Mary Allen
To ensure that dogs and cats have a beautiful coat, care is required. It is particularly important to take care of your four-legged friend’s fur during the change of fur. Find out here how best to care for the fur of your favorite animal.
Coat Change
In spring and fall, when temperatures change more rapidly, cats and dogs go through a shedding process. The old skin is shed and must be removed. This allows the skin to breathe freely and the new coat to grow back nicely. If the old, loose hairs remain in the fur, it quickly becomes matted. This not only looks ugly but also causes skin irritations such as eczema. Basically, cats do most of their grooming themselves. It still makes sense for the owner to brush the animal, as one quickly becomes aware of ticks, other parasites, and hidden wounds. The texture of the fur also indicates the health of the cat. In this way, changes that indicate a disease can be quickly discovered during grooming.
Longhair/Shorthair
The grooming required is highly dependent on the length of the coat. For short-haired breeds such as Rottweilers or Carthusians, it is sufficient to use a comb to remove loose hair once a week (more often during molting). Breeds like the Maine Coon, Bobtail, or Shih-Tzu are more time-consuming: the fur should be brushed out well at least every two to three days, and daily in spring and autumn. This can take some time as removing the undercoat is sometimes not that easy. There are also many sprays and oils that also care for the fur and protect the skin from dandruff, for example.
Visit the Hairdresser?
When you think of a visit to the hairdresser with a dog and cat, the image of dyed fur or varnished claws certainly springs to mind. But with some breeds it makes sense to go to a professional once or twice a year: using clippers’ inexperienced hands gets rid of annoying knots and tangles much better than brushing for hours at home; In addition, the stress for animals and humans is usually lower. With some breeds such as schnauzers and dachshunds, it is also worth having the dogs professionally trimmed: this means that the loose hair is pulled out. Trimming is done either with the machine or with your fingers.
After the fur is down, however, care must be taken to ensure that the animal does not get sunburned now that it is no longer protected by its thick fur. In addition, Bernese Mountain Dogs, for example, need a certain degree of protection from the cold through their fur if they go into the water regularly.
Brush Types
In the following, we would like to introduce a few brushes and curry combs and give you an idea of what is best for your darling.
Cats are often not that enthusiastic when it comes to grooming: This can be due to the wrong brushes, which poke the cat or feel uncomfortable. A brush with natural bristles is particularly soft and glides comfortably through the coat. Your cat will like it too.
For short-haired dogs that don’t like using combs and brushes (the hard bristle heads lie directly on the skin), a grooming glove is suitable. This massages the dog promotes blood circulation and removes loose fur and dirt with its small rubber nubs. A good solution for long and short-haired cats is the Furminator. It can be used to remove almost all loose hair without damaging the topcoat. The cat always looks well-groomed and not like the plucked chicken, for example. The corresponding alternative for the dog would be a long-haired metal curry comb. Special detanglers can help with matted fur. These are ideal for easy detangling and thinning of the coat and thus care for the topcoat and undercoat.
The ionizing cleaning brush is brand new on the market. With battery operation, it generates an electric and at the same time antistatic magnetic field and works like a vacuum cleaner. It attracts dirt and loose hair, and thanks to the separator plate, trapped hair can be quickly removed. In addition, the brush eliminates unpleasant fur odors by combining the ions with the bad-smelling ions and neutralizing them.
Speaking of smells: your four-legged friend should only be bathed if it cannot be avoided. This is sometimes appropriate for dogs, especially when they’ve rolled in something that smells bad. You should definitely use an extra dog shampoo, as this is particularly mild and gentle on sensitive skin.