Furminator?

Originally Posted by hwc

Go figure... my guy cat always wants to put his butt in my face except when I'm using the Furminator, which requires approaching from the back!

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When I am furminating Dexter, he moves from his cat tree, then to the floor, finally he plops down on his favorite throw rug for the final touch up. We have a carpet vacuuming session after we are done.

Sadie is much smaller and more cooperative.

Originally Posted by hwc

I'm figuring out how to best use the Furminator.

Rather than go like crazy and generate huge clouds of furr, I just comb them with it. The hair is real staticky. Howver, if you just hold a paper towel in your hand like a "cup" and use the towel to wipe the fur off the furminator, it loses its statick charge. When the towel is full, you can actually put the hair in a trash bag without being stuck to it.

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Thanks for this idea. I'm trying to picture it. I think I understand you. Anyway, I detest static. If there were a national static-hater association, I'd be the president.

Can you just "tap" the Furminator on something once in awhile to cause it to lose a static charge? Like a piece of cardboard or something?

I just use my free hand to collect the fur. Brush, pet, brush, pet, repeat over and over again. The fur will actually felt up into a small disc in your hand.

Originally Posted by strange_wings

I just use my free hand to collect the fur. Brush, pet, brush, pet, repeat over and over again. The fur will actually felt up into a small disc in your hand.

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Ya well I don't wanna get static-zapped

Originally Posted by c1atsite

Ya well I don't wanna get static-zapped

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Aw, it won't kill you. While it's annoying, a little static helps keep the brushed off hair clumping together. Most of the static will be on and generated by the cat anyways.

I'd take cat static shocks to getting shocked on doors, cars, and shopping carts any day.

I love my furminator. Unfortunately the kitties do not. Of course they don't like being brushed with any kind of brush so its not the furminator's fault. I even tried my own hair brush once and... nope. I have a big box full of cat grooming tools that never get used because the cats won't tolerate it.

Love, love, love it! It drastically reduces shedding and two of my kitties love it! One of them becomes ADD when I try to brush her in any way, shape or form. She likes it, but she WON'T SIT STILL.
I use it in the garage so the fur doesn't fly everywhere in the house and follow up with a bristle brush to remove any dead fur left.

I always use Furminator. The debate with stripping the coat comes from using the Furminator Tool primarily on show cats where even a comb could be considered to much pulling. The deshedding solution works! 

I've never used a Furminator. But I have a friend who is a certified master cat groomer (look it up, it is an interesting organization), and is soon to appear on the show "Must Love Cats" and she says they are bad. She recommends a metal grooming comb (like the "butter" combs sold by Chris Christiansen Systems). I like, and all my cats like, the little kitten metal bristle brushes sold at Petsmart for $2.99. They come in pink, blue, and purple.

My thickest long haired cat, Harlow, loves, loves, loves the Zoom Groom. He comes by me every evening to ask me to brush him with it. It removes a lot of hair, and surprisingly to me, just using it almost daily has kept him free of mats for some months now.

Robin

Furminator came out with a new version.. a button that pushes the fur off the brush. Since I had to buy a new one (no idea what happened to my old one), I found Amazon's selling the older version half off for $15-16, and the new for over $30. I bought the old one.. I don't need the button!

I suggest getting the older version for cheaper!

c1atsite said:

Thanks for this idea. I'm trying to picture it. I think I understand you. Anyway, I detest static. If there were a national static-hater association, I'd be the president.
 

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haha I love the idea of a national static-hater association. May I be your vice president please?

bastetservant said:

I've never used a Furminator. But I have a friend who is a certified master cat groomer (look it up, it is an interesting organization), and is soon to appear on the show "Must Love Cats" and she says they are bad.

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Why on earth would she state that?  Bad, how?

By the way, I googled Furminator for Images, and cracked up at the results of tons of happy cats and dogs posting with their insane amounts of combed out wads of fur.

It reminded me of those cheesy commercials - "You get all this and more! If you order now, you'll receive these extra 5 wads! That's 30 wads for only $9.99!"

http://www.google.com/search?aq=f&r...Q&biw=1396&bih=549&sei=7Q7uT7aUOYLu0gGI36nODQ

Grooming a show cat is usually not the same as grooming a pet Why? because show cats are groomed every day they never have a chance to matt or even shed (even getting bathed weekly). Show cat owners would not use a furminator tool because it could strip the very fine top coat hairs. On a praticial side with weekly grooming you will still benefit from the furminator tool and using their solutions (which they soak in) kept your pet from shedding which means they can be more socialable without leaving hair on you or your company.

For those whose cats don't like the furminator you should try the Shedzilla. My cat didn't really like my furminator but will let me brush her for a good 10-15 minutes with this. I think that it works as about as well as the furminator did, with less static because the teeth are a little farther apart so it doesn't pull on the fur as much when you brush it through. So I don't get out quite as much undercoat with each stroke, but she lets me use it on her whole body so in the end I am able to get out more. Plus, I got mine for about half the price of our furminator. 

However, Olive only has the single layer coat. It is medium length and the silky fine feeling kind. I also think the shedzilla might work for breaking apart mats, although her fur isn't long enough (or doesn't) mat so I haven't been able to test it out for this.

hwc said:

Basically, I'm getting as much hair out as the big all-out hair storms in the YouTube videos, but I'm doing it over the course of three or four days, just from the hair I wipe off the Furminator. Don't get me wrong, it still leaves some hair floating around, but it's a much more controlled process.

It doesn't really matter if I get every last bit of loose hair out this very minute, since I can comb them every day and get a little more.

Here's another trick. Put your towel down on a swivel stool so you can just rotate the stool to get a good angle on the cat no matter how he moves around. Go figure... my guy cat always wants to put his butt in my face except when I'm using the Furminator, which requires approaching from the back!

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LOL! I guess the cat does not want to be brushed with the Furminator.

The only problem with that idea is all spinning objects here are chairs with backs and arms, so it would not work very well for me.

i bought the furminator sergeant's knock-off (groominator) for $12 and it works fine.  my vet just advised me that it's possible to be too rough with it or overgroom and make bald spots on the cat so it's best to do it lightly.  one of my cats will grab it with her front paws and brush her own face (she's always done this, even with a slicker brush).  a lot of people like the zoom groom but i've never used it.  i prefer the groominator, but mostly because one of my cats seems to have a much coarser, denser fur.  the other two have relatively fine hair (they're all short hairs) but baci seems to have a lot.  he's also the most sensitive so i have to go very slowly or he won't let me do it.

Do you have any videos of your cat brushing herself? That must be super cute!

I have a knockoff (couldn't tell the difference though) and love it! Gus likes it for about 5 minutes, then he's done. We do a little at a time and it cuts down on the shedding tremendously. When I first bought it, he was over 20lbs and *not* taking care of his daily grooming needs at all. Ewwwww. So I went a little crazy the first time I used it and he did get a little bare on his back, right above his tail but just a few gentle strokes a day is perfect for him.

EmilyMayWilcha said:

Do you have any videos of your cat brushing herself? That must be super cute!

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i wish i did.  i just never have my camera out when she does it but i saw one on youtube doing the same thing.  she hugs me too, which i think is cuter.  (trying to get her to do it on command is probably impossible, she seems to do it when i'm not really paying attention to her.)