Grooming for a cat should be done on a daily basis for proper care (nutrition & well being) of your cat. In addition, with the proper care, your cat will stay healthy.
Brushing, combing, clipping nails, and cleaning ears, are grooming that needs to be done. By doing basic grooming on a regular basis will help in prevention with scratching furniture, and hairball management.
Hairball management can be managed using different products that can help with the hairball for the cat. Do not confuse this to substitute for this part of the grooming. Learn more about these products at your favorite pet store or internet site.
When training your cat for grooming, one of the first things you will want done, is to have the cat to be able to relax in your lap. By petting your cat gently on the head and then you will want to pet him down the back and continue till you see that your cat is comfortable with you petting him in the areas that you will be grooming. This is very true as my black cat, Sirius Black, will only allow me to groom him after about 30 minutes of relaxing in my lap. By then, he will be so drowsy and normally allow me to cut his nails easily. Next, you will want to press gently on the paw pads to look at the nails, you will want to work on checking the ears. When you have achieved all these things, this is the time to introduce the brush by letting him check the brush out. Carefully start to brush him from the back to the front until you see your cat being comfortable with the brush. Remember a cat's skin is sensitive and you will want to take real gentle precaution when grooming.
Training your cat to be comb will be the same step you have taken to be able to brush your cat. Be gentle, cats hair is easily matted, snarled, and skin sensitive. If you using precaution with doing the combing and you cause pain to your cat, they may not let you do this. Brushing a cat's hair is very important, also with long hair cats combing needs to be done. With combing it helps get out the lose hair, and will make a nice looking fur for the cat. If you find that your cat sheds hair easily, take a look at the diet that you are giving him. Could it be that you are feeding him scraps and leftovers from the dinner table? If yes, why not feed him commercial cat food/biscuits as they are rich in the essential vitamins and minerals greatly needed by your cat. Another reason the cat sheds heavily could also be that there is still shampoo residue trapped in between the coat during bathing. These residue will harden and when it happens, the cat will try to scratch himself excessively thus resulting in heavy shedding.
Clipping nails, if you have never clipped your cat's nails, please talk to a veterinarian, a local groomers, search articles about it, read books, and be very careful when you are cutting them. One thing to practice is having some one with you to help with this, so if the cat tries to move you have reinforcements. When cutting a cat's nail, toward the paw is a pink area called the "quick" that you do not want to clip. This will be very painful for the cat and a visit to the vet quickly. Make sure when doing this that the cat is very comfortable with you touching its paws. Talk to him when cutting the nails to reassure it is fine and soon will be done. If your cat seems annoyed with cutting their nails, stop, and try later. If you are very comfortable with cutting the nails yourself, do ensure that you have an antibacterial powder that has blood clotting agent handy in the house in case of any accidents. If you are unable to do this, cat groomers trained to cut nails can do this for you and most time very inexpensive, a lot less then a vet bill.
Cleaning your cat's ears is another basic grooming process, as in the first part of the article, makes sure the cat is comfortable with the touching of their ears. Once you know that you are able to touch your cat's ears, now is the time to clean.
First, drip some ear cleaning lotion into the ear canal, using the tips of your fingers, just gently massage the ear until you can see that the ear wax begins to soften. Use soft facial cotton for this part, gently at first rub the facial cotton around the out side of the ear working your way to the inside to be able to clean the ear. If at any time the cat resist, stop redirect the cat and then continue until you can successfully clean the ears.
Grooming your cat is also caring for your pet and on top of that it is a great way to interact with your pet, for healthy relationships.
Search out more information on training your pet, tools to help with the training and caring for your pet. Check out books, pet stores, search on the internet there are great articles, ideas, and suggestions on training your pet. One way of training may not work but some one else may have different approach. Not all cats train the same, just as we do not teach the same. Happy training!
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