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Grooming For Maine Coon Cats Part 3
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Step 5: Drying your cat. Gently and thoroughly towel dry the cat. Put kitty in drying cage. I use a small portable stand blow dryer to blow warm air into cage. Do NOT cover cage?.air must be able to circulate or you will suffocate the cat! Some cats do well to just cage dry. I prefer the blow drying method for that ?show? result. After kitty has a few minutes to sit in cage and relax, I use a small Metro air force dryer. Do not use any brushes, combs, slicker brushes, etc. when drying a show cat!!! You will strip and remove too much coat! Blow with the direction of the coat to avoid tangling. Cats are going to shed in Spring/Summer and sometimes a light shed in late summer in preparation for their fall coat.
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I should own stock in 3M for all the lint remover rollers I've purchased! If you are concerned that your cat is shedding at shows? too bad?get use to it or get a skinny hairless cat. The longer and more plush the coat, the more hair you have to contend with. You can wash and comb the day lights out of them until they have no coat, but that won't get you any ribbons! Mass removal of coat is counter productive to winning show cat! Here is a tip given to me by some Persian breeders. It is to "float" the cat during the bath. Just fill up the sink with cat in it up to its little shoulders. Swish your hands through the coat lots of excess hair will come out without you pulling it out with combs. This works great if you put conditioner on the cat before the float. After emptying sink, rinse with clear water. However, beware--- some cats may try to kill you, so know your cat. Works on all my cats except Cassie Sue who has a major panic attack!
Oh yeah and all the bathing in the world won't help if your cat's nutrition is off. A beautiful cats coat comes from the inside out! All the show bathing can take a toll so you need to supplement from within the cat. A good supplement is DermCaps 10 which is a liquid capsule full of fatty acids and Omega 3 fatty Acids. You can give the cat the capsule, but I prefer to pierce the capsule and squirt the liquid on their food once a day. It smells like fish oil and the cats just love it! I?ve been using it on Kramer and its done great things for his 4 inch long coat not to mention it seems to have aided in the elimination of his chin acne! Double bonus!!! There is also another product called Dream Coat that is very popular. It comes in a liquid form you can put on their food. Both products help reduce shedding too.
Happy bathing and much success on exhibiting your beautiful cats!
Below you will find some suppliers for the products cited in this article.
Care-A-Lot Pet Supply at www.carealotpets.com or 1-800-343-7680 PetEdge at www.PetEdge.com or 1-800-738-334 KV Vet Supply Co at www.kvvet.com or 1-800-423-8211 Special thanks to the model in our pictures, Furkats RW GP W J.R. who is a perfect angel!
Happy bathing and much success on exhibiting your beautiful cats!
Article starts on Grooming For Maine Coon Cats
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