How offten to shampoo your cat?

[dragonlady]

With Persians you MUST bathe them as they cannot get clean themselves, the fur is too dense. I use Dawn Dishwashing liquid. My male Persians get what is called Male Tail. This is a thick oily patch that need to soak to clean up. They are also prone to oily patches on their face and chest.

After their bath they are blow dried. This removes all the dampness at the base of the hair shafts, and will remove any loose hair that would cause matting.

Of course you should trim the kitties nails before attempting to bathe and blow dry! LOL

 

[stormysmom]

I personally don't like giving cats a bath. That is because I get clawed! We dont unless they have gotten seriously dirty. When we first got Samuel as a tiny kitten he was covered... and I mean covered in fleas and flea eggs. Most of his weight was from the fleas! He came from a farm that was over run with neglected cats and kittens ranging somewhere in the hundreds just running everywhere. (they were shut down) Anyway we gave him at least five baths with dish soap his first few weeks as well as a few to his brother Nightcrawler RIP who had gotten some from him. Other than that Sam has only had one other bath when he was kenneled on a trip back from the vet and peed/pooped all over himself.

One of our girls consistantly jumps into the toilet weather in use of not so she does get a bath when that happens..... though it is starting to be less since we are more careful with that. blah

We always use baby shampoo for our pets too as I dont like any of the pet shampoos after hearing about poisonings. You guys who bathe once a week sure are brave! eek

 

[arlyn]

Cat horror story number 1.

Ex boyfriend was given a Bombay, she was completely infested.
He did the smart thing in bathing an adult cat that was unfamiliar with him.
He got into the bathtub with her, fully dressed, heavy denim jeans and all.

She sank her claws into his temple and would not release.
He pried her loose, and I kid you not, this cat climbed the grout!

Thankfully, she never needed a bath again.

 

[buzbyjlc10]

Wow, I always have felt lucky to have Oliver just cuz he's a great cat... but now I KNOW I'm lucky!! Once he's put in the tub, he knows there's no winning the battle and he just sits there!!!

If anything there's one or two "Oh mommy!" meows when I'm cleaning his 'boy parts'

.... I use pet shampoo on him, oatmeal like I said earlier, and have not had any problems with it - I make sure to rinse him really well too.... then he gets towel dried in the tub, then wrapped up like a baby

in 2 or 3 dry towels and I hold him in a bundle til he starts squirming to get out... he's a shorthair so that works pretty well, and then he preens

 

[bab-ush-niik]

I bathe my cats once a year, in spring. It helps to get out all the loose fur. If htey get particularly dirty (especially Patches) I'll bath them once more in the summer.

They will get more used to baths over time. The first time I bathed Patches, it was with a breeder I knew. We still both got clawed badly. Patches has since decided that clawing doesn't do much good, so I bathe while someone else plays goalie (she thinks she can jump out).

Princess was pretty upset the first time, but now she just resigns herself to the bath as soon as she gets wet. She just sits down and waits. I think she likes being wrapped up in towels and brushed afterwards, so she figured out that if she stays calm, she gets towels that much faster.

I just use baby shampoo on both of them. When you bathe them, definitely don't try to hold them down. I let the girls wander where they like, but if the try to jump out, someone behind me slides them back in. I also don't have water running. It seems to really freak them out, so I fill up a large bucket with clean water, dip a pot into it, and pour it on them that way.

 

[goldenkitty45]

When I was showing cats, they got a bath before every show (so once/twice a month).

I'm assuming these cats are long hair for the most part. First make sure EVERY tangle is out of the coats before they are wet. Otherwise you won't be getting the mats/tangles out. If they have a oily coat, you can wash them with Dawn shampoo and a good conditioner.

Personally I have never used any "cat shampoos" - I use the quality human shampoos - like Nexxus for my cats.

It depends on how dirty they get as to how often to wash. If you don't put conditioner on them, the coat will be dull in a short time. Also when you wash them you cannot allow them to "air dry" as long hairs need to be blown dry and combed as they are drying. So figure a few hours of time between washing and drying.

 

[cookandcompany]

We bathe our Persians every Sunday, All 8 of them.lol If we don't they tend to get very oily & messy. And they need their faces cleaned a few times a day, especially if you have the lighter colors on their faces. We use the Jerob Line of shampoos & products. They are awesome. We always start bathing & Blow drying from an early age so they are used to it & always well behaved. I have a few that actually like water & try to jump on the side of the bathtub when I am in the bath. lol