How to give a cat a bath

This blog is more suitable for short- and medium-haired cats; long-haired cats require a little more attention.

Part1. Preparation

1. You should use your hands to bathe your cat. 

After a lot of pooper scooper feedback, we found that the sink is ideal for cat bathing.The size is just right, not too big to cause accidents but not too small either. Of course, if you feel that the kitchen will get too dirty, you can install a special cat sink in the bathroom. If you don't want to go through the trouble, you can buy a baby bath or a plastic bucket.

2. Prepare other tools you need to use

Remember to prepare these tools in advance, you will not have time to find them during the washing process, especially if you are dealing with a difficult cat. The tools you need are: spray nozzle, scoop, nail clippers, pet shampoo, dry towel, comb, hairdryer (water) machine, cotton balls.

3. Expose cat nails and cut them

The cat might be a little irritated or scared during the bathing, to avoid any accidents, you should cut the nails before. When clipping nails, put the cat on your lap or a table at the right height, and gently pinch the cat's paws to see their nails. If the cat is uncomfortable with too much movement, find someone to stroke the fur at the back of the neck, it's the cat's sensitive area. Be sure to use special cat nail clippers to cut nails, you will get twice the result with half the effort. Do not cut the nails too deep, it is easy to cut the flesh of the cat and hurt it.

Part2. How to bathe your cat.

The first step is to soothe your cat’s mood. You can talk to your cat or take his usual favorite small toys while it stays in the bathtub. Do not put fill the bathtub with much water in the beginning, until the cat's knees at most. At this time, you have to gently keep the cat in place to not let it jump out of the bathtub.

When your cat is relaxed, try to start slowly pouring water on your cat with a ladle to get his fur wet. If you feel he is completely comfortable with it, try using a sprinkler to drench it.

After the cat's fur got wet, you can shampoo it. Please be sure to choose a special shampoo for cats because their skin is very sensitive. The wrong product can hurt a cat’s skin, especially cheap shampoo. In addition, when buying shampoo read carefully its instructions. Most shampoos before use are required to dilute, too thick liquid may hurt the skin of your cat triggering fur loss.

After applying the shampoo, gently rub the fur until the foam becomes rich, and the fur is bulging, but not sticking to the skin. Pay strong attention that the cat should not get the shampoo into the eyes and ears of your pet.

The requirements of each product are different, so it is necessary to read the description of the required rubbing time since too long time can bring damage to the skin, and too short time is not enough to achieve the effect.

To finish cleaning, you need to rinse the shampoo foam off the cat's body the same way you did when was wetting the cat's fur. You can start with a scoop of water, and if the cat is comfortable with that you can use a spray nozzle to wash it off.

The first step is to soothe your cat’s mood. You can talk to your cat or take his usual favorite small toys while it stays in the bathtub. Do not put fill the bathtub with much water in the beginning, until the cat's knees at most. At this time, you have to gently keep the cat in place to not let it jump out of the bathtub.

When your cat is relaxed, try to start slowly pouring water on your cat with a ladle to get his fur wet. If you feel he is completely comfortable with it, try using a sprinkler to drench it.

After the cat's fur got wet, you can shampoo it. Please be sure to choose a special shampoo for cats because their skin is very sensitive. The wrong product can hurt a cat’s skin, especially cheap shampoo. In addition, when buying shampoo read carefully its instructions. Most shampoos before use are required to dilute, too thick liquid may hurt the skin of your cat triggering fur loss.

After applying the shampoo, gently rub the fur until the foam becomes rich, and the fur is bulging, but not sticking to the skin. Pay strong attention that the cat should not get the shampoo into the eyes and ears of your pet.

The requirements of each product are different, so it is necessary to read the description of the required rubbing time since too long time can bring damage to the skin, and too short time is not enough to achieve the effect.

To finish cleaning, you need to rinse the shampoo foam off the cat's body the same way you did when was wetting the cat's fur. You can start with a scoop of water, and if the cat is comfortable with that you can use a spray nozzle to wash it off.

After rinsing off the foam, fill the sink with clean water again and let the cat soak in it. This step is important to check whether the shampoo has been rinsed off fully or not. When you can see the cat's fur floating in the water, it means that the cat’s fur is clean now. Soaking for a minute is about the right amount of time.

Part3. The final step

Prepare a clean, dry buckskin towel. After the cat is out of the bathtub, use the buckskin towel to rinse its body. Rinse your cat with the towel until the water stop dripping from the fur, which will reduce the time to blow-dry. After that use a hairdryer or water blower to dry the fur thoroughly. The water blower is a more powerful tool but the sound is louder so the cat might get scared. So, we suggest reducing the power of the device to let your cat feel more secure. Please make sure to blow dry all the fur, wet skin is an easy cause of skin disease. 

Finally

Be careful to clean the cat's eyes, nose, and ears with a cotton ball.

After all the cleaning is done, use a comb to neatly comb the fur in the direction of fur growth. Please make sure not to use the comb when the fur is still wet, it will easily get tangled.