How did I get so lucky?

I don't understand why you bathe your cats so often? Every other week? Once a month? That is very bad for their skin. And if they don't like it, it is causing them unnecessary stress. Stress can make cats sick, it puts a lot of extra stress on their kidneys and urinary tract.

Ideally cats should only be bathed by immersion if they have been sick and soiled themselves, or gotten in to something it would be toxic for them to wash off themselves, or just need help getting it off.

Cats are self cleaning, they don't really need our help.

(at most, for instance, for people who have allergies to dander, wiping them down, on the surface of their fur with a damp cloth every day wouldn't be harmful)

White cats, IMO, need to be bathed once a month.

When cats are bathed routinely, it's not such a stress on them, as they are used to it.

Due to allergies in 2 of mine, one not knowing how to properly groom himself, and 3 of them being primarily white they are all bathed about once a month.

Provided that you have a proper shampoo that isn't stripping all the oils off their fur, it isn't so bad. Show cats are regularly bathed and they're judged on the quality of their coats.

One issue you have to worry about, though, is that if you bathe one cat in a multi-cat household it will smell different to all of the other cats. When this happens it can stress out all of the cats because they think the clean cat is a "stranger". For this reason alone, I try to avoid bathing my cats as much as possible or if a bath is necessary I don't wash all of the cat.

I've been lucky with Sherman. I was certain since he's so fussy about me brushing him and trimming his claws that he would try to shred me when I had to bathe him. He seemed mostly lost and confused the whole time, enjoyed getting his back scrubbed, then seemed to really like being dried off. He decided to come back later, while still damp, and lay on my lap while he groomed more of the moisture out of his coat. Payback I suppose.

Finally, cats pick up the smells in their environment. If you find your cat smelling a bit you may need to change litters, vacuum or mop more often. You could also try putting some dried lavender or mint (the plants, no oils) in a cat bed - just make sure it's covered with a cloth so that the dried bits of plants aren't getting in the fur and all over the house. Mint would be completely safe. You can also look for other cat safe deodorizers that may be safe to wipe on your cats - I've noticed in most homes that peoples pets often smell like their owners lotions and perfumes from petting, with no harm to the pets.

Peaches is the same way, she *almost* seems to enjoy her bath time . Whereas you couldn't pay me enough money to willingly bathe Tasha (unless it was for emergency health reasons, like a cut)!!! She'd KILL ME!!!! Or Miss Kitty for that matter .

Either of them gets sprayed by a skunk or something & they can live outside on a leash until it wears off!!

You may want to look into a shampoo specially formulated for cats. We have people who show their cats on here, they could probably offer some suggestions. Another suggestion would be natural soaps that do not have any essential oils in them.

Detergents like baby shampoo or Dawn work in a pinch, but aren't best for regular use. Even the gentle baby shampoo would be the wrong ph and eventually dry skin and fur.


As for skunks spraying pets. I hope no one ever has to go through that. Many years ago the family dog got sprayed and my mother insisted she stay in the house... Guess who got to bathe her?