how do i get my cat to bathe?

So I took my cat with me when I moved out of my mom's place & now I have a bit of a problem. Since he was a kitten, mom's cat would bathe him alot, or he would start bathing when he saw the other cat bathe. Now neither happens & he's on the grungy side. Especially a problem after he uses the litterbox. Anybody know a way to encourge him to wash himself.
Thanks.

Get him another cat.

Originally Posted by portdevoix

Get him another cat.

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That is a great answer, exactly what I was thinking...

Cats are very clean animals, they groom themselves all the time. If a cat isn't cleaning himself it can often be a sign of illness, are you sure he isn't sick? Its obviously not that he doesn't know how to groom because you have said he would groom himself if the other cat was. Sorry, I don't have any tips on making him bathe more.

I agree with Rugbykid. I don't think you need another cat just to make yours start cleaning himself more. How old is the kitten, by the way?
If he is not sick, try some of those cat wipes sold in pet stores. I sometimes use them on my cats for quick clean ups and it encourages them to groom themselves.

I had one cat that NEVER groomed himself. When I brought him to the vets to explore why he wouldn't do that, illness was ruled out and the vet shared that there is the occassional male that just won't groom himself. He has never seen it in females, but about 1 in a few hundred males just doesn't do this.

I agree with possibly getting another cat. A thing that a friend did with her cat who had chronic feline acne and didn't know how to groom his chin (he was orphaned early), was to actually lick his paw and rub it on his chin for him. When she started this, the cat would give her the weird looks, but eventually started to do it on his own.

Good luck!

Thanks for the advice folks. To answer questions, Moe is eight and a half. I'm sure he's in good health. He had a check-up this fall and is about the same as always. I think the problem is just that he likes being babied. He lived with a slightly older cat since the time he was a kitten. The other cat always bathed him some, plus he would bathe when he saw her bathing (a social thing?) He's a short hair, so there's not a problem with mats, but if he gets into something dusty or fuzzy, it stays on him untill I brush him.

I started taking small clumps of fur between my thumb and fingers in short strokes. I think it's doing the trick. Probabally twice so far he has gotten up to & started to bathe himself. It doesn't always work, but hopefully he'll get into some sort of habit involving bathing himself.

sometimes when I am in the bath tub the cats will come and drive me nuts, so I take a wash cloth and run it over them then they start cleaning themselves

Not sure how you can get a cat to bathe itself. But if it gets to the point where you have to bathe him yourself then I can help you! I have a step by step instruction on my website. The link is under my siggy if you're ever interested.

butter his paws. he will lick them clean then settle down for a wash.

Originally Posted by maverick_kitten

butter his paws. he will lick them clean then settle down for a wash.

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I agree on this, get something you can rub on his paw that tast good. If you have something that bothers ya paw. Lick it up.


Ashley