Thread: best grooming comb

Good luck with this.
I have found that my two need no grooming at all for most of the year, then all hell breaks loose with hair everywhere and matted lumps that appear literally overnight and then it is time for THE FURMINATOR.

Shop Pet Grooming Cleaning & De-Shedding Supplies Online | FURminator®

It's basically a razor blade with spikes that strips out the undercoat. It's virtually idiot-proof - you won't be able to hurt anything with it and it gets rid of all the issues in about 3 1-hour sessions. Sid needs pinning down to do his belly, but from a kitten he's not let anyone touch it willingly. Lots of cat treats help too!
Ava isn't bothered, she lets me get on with it with a soft brush, just getting her used to the idea for now.

Some people have issues with coat damage with the FURMINATOR, I genuinely haven't noticed that. What is amazing is how much stuff can be removed from a cat without the cat seeming to look any different - the pic is of a half-hour belly-groom. Sid also changes colour completely: before he is a pale grey smoke cat with a few darker bits, after he is a black and grey mackerel tabby! The stripes are completely overwhelmed by all the fluff.

The alternative is a shaved cat - Sid went from two small mats under each "arm" to armour-plated across his entire belly in about 48 hours, despite me trying to groom the mats with an ordinary comb. He looked like a raw pork sausage for weeks.

If I knew your first name, I would greet you by your name

Is your first picture how Sidney's belly looked after you used the FURminator? If so, that is more aggressive than I would like. It is true though that nothing we have tried yet seems to work at all on Smokey (our MC). We can groom him with every brush and comb we have for our 'Blue Point' and our dog (it's a bagful), and virtually nothing comes off that cat with any of them...but let him lay on our Micro Fiber recliner for a couple of days and handfuls of fine white hair is all over the fabric! I just looked in "the bag" and we do have a FURminator product in our collection, but it just has very fine metal teeth (no razor blade), and we have not had any success with it. I think the teeth are too short for our MC. BTW, the FURminator web site doesn't say anything about using a razor blade in their tools. It appears to be just a sharp SS edge at the base of the teeth. Our tool doesn't have the spring loaded lever to push on the back to remove the hair either. I'll buy the right one this time and try again.

Clyde in the Central Valley, California

My family call me Weasel - long story! Feel free to do the same.
The bald belly is after he got shaved at the vet. Little toad wouldn't let me go near him with any kind of brush, we had a bit of a wrestle that led to bloodshed (mine, not his) so he went to the vet for sedation before shaving. He was in there for less than 5 min. The vet said the cat was so laid back he just lifted him up and shaved him off. Typical of Sidney!
I guess the FUMINATOR doesn't really have a real razor blade, it's just spiky and sharp! I did buy the one specifically for long-haired cats and the spikes are reasonable long, it certainly gets the fluff out.
There is a technique that we have developed for best success: I don't use it for general grooming, just for mats. Hold the skin firmly below the mat, or holds the mat itself it it's nasty. Then start near the edge of the mat and use gentle strokes to tease it out in a lump. With Sid, it can take a second person to hold him still if he's not in the mood. The important thing is not let the comb tug at the skin at all as Sid tells me it is very unpleasant.
The places where he mats first are: behind the ears; under the arms, base of the tail and then everywhere. I just keep an eye on these places first and tease out the lumps as soon as they appear and we seems to be keeping on top of it. I will admit that right now he looks more "homeless" than "Maine Coon", but he also has been playing in the back garden with slugs which get all tangled up in his fur and have to be cut out. Disgusting.

Originally Posted by Weasel

My family call me Weasel - long story! Feel free to do the same. The bald belly is after he got shaved at the vet. Little toad wouldn't let me go near him with any kind of brush, we had a bit of a wrestle that led to bloodshed (mine, not his) so he went to the vet for sedation before shaving. He was in there for less than 5 min. The vet said the cat was so laid back he just lifted him up and shaved him off. Typical of Sidney! I guess the FUMINATOR doesn't really have a real razor blade, it's just spiky and sharp! I did buy the one specifically for long-haired cats and the spikes are reasonable long, it certainly gets the fluff out. There is a technique that we have developed for best success: I don't use it for general grooming, just for mats. Hold the skin firmly below the mat, or holds the mat itself it it's nasty. Then start near the edge of the mat and use gentle strokes to tease it out in a lump. With Sid, it can take a second person to hold him still if he's not in the mood. The important thing is not let the comb tug at the skin at all as Sid tells me it is very unpleasant. The places where he mats first are: behind the ears; under the arms, base of the tail and then everywhere. I just keep an eye on these places first and tease out the lumps as soon as they appear and we seems to be keeping on top of it. I will admit that right now he looks more "homeless" than "Maine Coon", but he also has been playing in the back garden with slugs which get all tangled up in his fur and have to be cut out. Disgusting.

up cho bạn nek

Weasel, thanks for the explanation and de-matting techniques. We don't have all that much trouble with matting, because Smokey doesn't run loose outside, as I wrote about in another reply.

Clyde

Just bought a Ferplast comb from Amazon with rotating tines - it's amazing!
Sid let me groom his tail, which he normally hates, the comb got some mats out easily and clearly wasn't hurting very much at all.