Most cats take real pride in their appearance, spending almost half their waking hours preening themselves to perfection. Being independent creatures, cats are keen to look after themselves, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t lend a hand in their pampering routine.

Grooming your cat plays a big part in caring for your pet and regular maintenance will mean your cat looks great and feels great too!

As well as helping to keep your cat looking beautiful, regular cat grooming allows you to spend quality time bonding with your pet, and gives you the opportunity to check their body condition and spot any unusual signs of health problems, such as lumps or bumps.

The benefits of cat grooming

Cat grooming might seem superficial, but while your cat is beautifying themselves or being brushed by you, they enjoy other benefits too:

• Circulation is stimulated
• Muscle tone is improved
• Fur is smoothed down for better insulation
• Glands at the base of the coat are stimulated to waterproof the fur
• Sebum is spread evenly which helps to waterproof and protect the coat and skin
• In hot weather, the saliva they spread during grooming helps to keep your cat cool

How cats groom themselves

As cats use their mouths a lot during grooming, they often swallow strands of hair during the process. This can cause them to cough up fur balls – this is quite normal, so don’t worry. You can help to reduce the amount of fur they shed, and therefore minimise fur balls, by helping your cat with their grooming with a gentle brush.

Most short haired cats are very good at grooming themselves – longer haired cats will need a little bit of extra assistance when cat grooming. After all, they have a lot of fur to clean, so may miss a spot!

When you should help with cat grooming

As they age, cats can get stiff so they might not be able to easily reach to clean some areas. Therefore, regular cat grooming is an important part of your caring routine throughout the whole of your cats’ life.

Grooming a cat from their younger years allows you to build a strong bond through physical contact, and create a shared level of trust between both of you.

As short haired cats are quite capable of grooming themselves, a brief brush once a week should be enough to spend time with them whilst maintaining their coat, while long haired cats will benefit from a cat brush once a day to avoid matting, knots and excessive fur ball build up.

Matting can be very uncomfortable and even painful for cats, so your help will definitely be appreciated – even if they don’t show it at the time!

How to groom your cat

Grooming can be a long or short task, depending on the breed of cat you have and their hair type. To make sure your grooming sessions run smoothly, make sure you have all the correct equipment and a designated grooming area. Take a look at our top grooming tips for more information.