The weather is getting hotter and hotter—is cat hair starting to float all over your house, too? As someone with 6 cats and 2 dogs, my home stays pretty clean. If you’re a neat freak with cats, you definitely need to read this whole post.
First of all, except for hairless cats, almost all cats shed. Especially this time of year, it feels like there’s endless cat hair on the couch, the bed, and everywhere else. If you want to cut down on shedding, we can start from three aspects: brushing, coat care, and cleaning.
The first one is frequent brushing.
Having raised cats for over a decade, after trying product after product, I found that this brush is still the absolute best. My 6 are all domestic shorthairs. This slicker brush not only helps quickly remove loose fur from the cat’s body, but it also massages their skin and boosts blood circulation along the way. Especially now when shedding is heavy, I give them a quick brushing almost every day. Every time I just pick up this brush, my cats automatically run over for a massage. And with just a gentle push, it ejects the hair all at once so you can take it right off. Otherwise, think about it—if such a huge ball of loose fur gets licked into their stomach, wouldn’t that cause hairballs?
The second one is coat maintenance.
Reducing cat shedding must be tackled at the source—and that’s what they eat. Main food is the best source of nutrition. The food selection criteria I’ve repeatedly shared with everyone is high protein, moderate fat, and low carbs. Second, during shedding season, we can give cats extra unsaturated fatty acids. Unsaturated fatty acids are a super important element for reducing shedding and keeping their skin healthy.
Take Solid Gold’s fresh meat skin & coat cat food, for example. The very first ingredient on its list is wild Pacific salmon. Because salmon itself is extremely rich in Omega-3, and its Omega-6 content is also among the highest in deep-sea fish. The expert-recommended ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 is roughly around 5-to-1 or 3-to-1, and this food hits a golden 4-to-1 ratio right off the bat. It brilliantly solves the problem where most cats hate fish oil or egg yolks. Not only is its tested crude protein content at 40%, but it also has a 90% pepsin digestibility rate, plus 1 billion active probiotics to protect their stomach—great nutrition, fully absorbed. The kibble is also their classic flat-round small kibble. As for the main issue of shedding, just look at my cats: after switching foods, their shedding is visibly less than before, and they feel silky-smooth and soft to the touch.
The third is environmental cleaning.
If you want to guarantee a super clean home with cats, staying on top of cleaning is definitely the most important step for neat freaks with pets. The three essential hair-removal tools I can’t live without in my house are these three. First, a robot vacuum is an absolute lifesaver for lazy people. From when I started raising cats until now, I don’t even know how many generations it has been upgraded through, but my house can never be without it. All the loose fur on the floor relies on it for cleaning.
The second is an air purifier. We have two severe allergy sufferers in our house. Using it not only filters allergens and dust in the air, but during shedding season, it’s also especially effective at trapping cat hair. Its filter is super easy to detach and clean as well. The third is a lint roller. I’ve switched many times, and I found that this long-handled roller is seriously amazing to use. Just roll it casually on your clothes, the couch, or bedsheets—one stick and one peel easily solves it. Although shedding season is super annoying, as long as you’re a bit diligent, tackle it at the source, and pay attention to nutritional supplementation in daily feeding, the shedding issue can definitely be relieved.
