Static! I cant pet my babies anymore!!

mamakat

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Is anyone else having this problem? I cant even pet my cats anymore because we both end up getting shocked to death!
But really, it hurts and I cant stand it anymore. My house isnt really dry, I try to run a pot of boiling water for a while each day to steam it up but everything is snapping with electricity. At night when I pet them I can actually see the sparks


Any other suggestions?
 

momofmany

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Lots of cool mist humidifiers. I also have that problem and have got 3 of them going throughout the house plus boiling water on the stove. It's wintertime's dry indoor relative humidity. Whole house humidifiers are best, but also pretty costly.
 

hissy

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Please don't wipe them down with dryer sheets. Used often enough it can deposit oils on the cat's coat that shouldn't be there. A better way is just take a damp washrag and gently rub the cat or dip your fingers in a bowl of water prior to petting.
 

princess purr

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We have been shocking everyone like crazy too! They like to lay on clean clothes right out of the dryer so I think that helps alittle.
 

purrfectcatlove

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I was reading in one of my cat magazines ( don't remember witch one ,catnip or cat watch ) to use a hand cream for your hands befor you touch or pet your cat so that your hands are moist and the static is less or gone . I do that now and have notice a biiiiiig difference
. And the cats have too
.
 

sammie5

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I am in a fairly large apartment, and I run a portable humidifier 24/7. It pumps 17 litres of water into the air every day, so I would guess that boiling a pot of water on the stove once a day is just not enough water. I also have a humidity guage, and if the humidity indoors drops below about 45%, then we have all sorts of static.

I also have a fish tank that gets topped up every day, and a little indoor fountain for the cats to drink out of. And a water cooler. And several other pet dishes. I feel like my new job is water porter. It takes about 10 minutes every day to tend to them. But my cats, and my sinuses thank me.
 

jenng

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The first winter I had Spike I realized just how dry it gets in my house, because I was shocking him constantly.

I've been running my cool mist humidifiers since the end of November this winter - I waited as long as I could, but I hate shocking him even more than I hate refilling the tanks and dealing with the filters. Only 3 more months to get through!
 

spookysr

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Well you may not feel the dryness in your house but in the cool/dry temperature climates such as in North American winter a thing called RH or Relative Humidity is quite low. Usually when it goes below 50-60% there is not enough humidity (moisture) in the astmosphere (even in your house) to "short" out ESD (electrostatic discharge). ESD builds up when two dissimilar insulators (things that don't conduct electricity well), like your hand and a cat's fur, rub together. Sometimes the carpet and the cat are the culprit. Sometimes its you in your socks walking across
the carpet. Either way both of you are building up a ESD voltage potentials into the hundreds or thousands of volts of static electricity
.

Now this ESD has no real killer "current" just annoying voltage
. Its enough to really sting
. Sometimes lower amounts of ESD that you can't even feel will wipe out sensitive electronics and even computers through the keyboard circuits. ESD is one of the biggest natural enemies to science, industry, government, and the military
. So, you may ask, what can you do about it?

Well some homes are equipped with built-in furnace humidifier systems. You can have a furnace techician increase the level to increase your RH up to 80-90% any higher and everybody will feel soupy or moist
. Boiling a pot on the stove is really not enough for the entire house. You need to have a furnace humidifier installed, buy a big stand-alone unit, or just practice SESM "safe-ESD" manuevers. What's that?

If your house is plagued by ESD and you can't afford
a big humidifier system, expensive anti-static sprays, and static mats then try free SESDM. What that is quite simply is proactively and safely "discharging" yourself into a large metallic object before you touch your PC
or your cat
. That could be a door knob on a metal door, all metal desk, all metal chair, metal parts of a refrig, all metal TV set, your car's metal surfaces, or even the little "safe" screw in your wall outlet which is grounded. Yes you may feel that nasty ESD snap if you do it too gingerly or softly
out of an irrational fear. But is it better to snap yourself or the cat
?! Just grab the metal or touch it with purpose and you wont really feel anything!

Many electronic technicians wear a Anti-ESD strap around their wrist which is attached to that little screw on the wall outlet. It limits your overall movement but they tend to sit in one place all day anyway. Radio Shack sells them for a couple of bucks. One end goes around your wrist with Velcro and the other end has an alligator (or in UK crocodile) clip which attaches to this screw or any large metallic object.

Just remember, when its cold out (and it will be low RH), and you walk across
the carpet, or while sitting move your feet around
on the carpet too much, or rub a pet's or another human's hair, you are recharging yourself big time
! Just remember that if you discharge your self or hold on to a discharging item I mentioned above while petting your animal you wont shock it.

Spooky
 

dragonlady

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I've heard that placing a dryer sheet into the top of your socks will keep the static charge down to a minimum. You will smell nice too. lol
 

rachelacey

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I just noticed this phenomenon last night when I was petting my newest kitty, BarneyBlue. Funny tho, it didn't happen when I was petting my Janie. I wonder if fur types make a difference..... hmmmmmm
 

lgreen5332

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Originally Posted by MamaKat

Is anyone else having this problem? I cant even pet my cats anymore because we both end up getting shocked to death!
But really, it hurts and I cant stand it anymore. My house isnt really dry, I try to run a pot of boiling water for a while each day to steam it up but everything is snapping with electricity. At night when I pet them I can actually see the sparks


Any other suggestions?
This is something I discovered that really seems to help. While petting your cat, make skin to skin contact with the non fur covered paw of your cat. Just touch it with your finger or put your hand under the cat's paw. They are not always real crazy about it, but they will let you. Sounds wierd, but give it a try. It works for me.
 
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