Grooming Your Persian Cat

Hi everyone, and welcome to my and Corin's site! Today I will deal with grooming her, and taking care of her hair knots if she has any.

Corin is almost 9 years old. She was born May 13th, 2001. Her breed is a 'Chinchilla Silver-Point Persian' and 'Ragdoll' cross.
She loves attention, and loves to talk. She dislikes children and other cats.

Below I will show the tools you will need to groom your own cat.

Now, when you brush your cat, don't do it very fast. That will usually just frighten your cat. When brushing first brush in the direction of the cat's hair. Brush with short 'bursts.' Don't start right at the skin and pull all the way till you're through the hair. The brush will get tangled in the fur if you do that.
When brushing, pull the brush upwards slightly when the brush has almost reached the end of the hair. This will loosen the fine undercoat of hair.

Make sure you brush on her belly, and if she'll allow it, her tail. Also the hair around their rump is good to brush, especially if its really long and you notice 'poopy' sometimes gets in there! If possible, you should trim the hair around their rump too.

Now, if your cat is like most long haired cats; she'll hate being brushed! Just be firm with her, but gentle with the brush. If she really gets upset and starts hissing or batting at you, back off for awhile. A good time to brush a cat, I've found, is when they've been napping. When you wake them up they're less likely to put up a fuss.

With a long haired cat, it's just a matter of time until you get one (or more!) of these. If it does happen, what I find easiest is let the knot stay on the cat for awhile, like for weeks or even a month or two.
The reason why is its easiest and safest to cut out a knot the way I'm going to show you. The knot becomes very dense, and it pulls away from the skin. When the knot is 'ready' and you can slip a brushes' metal teeth between the skin and hair knot, just above the hairline, what you're left with is an easy way to snip the knot out of the hair. Just place the scissors' blades next to the brush teeth and snip the knot out. This way you won't cut your cat.
Be SO CAREFUL doing this! Move slowly but be in control at all times. If the cat squirms too much, stop and try later. This may take you several attempts to try over a period of a few days. Its also a lot easier to have someone helping you, restraining and calming the cat.

Here is a pic of my cat's belly after I snipped a big knot out of her (sorry I couldn't catch that part on camera) You can see her skin very clearly, since the hair was pulled away from it.

Ok, so now some preventative maintenance: Brush your cat at least 3 times a week, daily is preferred. Snip the hair around her rump on a monthly basis.
There is a product on the market, known as "Hairball Remedy Paste," or "Hairball Care." Basically it's mostly the same, the ingredients are usually mineral oil, fish oil, malt syrup, and water (plus some other things like lecithin, diglycerides, and potassium sorbate) Your paste you buy will probably a bit different, but the first 4 are usually there. The active ingredient is Mineral Oil.
For the first couple days you will give this to your cat daily. After that, once or twice a week will suffice. Read the instructions so you know how much to feed your cat.
And lastly, feeding a diet a little higher in fiber will help with bringing up hairballs, if your cat has to. The fiber just makes it easier to throw up. With commercially prepared dry food, there is usually a 'hairball care' preparation (I feed my cat the Iams Hairball Care Stuff) I notice it really helps.

And well, that concludes my tutorial on grooming your Persian :) If you have any questions or comments, just post them in Corin's Guest Book!