We cats are very clean creatures and spend a great deal of time grooming ourselves, but that doesn’t mean that you humans shouldn’t devote attention to taking care of our coat
Just in case you don’t know, we cats have more than twenty thousand hairs per square centimeter, which suits us perfectly because, thanks to these hairs, we pick up sensory information, and our hair enables us to communicate with one another, protects us from exterior agents such as cold and heat, helps us in manufacturing essential nutrients, such as vitamin D and protects us from disease-causing organisms thanks to the sweat glands. All this makes it clear that it is crucial for you to help use with caring for our coat.
Normally, if we our coat is healthy, it’s shiny. And, yes, it is normal for us to shed a little hair, especially during the shedding seasons, like spring and autumn. If you notice our coat isn’t shiny, the reasons why may be as follows:
- Inappropriate diet. Every cat needs a healthy, balanced diet, because otherwise, we won’t get the vitamins and minerals we need, our health and coat then suffering.
- Relating this back to the previous point, if we are overweight, we may not be able to get to all of the parts of our body which need to be tended to in order to be well-groomed, and so our coat will become dull and lackluster.
- Age: On growing older, we’re less flexible and if we also have some arthritis, we will progressively leave out certain areas during our daily grooming routine.
- Too much bathing. Despite our grooming ourselves daily, many humans decide that we must have a bath now and again. If you bathe us too often, you may even wind up damaging our coat.
- Various physical disorders. If you notice that your kitty’s coat is not looking good for no apparent reason, get yourselves over to see the veterinarian straight away, because this is often a symptom of some disorder or allergy which you should put a stop to as soon as possible.
Now that you have it clear in your mind how important it is to take good care of your kitties’ coat, the time has come to teach you how to go about doing just that. If a healthy, balanced diet is absolutely essential, brushing is never going to do any harm either.
On brushing us regularly, you’ll manage to rid our coat of dirt and grease besides helping us to rid ourselves of dead hair. What’s more, you’ll eliminate any scaly skin whilst also stimulating our blood circulation. Oh! That feels so good!
Standard procedure is for you to brush us a couple of times a week, although as we progressively grow older, it’s advisable for you to brush us more often. Besides, on brushing us, you’ll be able to take a good look and see what condition our coat is in and check to make certain that we don’t have any bald spots or damaged skin.
When choosing a brush, it’s going to depend a great deal on what your cat likes, but the rule of thumb is: if your cat is short-haired, you use a metal comb for brushing and another plastic one for eliminating the dead hairs. If your cat is long-haired, start combing them on their abdomen and legs to then gently work up to their head. One thing to remember though, never comb or brush us against the direction of the coat and always brush gently. We’ll purr with delight!
