When it comes to personal hygiene, cats are, hands down, one of the most hygienic house pets. Perhaps even more hygienic than us humans. Adult cats can spend as much as half their waking hours grooming themselves! They think themselves independent creatures that don’t need no hooman to help clean them up when in actuality…they do.

While cats do a pretty good job of grooming themselves by licking themselves clean with their barbed tongue, they do still need a bath and they do still need some help getting their fur and claws trimmed by us, or better yet, by professional cat groomers.

Reasons to Groom Your Cat Regularly

1. To prevent fleas and ticks

Grooming your feline regularly helps to prevent flea and tick infestations! Infestations can take weeks or even months to get rid of — wouldn’t you want to prevent it from happening altogether instead? Even though giving your cats a bath alone is not enough to get rid of those pesky things (you need spot treatments for that), it does help you spot the fleas and ticks so that you can get rid of them with treatments.

2. To maintain skin and coat health

Persians, Maine Coons and Himalayans are beautiful, fluffy, long-haired cats with glorious, thick coats. However, with a glorious coat comes the likelihood of matting. These cat breeds require a higher level of maintenance and it would be best to take them to a cat groomer on a regular basis to get their coats washed, trimmed and brushed professionally. Matting could become very uncomfortable for your kitty!

Regular brushing also helps to stimulate blood circulation and distribute your cat’s natural oils throughout her skin and coat.

3. To reduce cat hairballs

Hairballs are tufts of hair that form in your cat’s digestive tract after they’ve groomed themselves. Most of the time, hairballs are harmlessly expelled from cats via vomiting or pooping. However, if it occurs too frequently, you may want to speak to your cat’s vet. Grooming is something that your cat does habitually so it is inevitable that she ingests some fur. But you can reduce the amount of fur that your cat ingests by brushing her daily.

4. To check for abnormalities

When you or a cat groomer regularly grooms your cat, you’d be more familiar with the marks on her skin. This makes you more likely to pick up on any unusual lumps or bumps that have developed on your cat’s skin should something be amiss. Early detection of diseases could potentially make a difference between curable and incurable!

5. To help your cat stay healthy and happy

A clean and well-groomed cat is a happy cat — and we all want our feline friends to be healthy and happy, don’t we! What better way to make sure of that than to groom our cats regularly? A well-groomed cat can reduce hairball issues, lessen shedding problems, relief skin trouble, eliminate allergies and prevent ingrown nails.

With that said, knowing some of the basics of grooming your cat is an important part of being a responsible cat owner. Plus, helping your cat groom not only helps your cat stay clean, it also reinforces the bond between you and your feline friend!

Some Basic Grooming You Need to Know:

1. Brushing

Setting aside a few minutes each day to brush your cat would go a long way in strengthening the bond between you and your cat. More importantly, it helps to untangle your cat’s coat and remove any loose fur. Cats with long coats are a lot more prone to matting and this could cause some discomfort for your cat. Simply brushing your cat’s fur daily can prevent matting.

2. Ear cleaning

Cats need to have their ears cleaned regularly. As flexible as they are, cats still need help with giving the inside of their ears a thorough clean. It’s extremely crucial that your cat’s ears are kept clean because not doing so could lead to ear infections!

3. Nail clipping

Domestic cats don’t use their claws as much as ferals do. Indoor living doesn’t present cats with enough opportunities to shorten them naturally. So if we don’t trim kitty’s nails regularly, you might come home one day to find that some of your furnishings have become a latticework of cat scratches or your sofa with its stuffing peeking out of the material.

4. Trimming the fur between kitty’s toes

The fur on your cat’s toes help to protect her paw pads from making direct contact with indoor hazards such as household cleaning chemicals. However, when your cat’s fur grows too long, you’ll find her licking at her paws obsessively. That’s an indication that it’s time to trim her fur!

5. Giving your cat a bath

Cats do quite a stellar job of cleaning themselves. But there are times when some shampoo, conditioner and water are necessary. For example, when you lean in for a cuddle and you realise your cat smells funky or when you discover external parasites making a home in your cat’s coat.

These things are pretty easy to do and aren’t very time-consuming except for, perhaps, showering your cat. That can take up quite a lot of time especially if your cat despises water with a vengeance and squirms out of your grasp every other minute. By the end of it, you may find that your arms have been marked with a web of cat scratches, you’re soaked to the bone (who’s the one taking a shower, really?) and your cat is pissed at you for forcing bathtime on her. Bathtime and grooming sessions need not be unpleasant experiences for your feline!

With the gentle and expert touch of a professional cat groomer at Nekomori, coupled with a calming forest-themed environment, grooming would be stress-free, possibly even something to look forward to, for your cat!

Image Source: Karin Laurila | Pixabay