How Do I Groom My Cat?

Tips On How To Groom Your Cat.

Before we begin to give you additional information on this topic, take a moment to think about what you already know.

Cats are basically very tidy creatures. They are in the habit of grooming themselves by licking every part of their body clean with their tongue.

This habit of tongue-bathing has several benefits to your pet cat:

• Promotes better circulation of the blood.
• Gets rid of dead skin cells.
• Removes excess/dead hair on their coat.
• Tones their muscles.
• Keeps the fur soft and clean.

Although your feline friends groom on their own, you should still do your part in keeping your cat clean and well-groomed.

Here are several ways to keep your cat well-groomed:

1. Brushing

   Depending on the breed, your cat can either have long or short hair. Make surethat you brush your cats coat well enough to promote proper grooming.

   For cats with short hair, use a brush with soft bristles so that the skin willnot be scratched or hurt in the grooming process.

   Use soft, gentle strokes while brushing. This should make them purr in pleasureand you will have an easier job of grooming your pet cat.

   After brushing the coat with a comb, you can finish the job by wiping the furwith a dry, soft and clean piece of cloth. This should maintain the shine onyour cats coat.

   As compared to cats with shorter hair, long-haired cats would require morebrushing time.

   For this, use a comb with wide-teeth that is specially designed for cats. Thisshould initially remove the knots and tangles on their fur.

   Afterwards, you can use a fine-toothed comb to work the smaller knots on thefur and eliminate the more stubborn knots.

   Do not forget to brush the hair around the face with a smaller comb or atoothbrush.

   Avoid the eye and whisker area when brushing.

   Brushing your cats fur on a regular basis will help keep their coat shiny andhealthy, and will also give the owner and the pet some bonding time together.

2. Bathing

   Cats do not often require bathing because they basically take good care ofthemselves when it comes to grooming.

   However, there are some cases wherein you need to give them a bath no matterhow you and your pet dread the chore.

   You need to bath your cat if the coat has excessive dirt.

   Sometimes, a substance that can possibly poison them sticks on the fur and itis vital to give them a bath in this case.

   Another instance where you need to bath your cat is in case of fleas, ticks andlice clinging to their skin.

3. Cleaning the eyes and ears.

   For the eyes and ears which are the most sensitive areas in your cats body,there are solutions that you may use.

   Choose one which is specifically designed to prevent cats with light-coloredeyes to develop stains.

   For the ears, cats collect a considerable amount or wax so you have to takecare of it when grooming.

   Removing this would maintain your cats health and help prevent infections.

   There are also cat wipes that you can use for the ears, eyes and teeth.

4. Keeping the paws clean.

   Cats are in the habit of scratching surfaces so it is better to keep them awayfrom the furniture items in the house. It would also help if you keep thosepaws clean and trim their nails.

   You can go to a pet store and buy a nail trimmer specially designed for cats.

   Ask your veterinarian for the proper way to trim your cats nails so as not tohurt them in the process.

   If you find that your cat exhibits a not-so-healthy clawing habit, you may gofor the option of declawing your cat.

   [CatInfo: Please note that declawing cats is Illegal in the UK.]

   This is a surgical procedure where the nails are permanently removed so that itwill not grow back.

   However, you should still ask your vets advice if you want to go for declawingbecause with this, cats will lose a natural defense mechanism.

   A better and kinder option is to regularly trim the cats nails, have them usea wooden post for scratching, or crate-training to prevent them from clawing atyour most-treasured possessions.

By following these tips and making time in your busy schedule to groom your cat, you would have a healthy and happy cat and be a happy owner as well.

About The Author

Ken Charnely is webmaster at two of Internet's popular article directories. For more articles on this topic and for free content for your website visit http://www.articleteller.com/ and http://www.contentwow.com/ .