When you first think of bathing your cat at home, the question arises: do cats bathe? And here comes the false belief that a cat should never be bathed, something totally false. Cats yes can take a bath, but if they don't like it, that's another story. Although it is true that if a cat is at home and has never had an "accident" playing with mud, oil or any other product that seriously dirty its fur, with its tongue, the cat can live perfectly without needing a bath.
But cats are playful and we can find ourselves in the situation where our cat suddenly appears with large stains of dirt on his body, something that he alone will not be able to clean and that is when he will need our help. aid. Cats, like dogs, should not be bathed before 3 months of age, if we bathe them at this early age we can endanger their he alth since their defenses are not yet fully developed.
Next, in this article on our site we will give you some guidelines and tips on how to bathe your cat at home:
Tips before starting the bath
- Trim your cat's nails To minimize the damage that our cat can cause in a moment of fear or stress, it is advisable to trim the ones. If you have never done it, it is preferable that they be trimmed by a professional, since inexperience can cause us to cause damage to our feline, even causing it to bleed.
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Brush your hair Our feline's fur can suffer from knots, it will always be easier to untangle these knots with the hair still dry, This way we will avoid pulling it during the bath and we will make the bathing experience as relaxing as possible. Take special care behind the ears and neck, they are usually the areas most prone to knots in the fur.
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Everything ready and at hand During the bath we should not leave our cat alone in the bathtub for a single moment, it is very likely that when they see each other they just get scared and can run away, so before we start we must make sure we have everything within our reach: shampoo, towels, toys, sweets, brush, hair dryer…
Warning: Theshampoo must be specific for cats , it would be totally harmful to use our or our dog's shampoo.
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Bathtub or container already filled with waterThe sound of water falling through a faucet can scare our feline and stress him out, which is why before bringing our cat to the bathroom area, we must have the bathtub with the water ready to start. The water should be warm, not too deep, so that our cat can stand or sit and the water should not come close to the neck, otherwise it would be frightened.
At the bottom From the bathtub we should put a non-slip mat and on top of it it is advisable to put a small towel where the legs of our cat will go, in case at any given moment our cat has a little scare and pulls out its nails, so that it can stick them in something and come back to relax.
- Some toy in the water will help our cat associate bath time with a game and we will be able to bathe him quickly and easy.
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Finally, relax! You have everything ready, everything at hand and everything insured, in a room where calm reigns and harmony, you just have to go get the kitten to start the bath. But if when you go for it, the cat notices that you are tense, scared and afraid, it will have been useless to have the most relaxed and prepared room in the world, since your cat will notice that tension in you and will be infected by it. So, take a deep breath, relax and happily go for him, just as if you were going to play, he will notice that positive and happy energy in you and go happily to take his bath.
The cat's bath step by step and some tips
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Cat entry into the bathtub You know your cat better than anyone, so you'll know what fun tricks you can use to get him into the water (toys, treats, some game, etc) keep trying and trying to make your kitten enter the water naturally.
If you don't achieve this naturalness, you can pick it up and make it enter little by little, No pressure, no obligation, no fear.
A trick to be able to hold a cat in a relaxed way is to hold its skin on the neck, called the nape. By picking it up in this area, the kitten will easily allow itself to be moved to where we need it.
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Wet the cat very slowly Once inside the water we will begin to wet it little by little, without haste. If the cat gets scared, it doesn't matter, we'll let it relax for as long as it needs. It is preferable not to bathe him this first time but that he has had that first contact, than for him to feel obligated and scared and we will never be able to bathe him again.
If everything goes well, we continue with the bath. We should never wet more than his neck, the head should never be put under water, it would cause him too much terror.
So if we already have the body well wet, we will take the cat shampoo and with gentle massages we will wash our kitten in the direction of hair growth. Once everything is well lathered, we will very gently take the warm water and calmly and patiently rinse our cat, without leaving any trace of shampoo.
Be especially careful not to get shampoo in his eyes, ears, nose or mouth, it could cause an infection. Now we have his little face, since we don't We wet her during the bath, but don't worry, you can wash her face with a damp cloth, it's that easy, our feline companion will not object to these caresses of a damp and soft cloth on her face.
After bath,
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Towel-drying Take the towel and wring out as much water as you can from his hair, gently with movements similar to stroking him. we give normally.
If your cat is short-haired and is in an area where there is no cold current, at this point, it can finish drying itself.
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Drying with dryer But if his coat is long or semi-long and he is not afraid of the dryer, we will take him and with soft air and warm we will begin to dry his hair with the help of a brush while we comb him in favor of the direction of the hairline. On the contrary, if he does not accept the dryer, we must continue drying with a towel as much as possible possible.
Other recommendations
- Alternative to bathing If our cat steadfastly refuses to be bathed and there is no way to convince him, there are alternative ways to clean a cat. cat as using dry shampoo that can be applied with a cloth and thus be able to wash our cat.
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Frequency of baths. We can bathe our feline whenever we want, but not more than twice a month.
- Routine since childhood. If you have your kitten since it was little, even if it doesn't need it because it is very clean, you can get it used to the bathroom from a young age. It is easier to teach a young kitten not to be afraid of the bathroom than an older cat.
- Rewards. Always reward your kitten: with treats, with caresses, with cuddles, with words, whatever it is, the positive reinforcement for behaving well will make him associate each bath process with something good and fun.
