Cats are known for grooming themselves and they rarely need any encouragement from their owners to do so. However you can yourself get involved in grooming then, this will mean you can keep check that they are fit and healthy but it will also strengthen the bond between you and your cat.

Grooming is good for your cat as helps improve both their circulation as well as their muscle tone. You will also notice that they will have less hair balls, as you will reduce the dead hair left within their fur, it will also make the coat smoother allow it to keep them warmer in the winter as well as stimulating the glands at the base of the coat keeping it waterproof. You will also find that your cat will lick themselves more in summer as their saliva cools them down, grooming also makes and spreads a natural oil that protects their coat and makes it waterproof.

You should start grooming them from an early age as it will get them used to it, as well as making it part of their regular routine. If your cat has shorthair then the best to use is a fine-tooth metal comb you should do this on a weekly basis after you have used a rubber brush to remove the dead hairs lying in their fur. For longhaired cats you should use a steel comb, when brushing your cat, regardless of the length of their fur you should brush in the direction their hair grows. After that, for shorthaired cats you should use a bristle bush sweeping up the coat moving towards their head and then smooth it down again. For long haired you should look for knots before brushing them, try to unknot them you if that’s not possible cut it out with blunt end scissors – be very careful when doing this as its very easy to cut their skin.

Not all cats will take easy to being groomed so you may want to have some treats on hand for them to eat whilst you groom them, the treats will take their attention away from what you are doing.

Grooming a Persian cat

You should bath your Persian as they have long hair, it will keep their coat in good condition as well as looking nice and clean. Before bathing you should go through their fur getting rid of mats and knots that have formed, after you are sure you have removed them brush through their coat with a wide toothed comb.

The next step is to degrease their fur, you can do this will a number of products like; some dishwasher detergent, Goop and obviously you can get special cat grooming products for this. You should put the product onto their dry fur and rub it in, making sure you get to the particular greasy areas e.g. their ears and underarms. If you use a dishwasher detergent you can either apply it to their wet fur, straight from the bottle or a diluted amount, or you can fill the bath/sink with warm water adding the detergent to it and putting the cat in that and washing them. Then make sure you thoroughly rinse it all out. How regular to need to bath your Persian will depend on the individual, because they have long fur their fur tends to look oily, dirty and matted much more than other breeds.