These wooden floors

persi & alley

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When DW insisted on having a Persian cat and then insisted on having all wooden floors with all wooden stairs, she just did not have any idea of the consequence. Well, there is absolutely nothing we can do about the wooden floors and stairs after paying almost 40K to upgrade from carpeting but I do notice DW eyeing Persi in a most reproachful way. After my encounter with almost dying in the hospital as a result of Persi's bite (not HIS fault), if I was ever going to get rid of him, I would have already done so. And I don't like the puffs and balls of hair all over the stairs either but I swear I comb and brush him every single day until we are both tired. He has never had a hair ball one. We had a housewarming the other night and the stairs were spotless at the beginning of the party but Persi, being social, ran up and down the stairs leaving a trail of fur behind him. By the end of the party, the dark rose stairs were almost white with Persi's fur. I keep reminding DW that she made the choice but I am going to need a bigger weapon than that, I am afraid. The big problem is that I am somewhat handicapped and cannot do my part in the cleaning of these wooden floors but this was all known years ago.
 

xocats

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Check our the Furminator threads in this forum.
I bought the purple cat Furminator July 17 and have used it 5 times already.
It has made a huge difference in the amount of fur shed around our place.

http://www.furminator.com/
 

pami

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Or a dyson will suck that fur right up.

I prefer the wood floors to the carpet that has the hair lingering in the carpet.
 

xocats

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Originally Posted by Pami

Or a dyson will suck that fur right up.

I prefer the wood floors to the carpet that has the hair lingering in the carpet.
A Dyson and a Furminator.
 

missymotus

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Perhaps his diet is contributing to the shedding? I know people that own several Persians and they don't leave a trail of hair behind.
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by missymotus

Perhaps his diet is contributing to the shedding? I know people that own several Persians and they don't leave a trail of hair behind.
or could you not have enough humidifier
 

momofmany

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I've had all hardwood and all carpet in my various houses. Just imagine the amount of hair that lingers in carpet that you don't see. The critters shed the same regardless of the surface they live on. In carpet the dander and hair stays. On hardwood you can see it to remove it.

When we get a bit of money saved up, our next big project is to replace all of our carpet with bamboo flooring. It is just so much easier to clean! We have 10 cats and 3 large dogs shedding in our home. I've burned up a lot of vacuum cleaners over the years eliminating their fur.
 

meow meow

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I have wood floors (Brazilian Cherry) and carpet. The fur looks (black in our case) looks much worse on carpet. I always have tuffs of black fur on my light carpet. My carpeted stairs look "fuzzy" all the time.

Other than daily sweeping of the stairs -- I am afraid your wife is going to have to get over it.

When I first got my wood floors I was a maniac trying to keep them clean. Four years later I am lucky if they get wiped down every two weeks. I have better things to do than be a slave to my wood floors.

Good luck.
 

tab

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we have carpet which has suffered 7 years of abuse from my animals.


my rb lurcher became slightly incontinent for the last few months of his life. my collie has leukemia and is on a daily dose of steriods which make him extremely thirsty. he occasionally can't make it through the night and so i get a nice wet carpet in the morning. obviously i have cleaned each time but it has ruined the carpets.

we're getting wood look vinyl fitted all through the downstairs the week after next! i can't wait!


i do know that the 'fluff' will increase though, but it's a small price to pay for an easily cleanable floor!
 

monaxlisa

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I think the diet and furminator suggestions are good. I've got six cats (two long hair) and dark wood hardwood stairs and they get swept about once every week or week and a half and while I do get plenty of fur and dirt off of them they certainly dont shed enough to have them covered in one day. Also it could have been excited/nervous shedding during the house warming.
 
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persi & alley

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Originally Posted by xocats

A Dyson and a Furminator.
I am definately going to give these a try. I had thought about posting this under diet instead of grooming because I cannot conceive of any better grooming than I am giving. I had discounted diet though because I immediately put Persi on Science Diet Kitten food when he came here to live at the age of 7 weeks (I now know this was way too early to bring a kitten home but did not know that before joining TCS since all my other cats were rescued). When Alley came here to live I was just switching Persi over from the Kitten formula to the Indoor Cat formula and Alley liked that just fine so I had both cats eating out of the same tray, 24/7. And since they both had the same diet I had discounted that diet could be the problem but I forgot one small detail and that is that Alley never wants any treats of any kind, not even fish. But therein may be the whole key, Persi does not have the same diet because I feed him whatever he wants, things like peanut butter and ice cream. So I think my next move is going to be to stop giving Persi anything other than the standard Science Diet Indoor Cat formula because Alley does not shed in the least and the only difference is the treats I am always giving Persi. I did have it pointed out to me that just because Persi was a longhaired was not the answer, that in fact a shorthaired cat could leave more hair around than a longhaired and after thinking about that for a while it began to make sense. So my plan right now is to get the two devices you are talking about and see what happens. And then stop all the treats for Persi if that does not solve the problem. Incidentally, we don't have just any old wooden floors, we have the hand scaped floors which means they have lots of pockets and crevices and places for fur to accumulate and they seem to do this best on the stairways of course. OK Persi, let's hope the grooming tools do the job because I know you would sure miss your treats!
 

momofmany

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Make sure that the vacuum cleaner you select does a good job on hardwood floors. Many that are engineered for carpets tend to spit out stuff from hard floors. I use a cannister vacuum cleaner on my hard floors, and use the attachment that does well on hard floors, not the standard one for carpets. I'm not sure if Dyson carries one intended for hard floors.
 

monaxlisa

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I just wanted to mention that while expensive, Science Diet is not a high quality pet food. If you're happy with it and your cats like it there is no reason to change, but there are lots of much better premium foods out there. I know more about dog food than cat food but if you want to find out more about it Im sure posting in the diet forum be informative.
Poor Persi, no more junk food
 

xocats

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Diet is a whole other issue that I hope you decide to investigate....
knowledge about domestic cats and what is best in their diets is constantly being upgraded.
The Health and Nutrition forum has a lot of threads about diet issues ....
also, TCS's recent guest has a web site with an excellent overview about feline diet.
http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=library

One thing that we know for sure is that there is no one perfect food...
if possible, some wet food and variety is best.

Regarding the Dyson....
I have one, it is great on carpets, but heavy.
IMHO, it might be difficult to handle on stairs and a bit of overkill for wooden floors.

The Furminator is wonderful.

edit...most kitties enjoy it.
 

krazy kat2

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I love the way hardwood floors look, but I have them and just hate them. I can sweep 3x a day, and never get up the dust and cat hair. I don't mind vacuuming as much as I need to, but I hate sweeping and mopping. When we make our big move to Austin, that will be a deal breaker. NO hardwood floors.
 
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persi & alley

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Originally Posted by krazy kat2

I love the way hardwood floors look, but I have them and just hate them. I can sweep 3x a day, and never get up the dust and cat hair. I don't mind vacuuming as much as I need to, but I hate sweeping and mopping. When we make our big move to Austin, that will be a deal breaker. NO hardwood floors.
On the other hand, as somebody else brought up, the same amount of hair is still there, the carpet just hides it. Well, there is an old saying: "Out of Sight, Out of Mind".
 

mschauer

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I recently replaced about half of the carpet in my house with oak with a medium stain color. I love them! As someone else mentioned, all the stuff you see on the hardwood is on the carpet also you just can't see it and the carpet is harder to clean.

I use a Swiffer Vac on mine. The combo duster/vacuum is perfect for hardwood. It is cordless and is quiet and lightweight. If you have a lot of hardwood you might need 2. At the end of cleaning my ~1000 sq ft the battery is starting to weaken. I've thought about getting 2 so I can use it on my bathroom floors also. They only cost $30 so buying multiples is no hardship.

Others have suggested using a Dyson. I've been told that regular vacuum cleaners (as opposed to a duster) can scratch hardwood so beware.
 

cc12

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My home is all antique refinished hard wood flooring. Even my bathrooms. Even my kitchen. I have one bathroom that is tile but the rest are hardwood.
I have 2 Dysons. I have one per floor because I have chronic health problems that prevent me from being able to carry one up a staircase and then vacuum the entire upstairs. I have the one with the ball so it glides over everything. I empty cannister after cannister of hair. I use the Furminator on my cats and they don't shed over much but they still shed.
I think the trick to hardwood floors is strategically placing things around that you can grab and do a quick touch up.
 

shanynne

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Originally Posted by Persi & Alley

I am definately going to give these a try. I had thought about posting this under diet instead of grooming because I cannot conceive of any better grooming than I am giving. I had discounted diet though because I immediately put Persi on Science Diet Kitten food when he came here to live at the age of 7 weeks (I now know this was way too early to bring a kitten home but did not know that before joining TCS since all my other cats were rescued). When Alley came here to live I was just switching Persi over from the Kitten formula to the Indoor Cat formula and Alley liked that just fine so I had both cats eating out of the same tray, 24/7. And since they both had the same diet I had discounted that diet could be the problem but I forgot one small detail and that is that Alley never wants any treats of any kind, not even fish. But therein may be the whole key, Persi does not have the same diet because I feed him whatever he wants, things like peanut butter and ice cream. So I think my next move is going to be to stop giving Persi anything other than the standard Science Diet Indoor Cat formula because Alley does not shed in the least and the only difference is the treats I am always giving Persi. I did have it pointed out to me that just because Persi was a longhaired was not the answer, that in fact a shorthaired cat could leave more hair around than a longhaired and after thinking about that for a while it began to make sense. So my plan right now is to get the two devices you are talking about and see what happens. And then stop all the treats for Persi if that does not solve the problem. Incidentally, we don't have just any old wooden floors, we have the hand scaped floors which means they have lots of pockets and crevices and places for fur to accumulate and they seem to do this best on the stairways of course. OK Persi, let's hope the grooming tools do the job because I know you would sure miss your treats!
Have you tried using an old fashioned dust mop for the stairs and floors? I have two of them and absolutely love them. They easily pick up hair etc. and then I just shake them outside.

About your cat's diet. As MonaxLisa mentioned Science Diet is not a very good quality cat food. Yes cats shed a lot, but considering you are brushing them daily they should not be shedding *that* much. I mean they will still shed despite the daily grooming, but I don't think they should be shedding as much as you have described. So I believe diet is definitely a factor in this case. Also feeding your cats canned instead of dry is much healthier for them. Here are some important links for you to read about cat nutrition.

You have to change them over very gradually, so that their system gets used to the new food. For example, if she was used to eating dry food, she may not take to canned food immediately. Here are some links with some very helpful information.

http://www.catinfo.org/index.htm#Tra...o_Canned_Food_

http://www.catinfo.org/commercialcan...E_CANNED_FOODS

http://www.littlebigcat.com/?action=...needcannedfood

There is quite a bit of information to cover in those articles, but it is definitely worth it.

One last thing, when you start with the Furminator be certain to read the directions carefully. One of the things they mention is that it is important not to go over and over the same spot repeatedly as it can make the cat's skin overly sensitive.

Hope this helps!
 
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