Is it required or even safe to bathe cats?
Thorough grooming is important for cats, too. In the following you will find out whether this inevitably means that you have to bathe your cat or whether cleaning the fur should be left to the four-legged friend alone.
Bathing cats – the main points at a glance
- Healthy cats normally clean themselves with their rough tongue.
- Baths are usually not necessary and must remain an absolute exception for cats.
- Depending on the length of the fur, the cat's coat should be combed and brushed frequently.
- Normal shampoo is absolutely unsuitable for bathing a cat.
- It can be useful to support cats' grooming with suitable ear care products.
Cats normally clean themselves
As you certainly can observe day after day, cats usually clean themselves. The four-legged friends devote hours every day to grooming their fur with great perseverance.
In addition to their flexibility, their rough tongue is particularly beneficial. The tongue of cats is equipped with so-called papillae. With these tiny horny teeth, the cat can comb through its fur and even remove skin parasites in addition to small tangles, dander and loose hair.
Grooming with a brush
While it is essential to groom dogs and a bath may be necessary from time to time, cats generally do not need assistance with this.
Nevertheless, you should help your cat with grooming by combing and brushing their coat. For breeds with a short coat, it is usually sufficient to do this while the cat is molting.
If your four-legged friend is a breed with a long coat, such as a Persian cat or a Norwegian Forest cat, it is advisable to use a brush and comb all year round. In this way, it is possible to prevent the animal's coat from becoming tangled and matted.
What can I clean my cat with?
A proper bath is usually not required for cats and normally does more harm than good to the animals' skin and fur. If your four-legged friend's fur is soiled, it is best to remove the dirt carefully with a clean, damp cloth. This is usually sufficient to remove recent dirt.
Washing a smelly cat
There can be a variety of reasons why cats don't pay enough attention to their grooming. In this case, it is sometimes necessary to support the animal with their personal hygiene.
Of course, this does not mean that you should constantly wash your cat in the bathtub. In this situation, too, limit yourself primarily to a comb or brush and a damp cloth when cleaning.
You should also determine the cause of the lack of hygiene in a timely manner. After all, your cat might be ill and is therefore no longer cleaning itself properly.
Can I use regular shampoo for my cat?
If a bath is unavoidable, it is very important that you use the right care products for this purpose. Never wash your cat with your own shampoo or shower gel.
Care products intended for human skin damage the protective barrier of your four-legged friend's skin. This can lead to dander and unpleasant skin irritations, which you can avoid by using care products that are suitable for cats.
How often do cats need to be bathed?
Cats should generally be bathed as little as possible. A proper bath must remain an absolute exception. It can be useful, for example, if the four-legged friend has come into contact with toxins.
In this case, it is sometimes better to subject the cat to a stressful bath than to risk toxic substances entering the body and damaging the animal's health.
That being said, sometimes cats may need to be washed with a special shampoo because they are infested with cat fleas or mites.
Wherever possible, it is advisable to use an alternative remedy against the parasites, for example a spot-on. This is less stressful for the animal and, depending on the severity of the infestation, with a bit of luck also does the trick.
Help cats to keep their ears clean
Despite all their flexibility and cleanliness, cats are not able to clean the inner part of their ears. That doesn't necessarily have to lead to problems. However, it is not uncommon for cats to suffer from ear problems such as an infection or an infestation with ear mites.
In order to counteract such problems, experience has shown that it makes sense to regularly inspect the ears of your four-legged friend and also to pay a little attention to their care. This is particularly the case with cats, who, due to their breed, are more prone to problems with their ears, and of course it is especially true if the animal already suffers from problems.
Natural ear care for cats
In our range you will find I love my cat Ear Care Drops, a natural care product that you can use to gently clean the ears of your four-legged friend.
With their special blend of ingredients such as camomile extract and castor oil, the drops are ideal for daily ear care.
Get to know Ear Care Drops for cats.
Counteract ear mites in cats naturally
Ear mites are parasites that primarily nest in the cat's ears. An infestation causes, among other things, severe itching and inflammation.
With our I love my cat Anti - Ear Mite Drops, we have developed a natural solution with which you can counteract the unpleasant parasite infestation in the cat's ears gently and without chemicals.
Get to know Anti – Ear Mite Drops for cats.
Cleaning cats – our conclusion
As you can see, bathing a cat is usually superfluous. Even if the fur is soiled, in most cases it is sufficient to remove the dirt with a damp cloth.
If a bath should be necessary, make sure that you only use care products that are suitable for cats and try to keep the stress for the animal as low as possible.