Anybody Have Pets?

[jameslee]

...And if you do, got a good solution for shedding?

I live with : ) two cats who seem to shed endlessly. They're stickly indoor cats (although i'm sure they'd love to get their paws on the birds out the windows.) Even after i brush them several times, whenever anyone pets them the 'fur goes a-flyin'. Unfortunately i can't stand having fur everywhere so i end up spending half of my day dusting and vacuuming!

They're short/medium hair cats and i use both a rubber brush/mitt (recommended for short hair cats) and a wire brush (recommended for long hair cats) daily. The wire brush removes some fur and keeps it in the brush well, but still leaves a lot behind. The rubber brush removes a lot of loose fur, but doesn't hold on to it and it ends up flying all over the place!

Luckily, one of the cats loves to be vacuumed, so that cuts the amount of 'free floating fur' in half since it's immediately sucked into the vacuum, but the other cat won't go anywhere hear the vacuum.

Am i the only pet owner with this problem? Are everyone else's pet shed-free? Please help!

[Ice-9]

I've had a couple of snakes and a whole bunch of fish, but they didn't shed too much.

[jameslee]

Cute.

Well, there was no problem when they were kittens, they never seemed to shed. But now that they're upgrading to version 3.0 (read: three years old), it's like a can build a two new cats from the fur collectly weekly.

[Chinpoko_Mon]

You vaccum your cat??? what!?!... =P

my cat runs as soon as your turn on the vaccum...

I haven't found a solution either...I've got a long-hair cat, who also seems to shed endlessly. I can wire brush him all day and have like 200 clumps of fur to throw away, but he still looks exactly the same.... don't get it...

If you figure something out, lemme know.

[jameslee]

Yeah, sounds crazy huh?

i was watching television with my lady friend one day and something came on where a lady mentioned vacuuming her cat. We both looked at each other like 'what the ?!*%$#'. Then some time later i was vacuuming (the massive amounts of cat hair, of course) and my girlfriend decided to see if our cats would take to being vacuumed. The rest is the rest.

This only begins to describe their bizzare habits...

[Loosah]

I know there are certain essential fatty acids (like fish oil) that you can feed them that is supposed to cut down on the shedding. The sell them at the pet store. Other than that and a ton of grooming. You could always buy carpets and furniture that are the same color as your cats.

I have dogs and they are both non-shed breeds thank god. I almost always wear black clothes (left over from living in NY)so pet hair would be a big problem.

[zenbooty]

Vacuum your cat, huh?

For some reason I can't get the image of your cat and a Flowbee out of my head.

[sbp]

http://www.remington-products.com/products/mshavers/images/image_ta4570.jpg

[speedracer120]

That's one way.

[Chinpoko_Mon]

Originally posted by jameslee
Yeah, sounds crazy huh?

i was watching television with my lady friend one day and something came on where a lady mentioned vacuuming her cat. We both looked at each other like 'what the ?!*%$#'. Then some time later i was vacuuming (the massive amounts of cat hair, of course) and my girlfriend decided to see if our cats would take to being vacuumed. The rest is the rest.

This only begins to describe their bizzare habits...

So is your lady friend and your girlfriend the same person??.........

[jameslee]

Originally posted by zenbooty
Vacuum your cat, huh?

For some reason I can't get the image of your cat and a Flowbee out of my head.

You've seen my cat? : )

Whoops, i didn't even notice i used girlfriend later in the message. Yes, i know i worded it oddly--my lady friend is my girlfriend.

I've tried the food supplements (read: fats and acids). Despite the fact that they're supposed to be made of fish parts, my cats didn't appear to like it and it didn't seem to help with the shedding anyway.

[johnnymk]

I use those round hand held things with the strips of removable masking tape that you use for lint on your clothes. But my cat doesn't have real long hair.
If someone would invent a statically charged hand held device which would attract pet hair, they would be a billionaire overnight.

[caddelma]

The vet reccomended a conditioning spray for my long haired collie/chow mix. Well he had long hair until last week when he was shaved. He looks like an anemic lion now. But when the vet shaved him and did his nasty long nails she sprayed the conditioning lotion on what hair he had left and it makes it really soft and so far he doesn't shed as much.

[DizzyT]

I have two cats, had em for 12 years - all their lives. After that amount of time I'm used to black and white furs all over all my clothes. Sux but thats life! I use the rubber glove on one, she loves it, the other, forget it. Although she's not the big shedder. I have to vaccuum almost daily in the summer. They're both short haired, although one does seem to shed a lot more. But vaccuuming them? I'm with Chinpoko_Mon on that one, my cat runs!

[jameslee]

Maybe it had something to do with my approach.

After i had the cats for half a week, i put them in the bathroom (i.e. the only other room considering i lived in a studio.) Then i went into the other room and turned on the vacuum, just letting it run in the middle of the room. I let the cats out of the bathroom and let them explore the sounds and vacuum for themselves.

When they seemed comfortable with the vacuum (read: they would rub against it and lay down next to it) i pet them and gave them treats. Then i tipped the top of the vacuum causing the rollers to run, which creates a louder and different noise. (Note: i should have returned the cats to the bathroom before starting the rollers.) Repeated the positive reinforcement. Finally i slowly vacuumed.

Result: one cat ran (he's afraid of eveything that's not a person) and the other stayed (she love's all kinds of machines: printer, fridge, monitor...)

Maybe...