Grooming.

[Sheli_80]

Yeah he gets his dry food, I should have mentioned that as I know dry is higher in calories. He really loves his biscuits and prefers them over his wet. We put out felix or asda wet food 2-3 times a day (little portions often as our old man forgets to stop eating and throws up) and Hi-life or feline fayre once a day to hide Henry's tablet in. Charley ignores the normal stuff and lives on biscuits and his daily treat.

I have to say though he isn't as tubby as he was. He is extremly playful and if we don't have him chasing toys he jumps on the other cat which Henry really doesn't like.

[Desley (booktigger)]

my Ginger came off the streets and was overweight. Do you feed him any dry food at all, as Feline Fayre is only a complimentary food, so shouldn't be fed all the time on its own, and quite a lot of HiLife food is complimentary, I think only their Pates, Essentials and Cherish ranges are. Bozita and Applaws might be good ones to try.

[Sheli_80]

Charley has only been with us for 2 months.

Before he came to us he was with in foster care and we were told by his fosterer that she had spent quite some time removing knots. For the most part he enjoyed it but hated his belly and hind legs getting done. Now he doesn't mind his belly getting done as he is now a massive fan of belly tickles.

The most amazing part is how he he managed to get overweight in the first place as his last owner decided she no longer wanted him tossed him on the streets and eventually asked vet to put him to sleep. I can only imagine he was very good at bin raking when his last owner ignored him or she fed him scraps. He will not eat cat food unless its feline fayre or Hi-Life. He will however ignore a plate of cat food to go find out whats in bin or try and find scraps of a plate. He will eat nan bread, anything from a chip shop, cheese, and even managed to drag a jar of bolgnese sauce out of bin and very nearly was in process of licking the remains. My kitchen never needs a floor wash as anything landing on the floor is licked up by him.

We are looking to get him something thats high in meat content as thats what he seems to enjoy. The one I personally like look of is something called Armondia (sp?) carny from zoo plus that says its 100% meat but somewhat put off because it says it has animal byproducts.

Sorry for rambling off topic but he does have some weird eating habits and I haven't heard of many cats that hate cat food 

[Desley (booktigger)]

I Wonder if his diet has a part in it - Ginger was overweight and hated being groomed, so he had quite a few clumps, but when I Changed his diet to HiLife, his clumps and greasy fur instantly stopped.

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

You'll need a comb or slicker brush to reach the undercoat on a long haired cat - a brush won't do the job.  The rear leg area isn't easy to groom if the cat isn't co-operative though!  I get it easy as although Mosi has long hair, it's pretty much the non matting kind!

[ccmacey]

You can get slicker brushes that are like wire and get knotts out better. 

Charlie is lovely.

[Sheli_80]

I honestly feel like the worst mummy in the world. Despite brushing Charley every second day his rear leg area always seems to end up knotted. I can only think of a couple of reasons this happens.

1- not using correct brush.
2- little monkey tends to sit down during brushing meaning that area is possibly missed.
3- I'm a terrible mummy who can't manage to groom her baby.

He does like getting brushed and when I bang the tin (with his after brushing treats) he always comes running. He also lies on his back to get his belly brushed it's just this one area that's bad. When he came to us he was overweight and couldn't quite get to that area because of his size but we set up daily exercise/play sessions and he seems to have lost a bit of weight and recently has been able to get to those parts. I don't want to be doing damage control with knots I'd rather stop them from forming in first place. So if any slaves with long haired masters have any tips they would be most appreciated

These are the brushes we use now, including the dreaded claw...



And for good measure (and also because he is cute as a button) Charley the moggy in question.