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Unexplained heavy shedding

post #1 of 16
1/1/10 at 11:57am
Thread Starter 
I have a short haired cat (not sure what breed she is) but she has never shed alot which we have been thankful for... Usually when we brush her we get little to no fur on the brush but recently we have been getting almost brushfulls from her coat and today she came in my room and i was petting her and i noticed big chunks of fur coming out.. Like when i rub my hand along her spine i got a handfull of fur in my hands. Remember this is a cat who has barely shed before. We are just curious, is this some sort of extra coat of fur for the winter thats making her shed more now? Or is it something else?
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post #2 of 16
1/1/10 at 11:59am
how old is she? have you recently changed her diet? ie last 3-5 months
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post #3 of 16
1/1/10 at 8:14pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by sharky View Post
how old is she? have you recently changed her diet? ie last 3-5 months

well we got her from my cousin in July but we dont know exactly how old she is.. but we estimate that shes a little over a year now

and we changed her diet within the first or second month of coming here, but nothing different since then
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post #4 of 16
1/1/10 at 8:38pm
what was she eating and what did you start giving her?
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post #5 of 16
1/2/10 at 10:37am
Thread Starter 
My cousin gave her Compliments Seafood and Chicken blend and we gave her that for about a month then slowly transitioned into Prominence Plus Oatmeal and Rice blend and they have been eatting that ever since, also wet food by Prominence Plus twice a week.
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post #6 of 16
1/2/10 at 11:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by TashaaM View Post
My cousin gave her Compliments Seafood and Chicken blend and we gave her that for about a month then slowly transitioned into Prominence Plus Oatmeal and Rice blend and they have been eatting that ever since, also wet food by Prominence Plus twice a week.
links are great ... I would like to see if there are any BIG shed ingredients ... most likely you and kitty are going thru a food switch thru the system
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post #7 of 16
1/2/10 at 4:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sharky View Post
links are great ... I would like to see if there are any BIG shed ingredients ... most likely you and kitty are going thru a food switch thru the system
Just curious to what are common shed ingredients?
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post #8 of 16
1/2/10 at 4:21pm
excessive grains , legumes like soy and some by products are common to cause lots of shedding when the cat is moved to a food with less or none of them( DRY food only )

artificial colors and flavors also cause this when removed from the diet...

basically anytime a food is more digestable than what was perviously feed you have a cleanse cycle ... which varys by cat in severity and duration( at my house it has varied from 3-4 weeks to 3-4 months /// ).. some cats never shed but get something like a uri .. ie symptoms are varied
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post #9 of 16
1/3/10 at 8:32am
What's the weather been like where you live? Sometimes the changing weather contributes to shedding. Is she more itchy lately? Could also be a change in humidity level in your home.
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post #10 of 16
1/5/10 at 2:52pm
Thread Starter 
Well im in Canada so it just became to get really cold, just the other day was -25C... coldest day yettt
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post #11 of 16
1/11/10 at 4:51pm
Thread Starter 
HEy guys im baack.. Im still really curious about this shedding issue. I just brushed her and i got about four brush fulls of fur (from a cat that barely sheds). Could be it because of the weather change? Or something else???
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post #12 of 16
1/11/10 at 5:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sharky View Post
excessive grains , legumes like soy and some by products are common to cause lots of shedding when the cat is moved to a food with less or none of them( DRY food only )

artificial colors and flavors also cause this when removed from the diet...

basically anytime a food is more digestable than what was perviously feed you have a cleanse cycle ... which varys by cat in severity and duration( at my house it has varied from 3-4 weeks to 3-4 months /// ).. some cats never shed but get something like a uri .. ie symptoms are varied
This is very interesting, and makes perfect sense to me. The body has to shed the toxins from the poor diet. Some cats will shed it through fur and skin. Of course! thanks for this.

I've learned some good things about nutrition from you Sharky and your ways of imparting information is easily accepted. There are some places where the information is shoved down people's throats in demeaning or belligerent ways, I hate that.
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post #13 of 16
1/11/10 at 5:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TashaaM View Post
HEy guys im baack.. Im still really curious about this shedding issue. I just brushed her and i got about four brush fulls of fur (from a cat that barely sheds). Could be it because of the weather change? Or something else???
Did you read Sharky's post? It makes a lot of sense. It could be the change in diet, and kitty is shedding toxins.

It could also be a change in weather, or the change in natural lighting. However if you are concerned about her health, if there are bare patches showing, for example, by all means schedule a visit to the vet!

Have you only just started grooming her? Or changed the grooming tool?
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post #14 of 16
1/11/10 at 6:13pm
Thread Starter 
Yes i did but i still dont understand. We have noT changed anything around her for 6 months and this shedding started only a month ago..
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post #15 of 16
1/11/10 at 6:50pm
Some will say up to six months for a toxin or change issue... When did your temps drop like from fall to very winter in your area? Do you have a BIG difference between humidy and dew point right now? Is the general humidity over 35% ?



Thank you Otto for the kind words I do try to make things easy
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post #16 of 16
1/12/10 at 7:32am
I have heavy shedders in my house and it gets WAY WORSE in the winter. Its like one day everything is normal and then bam they start shedding like fur is going out of style! Fatman is the worst out of the three. You cant pet him without having to shake your hand off because theres that much fur. But in two yrs Ive noticed that its only bad in the winter and its just his undercoat coming out so I comb them a little more than normal to help cut back on it.
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