Cat Grooming Product Reviews and Recommendations

Cat Claw Trimmers/Clippers

The benefits to keeping your sweet kitty’s claws trimmed are obvious: fewer scratches on your furniture and fewer scratches on you.  It is definitely advisable to get a scratching post or scratching pads – see this page for recommendations.  However, scratch posts alone will really not keep your cats claws filed down as much as you would probably like. 

Therefore, we recommend some very purpose-built cat claw trimmers (cat claw clippers).  It is important to know that cats have blood vessels that extend well into the claw itself.  Don’t cut the claw too deep or your otherwise sweet furball will vocalize her displeasure with you and her paws will bleed, leading to red foot prints wherever she goes.  Instead, either get this set of cat claw clippers or this set, both of which are designed to limit the depth of cut and avoid clipping the blood vessel.  Amazon has some good videos on both of these that show how to use the depth limiting feature on these clippers.

Cat Hair Comb

The magic secret to a great cat hair comb is that the “teeth” or “pins” on the comb need to rotate.  They need to spin in their setting.  There are multiple different combs available with rotating teeth and they all appear to be very useful.  The one we use is the 8-Inch Gripsoft Rotating Comfort Comb from JW Pet Company.

Cat Hair Brush

There are so many different cat hair brushes that you could probably try a new one every day of the year without repeating.  There are a lot of innovative products available, including brushes with a push button to remove the collected hair.  We have not tried any of the brushes with this feature, but they look very intriguing.  Here is one you might like:

For what it is worth, we tried brushing gloves.  You wear these gloves and just brush your cat with your hands.  It is an interesting idea on paper, but they didn’t work as well as we imagined they would.  We gave up on them for brushing – however, see below for how we do use these.

The cat hair brush that we use is very simple, inexpensive, and works great.  That is a great solution!

Cat Hair Deshedding Tool

For serious grooming you might want to check out this tool.  The Furminator Long Hair Deshedding Tool helps remove loose hair and reduce the appearance of shed hair around the house.   With less hair shedding, your ragdoll will ingest less, which would ultimately return to you in the form of hacked up hairballs on the floor – definitely gross.  So this tool will contribute greatly to your quality of life and also your furball’s live too.  There are some good videos on Amazon demonstrating this handy device.  Be sure to get the model intended for use with long cat hair.

Cat Shampoo

Let’s face it – most cats don’t like to take a bath.  Otherwise docile ragdoll cats have been known to complain mightily under the duress of bathwater.  The last thing you would want is to make it worse with shampoo that stings your soaking wet furball’s eyes or causes irritation to soft tissues. 

Cat shampoo should be free of harsh chemicals and cooperate with the natural oils in your silky smooth ragdoll’s fur.  The Revitalizing Shampoo from Life’s Abundance is the product we use to bathe each kitten before you come to pick her up.  That’s why she is smells wonderful and is so soft and fluffy when you arrive.

This shampoo provides a botanical infusion of organic rosemary and sage and is enhanced with the nourishing essences of coconut and palm kernel oil.  It naturally cleanses and beautifies your ragdoll’s coat.  It takes only a small dollop of this conditioning formula to produce a luxurious, foamy lather to deeply cleanse and leave coats silky, fragrant and tangle-free. The luscious scents of mango and kiwi mingle with energizing citrus notes to bring out natural shine. Natural antioxidants from organic rosemary and sage help prevent damage. Natural emollients help soften hair and give the coat more body.  Revitalizing Shampoo doesn’t just mask odors.  It absorbs and neutralizes tough pet odors.

Silvervine Chew Sticks

Silvervine sticks are natural plants that have a scent that is even more irresistable to most cats than catnip.  There are beneficial nutrients in this natural product, and cats love it.  Probably the only downside is the potential for splintering where a splinter might be consumed and cause internal trauma or cause mouth trauma.

Cat Dental Powder

The interesting feature of cat dental powder is that it works systemically to reduce the stickiness of plaque, thereby making it less likely to adhere to teeth.  You sprinkle it on your cat’s food in the feeder.  We haven’t tried dental powder with our cats, but this is an interesting idea, so long as it doesn’t affect the smell and taste of the food and counter-productively disuades your kitty from eating it.  Here is one that is specifically formulated for cats.

Cat Dental Chewable/Edibles

There are a large number of different cat dental chewable/edibles with many different flavors and textures.  If you decide to try a chewable/edible product you may need to test a few to see which one your cat prefers.  Apparently, the crowd favorite (very high product rankings) is Feline Greenies Adult Dental Cat Treats which come in a variety of flavors.  In our opinion, we suggest you first try these to see if your ragdoll likes them.

Cat Hair Cleanup

For as much as these soft furry Ragdoll kittens just melt our hearts, the truth is that there will be some cat hair to clean up.  There are two great products we have used and recommend.  First is the simple lint and hair tape roller.  This works great to touch up your clothes.  For what it is worth, we have tried products like these “re-usable rollers” – they work okay, but they are a hassle to clean and just look kind of gross after a while.  Don’t bother with the reusable rollers – just “stick” with the tape rollers… 🙂

The second is a very cool gadget called the ChomChom Pet Hair Remover.  At first we were very skeptical about this tool but we decided to give it a try.  We are so glad we did!  It has worked even better than a vacuum so it was worth buying. We would recommend this over a pet hair vacuum or any other kind of pet hair remover. This tool does a great job getting cat hair off of fabric-covered furniture (and clothes too).  You have to watch the video clip on Amazon to see how well this works.

Cat Bathing Gloves

It turns out, those brushing gloves that don’t work very well for brushing… they are actually very helpful for bathing your ragdoll beauty.  The exterior texture of the gloves helps to work the shampoo deep into the thick fur, and also helps to rinse the shampoo out of the fur.  The gloves provide another major benefit in that they will offer a measure of protection to your hands during cat bathtime.  It isn’t really that surprising that even sweet, mild, docile, friendly ragdoll cats can protest mightily when they are given a bath.  Four sets of claws and a set of teeth can be unpleasant during bathtime protests, and it is nice to have a glove layer between you and the claws.  Your hands will thank you…