One of the most important requests of hair care is combing. The devices you will need for this procedure are as follows.
- wide comb with slim cogs;
- natural elastic brush (bristle-like);
- chromium-plated steel comb with widely spaced cogs (cogs should be slightly rounded);
- thick combs for removing of particles of dirt and fleas.
One should not use brushes with artificial hair for they cause static electricity and make hairs brittle.
Besides this, to take care of cat you will need some other things:
- gloves with shaggy surface for massage;
- soft suede or small pieces of terry-loop textile.
The choice of conditioning agents and methods depends first of all on peculiarities of certain breed. For longhaired and mid-longhaired breeds are best brushed with a metal comb with dulled cogs, besides the body - in direction from head to tail, and the collar - in the opposite direction. First, one should use a comb with thin cogs and then - a thicker one. Sometimes it's reasonable to moisten the hair a little to make brushing easier.
Some holders of Persian cats cut the hair away from all parts of body, except tail, for the summer. These saves the hair from felting and helps animals bear hot weather easier. But, at that it is important to watch the intensive solar radiation not to cause change of coloring.
A shorthaired cat doesn't need everyday combing. Is quite enough to pay half an hour to this procedure twice a week.
After combing a hair is powdered with a powder-like shampoo that is moved away by means of brush. Talc powder or cornstarch may substitute shampoo.
A good "dry shampoo" for shorthaired cats is bran. One must warm about 300 g of bran in oven, place a cat on the sheet of paper and rub warm "shampoo" in its' hair. When combing the powder away one must hold a cat head so as the powder doesn't get into its' eyes and nose.
Cat hair renews practically during whole year. Many breeds, especially shorthaired, moult quite quickly and even don't show this. In longhaired breeds moulting lasts longer, as a rule, from September to November and from February to April (individually in each animal). It's urgent to comb the hair out and smooth in down with the brush during this periods, for thus one massages a skin and stimulate growth of new hair.
First moulting during which colorless hairs are replaced with mature fur, takes place in 5-7 month, in autumn or spring. The process begins on head. Just right here the hair most often gets a permanent coloring. Hair change of other parts of body sometimes drags on a year or more.
Cat tongue is shaggy and this helps a cat to comb out dead hairs when it leaks itself. The leaking serves not for hair cleaning but for hair renewing.
Sometimes cats leaks itself too industriously, bites or scratches one place on its' body. Probably there's eczema there, or a foreign body, or insect.
If the animal often leaks genitals or the area of anus it may mean a uterus inflammation or urinary stones in bladder. For this reason one should visit a veterinary.
When a cat swallows its' hairs that come out or indigestive particles that get in stomach with food, it becomes a serious problem. This results in "fur balls", or so-called "bezoars", that disturb digestive functions and impede work of intestines. A cat is used to releasing them due to vomiting. Vomit is not of pathological character. One may help cause it by means of coarse sorts of grass irritating walls of stomach. One more remedy is vegetable oil (1 tea-spoon for a kitten, 2 tea-spoons for a "teenager" and 1 table-spoon for an adult animal). Castor oil is prohibited flatly for it is harmful for cats.
Translated by Tatiana Karpova (Moscow)
(MSU, Biology faculture, Dep. zoology and ecology).