What's the best way to bath a cat for the first time with the least trauma for both of us?

Should I use the bath tub or the sink? How do I hold them with one hand while washing with the other. Is there a special way to do long hairs? How often should I bath them? Sugar is short hair and full grown and Spike is long hair and 8 months but bigger than her. Can someone recommend a good cat shampoo please.
I'm not looking forward to this.

Never mind. I just found a brilliant article on bathing cats on this site. thanks again TCS. I totally recommend searching through the articles on this site when you have a problem. I've found them to be very helpful and they seem to cover nearly every topic.

Good luck Zandi.



Actually, only one of my cats ever gets a bath and that's because he enjoys it and tries to barge his way into the shower with me every morning. Cats are really good at keeping themselves clean, the only reason you'd need to bathe them is if you were going to show them or if they'd rolled in something dreadful.

So if bathing does turn out to be too stressful for you there's no need to make it a regular event. 

I'm relieved to know I don't ever have to go through that again. I've counted 3 bites and 5 scratches. And I never even got as far as the shampoo.

zandi said:

 
I'm relieved to know I don't ever have to go through that again. I've counted 3 bites and 5 scratches. And I never even got as far as the shampoo.

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Oh, I'm sorry. I know that wasn't meant to be funny but your post really made me laugh. If it makes you feel any better I have a Persian cat who needs to be shaved once a year and the vet has to sedate him before he can go anywhere near him.

Hope your scratches and bites heal soon. Make sure you clean them properly and get some antibiotics if the bites start to get red or inflamed. 

We use a big 15 gallon galvanized tub (hardware store).   Close up the garage and put 6" of water in the bottom of it.
One of us holds the cat pointing away from us, around his shoulders.  Cat has back feet and butt in the water, front feet are on the lip of the tub. 
The other one soaps, scrubs, rinses.

Works well on all three cats. 
After we dry two of them off, we just let them lose in the garage for awhile to dry off a bit before going back in the house.
That third one?  Have to let him lose in the house or else he'll jump back in the tub of water.

The dreaded cat bath. I have a groomers table with harness and a basen I use. If your gonna show you'll have to do it quite often and get them very used to it. If not, they should only need a bath once in a blue moon and you can get Kevlar arm guards for that.

My method involves ending up covered in scratches, every bathroom surface soaking wet, and a cat clinging to my head.

When one of mine stepped in paint, I bathed her with the cone of shame on, because touching her sweet pink jellybean toes, as irresistible as they are, makes her bite.

Thank you for your replies., He's not a show cat and, as I value my life, sanity and lack of scars, we've decided not put ourselves through that ever again.

I have never bathed any of my cats.  I've had 8, through the past 42 years.  Usually 2 at a time.  I never saw the need to bathe them.  There have been occasions when I needed a washcloth to wipe off something they dirtied themselves with, but never a bath.

My brother and I found out just how hard it was to bathe a cat, in our case 10 week old kitten, which we thought was going to be easy. He seemed to be okay with being in the tub and we tried introducing him slowly to the water but the water barely soaked the bottoms of his feet and it was enough to send him tearing out of the tub like a bat out of hell. I discovered just how lethal a kitten's claws were and how deep they could sink into skin when they are unhappy..... we are never doing this again lol

I don't bathe mine, they take care of that themselves

I used to have to put Cindy in the tub when she was sick toward the end of her life because the poop would stick to her. She didn't like it but she was such a sweetheart she didn't fuss too much. I miss that kitty so very much

* Bath mats are dirt cheap @ Dollar stores Less stress.

I took me a week, after the 1st attempt, to get all the fur off my tongue.