Despite the considerable amount of time that your cat spends cleaning and licking itself, your cat still requires a regular grooming routine. Here are 5 great tips to help keep your cat’s hair healthy and skin free from fleas and other diseases / parasites.

Grooming

The key with grooming is to keep it regular. All cats need to be groomed at least once a week (E.g. short-haired cats like the Tonkinese) whilst longer hair cats (such as the Himalayan) will require more frequent grooming such as every few days (or even daily). While grooming your cat ensure you look carefully for any signs of skin irritation, ticks or fleas.

Combing

Buy a cat hair comb (that suits your cats hair type) and get your cat into a routine of regularly combing its’ hair. Doing so not only prevents matting of your cat’s hair but also helps to keep your house clean of hair and hairballs. Longer haired cats of course require further work when combing. Comb in the direction that the hair grows and be careful around the sensitive areas such as ears and tummy.

Brushing

Brushing also removes dead and matted hair, and helps detangle. Regular brushing and combing stimulates the skin, and natural oils will be more evenly distributed to give your cat a healthy, shiny coat. Brush gently in the direction of hair growth with a wire slicker brush (good for thicker coats), or a soft bristle brush. Rubber grooming devices (suh as the gloves on the market) are also good for massaging the skin.

Nail trimming

Your cat’s claws need regularly cutting; this not only saves your furniture from unwanted scratching but there is some evidence to suggest that a cat with well cut claws is less predatory in nature. Cutting claws is simple; extrude your cat’s claws by gently squeezing the paw and using special cat claw scissors, quickly cut the top off the claw. Importantly, it is critical that you cut above the end of the claw’s blood vessels - this is easily identifiable by the pink/white colour inside each claw; as soon as the claw is translucent in colour, it is ok to cut.

Bathing

Bathing and cats is something that the majority of cat owners never consider. I for one have never bathed Charlie, mainly because of his typical cat behaviour towards water! Some cats however actually like water and bathing can assist in controlling matting in long-haired cats in addition to treating skin conditions. If you do attempt to bathe your cat, make sure you use a specific cat shampoo - they are available from most good vets and pet stores.

And remember…

Not only will grooming keep your cat’s hair and skin healthy, it is a great way to spend some quality time bonding with your cat!

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