 Purred: Fri Feb 8, '13 11:46pm PST |
 | |  | | One of my cats I have is an adopted Shaded Silver Persian. Persians typically have a cottony undercoat that mats and tangles very easily. In addition because of their head type, Persians cannot effectively groom themselves. To top it off, my Persian absolutely hates to be groomed. I've ended up having to keep his coat scissored short on his underside, the back of his legs, and the area around and under his tail all the time to prevent him from getting feces in his coat and to keep him from developing mats on his belly, between his legs, in his underarms etc. I also keep his coat trimmed short under his chin and behind his ears, other areas where he tends to easily get mats. In the spring I generally have to scissor his coat short all over because he starts developing mats even on his back and sides when he sheds his winter coat.
For my Persian and to a lesser extent for my other longhaired cats, I also use a mat splitter such as the Four Paws Mat & Tangle Splitter. This style of mat splitter allows you to safely split the mat without danger of cutting the cat's skin. I also like the short toothed undercoat rake and the long toothed undercoat rake for grooming cats and dogs. With cats you have to be careful though and not overdo using the rake at any one time because if you keep grooming with the rake even after hair has stopped coming away easily, it's possible to make too much hair come out and end up with a bald spot which won't hurt the cat but doesn't look good and takes time for the hair to grow back in and cover it again. Rubbing a little cornstarch into the coat in areas where the coat is oily will help absorb the excess oil in the coat.
Depending on length, thickness, coarseness or softness of coat, degree of undercoat, the cat's ability to groom itself & other factors, longhaired cats usually do tend to get mats behind the ears, under the tail, in the back of the pants hair, under the chin, on the chest, in the underarm area, on the belly, and between the hind legs. Another place where many longhaired cats usually have long fur that can easily pick up feces, litter, and other dirt that can become stuck in the coat and even cause soreness and lameness is on the bottoms of the feet around and between the paw pads. Trimming the hair short around the paws and between the pads so the hair length is even with the pads instead of sticking out longer than the pads, will take care of this problem.
The grooming tools I use most frequently on all my cats is the short tooth undercoat rake, the flea comb, and of course, the claw clipper. |  |  | |  |
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