Thread: De-mating without injury

Hi Karen, I totally sympathise with your difficulties. After years of owning rescue moggies who don't take kindly to the brush, it was supposed to be much easier with a kitten, as you can 'get them used to it'. Hmm, I have found that this only goes so far, and my 2 are getting much less tolerant of the brush as they get older!

I'm nervous of using scissors for the very reason you mention - the chance you might nick their skin - ouch! When using scissors, always get a comb behind the knot, and cut up to the comb. But I don't use scissors any more - I find the cordless beard trimmers are much better. You are much less likely to nick the skin, and you don't have to pull on the knot so much, so I find the cat doesn't mind it as much, even though it makes a slight noise.

Still, you do really need a decent assistant. Any chance of training the OH??

Yes, hold them up so that they're standing on their back legs exposing the belly hair. You could hold them like this with one hand, and attack with the brush using the other hand. Obviously they won't like it, but you could at least give it a bit of a go, and hopefully keep on top of things.

I find the trickiest area is underneath the arms as this is where you would hold them whilst brushing the belly. I just wait until they're all sleepy, and then lift an arm up and get in there. Same with the back legs.

I always remember as a child, my lovely, lovely Auntie Pamela had 2 coffee Persian cats and I used to love watching her brush them. They were so docile - she got her special cat brushing apron on and plonked a cat on her lap, sprinkled a bit of talcum powder on, and brushed their neck and back, then flipped them over and brushed the belly. They would just lie there and take it. She did this every day so they never had knots! I have never known any other cat in my life be so accepting as those two.
My old Persian, Bob, was a bugger and hated the brush...