a comb and lots of treats.

I've changed his diet too just in case - although I'm still not happy with it. He is a wet food cat and I can't find any decent foods he'll eat, he loves Gourmet (which I'm blaming for the change in coat) and Sheba but I'm open to suggestions.

*He seems to have a thing for fetish practices, another favourite is getting under the sheet and suffocating himself whilst snorting and grunting - odd cat.