Grooming cats can be challenging—are you meeting their needs properly? Let’s explore how to ensure your feline friend gets the best grooming care.

Experts advise that “Brushing your cat not only removes dirt, grease, and dead hair from their coat, but also helps remove skin flakes and stimulates blood circulation, improving the overall condition of their skin. One or two brushings per week will help maintain their healthy glow.” fount at cat grooming tips

Depending on your cat’s fur type, the need to be groomed is always different.

Different fur types: according to Cat Identification Guide

• Hairless cats have no fur.
• Shorthair cats have short fur across the entire body.
• Medium hair cats have longer fur around the mane, tail, and/or rear.
• Longhair cats have long, fluffy fur.

Let’s start with knocking out the hairless cats, a state such as Utah is not sustainable for a furless cat and a lot less common to find than the others. Hairless cats need little to no care, bathing or even wiping dirt off can be needed, along with care such as clipping nails and cleaning cuts if it scratches itself.

Heather Cameron, she/her, one of T-villes librarians, is the owner of long -furred cats named Toasty, Bobbye and Ezra. she explains “Toasty is the youngest, just over a year old,” she says “He is a flame point siamese. He’s very mischievous. But he’s really sweet. He is a medium-furred cat with silky fur. He cleans himself but needs help grooming his tail.

As most short or medium-haired cats don’t need as much grooming it is difficult for some to reach places such as their tail, end of their back and flank.

Bobbye: is a long-haired tuxedo cat, like most tuxedos, is a little diva. She gets jealous when you pet the other cats, She’ll hiss at you if you’ve touched the other cats. She’s a cuddle bug, and will cuddle with you and purr so hard she’ll start to drool, she is perfectly happy being a lap cat.

Ezra: We call him Ezzy, he is a very large cat black furred cat, he might be part manecoon, he has nice green eyes, and he’s very shy. He is also a big cuddle bug and will lean against you with all of his weight. 

Brushing the long-furred cats: With Bobbye and Ezra, we have to shave their stomachs because it gets so hot. Bobbye doesn’t require much care, her fur is also very silky. And it’s pretty thin. But [with] Ezra his fur has to be brushed constantly because he’s always shedding, he usually requires more of a shave, last summer we gave him a lion shave where only his head was unshaved.”

Long-haired cats, I would say are the hardest to clean, with longer fur dead skin, dirt and greeaes can get trapped in their fur causing increased heat and discomfort to your cat.

Short furred cats:

Teacher Ms. Paulk has 5 cats. 2 of them are 4 years old and 3 of them are 3 years old. She says, “They’re all domestic short hair as far as we know. One is orange, two are tortoiseshell, 1 is gray and white, and one is black.” She is unsure if there is any specific way to groom them but they are brushed at times. Most of the time the cats just groom themselves as cats normally do. According to their vet, the cats are quite healthy.

Leona Fenagen she/her (real name and information withheld) has a Bombay cat, which is usually a black short haired cat. She says “I groom Luna once a month and check her fur for anything that might have gotten stuck as shorter fur cats don’t seem to like it when things get stuck in their fur. Luna is 3 years old and loves to play and disappear.” Leona uses a sensitive fur cat brush which works just fine for her fur.

We love our cats, and although cats are known for being independent and grooming themselves, it is important to know the right way to groom them, even if little care is required. Grooming your cats is not only a good way to help ensure their well-being, but it also creates a bond between cat and owner similar to a mother and kitten.