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Shedding in cats is a natural phenomenon. It will happen if you allow it. Shedding happens for different reasons, mainly depending on whether your cat spends much time outdoors or whether your cat is purely an indoor cat.
Cats that spend most, if not all, of their time outdoors tend to shed beginning in the spring months. You won’t see much if any shedding of your outdoor cat during the winter months, because they naturally will hold on to all their fur to use as thermal protection from the cold conditions. But at the first sign that the days start to lengthen and the sun spends more time out, they’ll start releasing their fur. It’s only natural.
For indoor cats, you may notice that they’ll shed at virtually any time of the year. The shedding of their coats largely depends on lighting conditions, air conditioning levels and the constant temperature control in your home. But typically indoor cats will shed at any point throughout the year.
Cats shed in order to remove dead hair from their bodies. Dead hair can cause skin irritation and thus needs to be gone. If you don’t remove it for them, they’ll release it on their own. This is what disgusts so many indoor cat owners: how do you keep your cats from shedding so much?
The answer is simple--daily brushing. If you have a problem with how much your cat sheds, brush your cat daily--or even twice a day. The more frequently you brush your cat and remove dead and loose hair from their bodies yourself, they won’t shed. If you brush your cat, you have full control over where the fur goes. (And you likely won’t decide to scatter it across your living room.)
When you brush your cat’s fur, get a comb or brush specifically designed for cats. These brushes are designed to pick up the most fur possible, and you can pick one up at your local pet store. You should spend a few minutes, brushing the hair all in the same direction, typically downward, starting with fluid motions from the cat’s neck to its tail. You’ll want to either brush your cat outside, or in a non-carpeted area where you can easily clean up the fur that you’re removing from your cat.
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