Barb/Mayleen/Pets/Re:

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Thanks:-)

Robin

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> The question of washing kittens was to Mayleen but I'll tell you how I wash my

female cat. She is not a kitten but I think kitten would be more accepting of a

bath than a cat. My keyboard is broeken so please excuse the typos or it will

take too long to type this out. First I wanted some way to hold cat that would

get my arms out of the way to getting scartched so I bought some fleece fabric

and cut two holes in it for her front legs to put through the holes, measuring

the distance between her two front legs, kind ofmaking her a bathing suit of

sorts. I chose fleece for this reason: it doesnt fray when cut, so no need for

sewing and I can wash it in machine. I wrap that around top part of her body.

This gives me something to hold on to. Like a mother cat would grab the extra

skin at the nap of her kittens, this material acts as something I can hold onto,

rather than to grab her skin there since when she gets wet I probably won't be

able to hold her there securely, she would be slippery. I wash her in kitchen

sink so she won't feel overwhelmed with tub, as she is in something shallow, a

Rubbermaid type of shallow tub would also be nice if you could place it some

place that splashing would not be a problem. I have a bucket of warm water

ready with some baking soda in it and a small amt of ph-balanced shampoo like

baking shampoo so if it got near her eyes would not burn, then I sponge her off

with this. Afterwards I have a tub of warm rinse water ready and a separate

clean sponge and I sponge rinse her off. I put her on towel and pat her dry,

and paper towels for after that for extra drying. I don't go above her shoulder

area, don't get her head but use a wash cloth for head and neck, don't sponge

off her head. I wear a coat to protect my arms and the first few times I had

someone help me, I held cat and other person sponged her off. Now she is used

to it, I can hold her and sponge her off. Afterwards I wrap her in towel and

hold her and take a short nap with her as kind of a treat, so it feels caring

and kind to her, positive experience. My cat loves napping together above all

else so that is a treat for her, other cats make like other treats. I started

out with just damp wiping her down with same set up and gradually made it wetter

and wetter. I really enjoy her more now that her fur is so clean. I do it once

a week, on cleaning day, house and her, everything clean. I forgot to mention

that I add a cream rinse to her rinse water as she is older cat and the bathing

was making her fur kind of dry which solved that problem and her fur is nice and

clean and soft. I didn't think I would ever wash a cat but I do now but

gradually get in to it as her/his first experience might set the tone forever.

If I ever got new kittens I would get them used to bathing right away to solve

this problem, tolerating a gentle bath is helpful for many things. She had

dandruff and it disappeared rather rapidly after starting the once weekly baths,

which is why I started them. I might add that this is stressful for her still.

After I wrap her in towel, I can feel her shaking and it takes her awhile to

calm down so with this cat I will not elevate to a soaking, which would be nice.

However she is 10-11 years old and this is probably all she can take. I also

had to do this because she stopped cleaning herself, so I couldn't have kept her

if I didn't start to bathe her.

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