Cat owners. Do you bathe your cat? If yes, how?

Question

Lliam · Accepted Answer

"Instructions for bathing the cat: 1) Put detergent in toilet bowl. 2) Toss cat in, close lid immediately and sit on it. The cat will automatically agitate the soapy water to clean itself. 3) Flush toilet a couple of times to rinse the cat. 4) Open the toilet lid and stand back. Make sure the bathroom door and the door leading outside are open. The cat will shoot out of the toilet and blow dry itself as it runs away." - the dog.

Seriously, healthy cats do not need to be bathed unless they get into something that needs to be cleaned off. Cat's are generally self cleaning.

Soap and water are actually bad for their skin and fur.

Brushing them regularly is a good idea, though, and they love that.

Here's a good video by a vet about bathing cats.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/T_NpFLMiiIU

My wife and I have had several cats over the past 27 years. Our first one was a 5 week old kitten that I rescued in the nick of time from the middle of a busy highway. She was filthy when I brought her home, so we washed her.
From then on, she was our indoor kitty for 22 years and we never had to bathe her.

We adopted four other older cats from shelters over the years. We let them out during the day to keep mice and voles in the garden under control. They never had to be bathed.

We have two cats now. One is 19 years old. We got her from some people who were moving when she was six. We let her outside during the day until about 15 months ago when she went blind. We never had to wash her.

Our other cat is a 3 year old, super fluffy boy. We keep him indoors because stickers get caught in his fur.
He has sneaked out a couple of times. One night, he got sprayed by a skunk. He's super friendly and must have thought it was a cute girl kitty but was rudely rejected. We bathed him a couple of times, including with tomato juice to get the stink off of him. But other than that, we haven't had to bathe him.
He loves to be brushed, though. All of our cats did.

DJB72 · Accepted Answer

I'm told the best way is as follows:

First open your toilet. Add a cupful of soap. Find the cat, pick it up and bring it to the toilet.

Second, bandage the flesh wounds incurred when the cat saw the water as it shredded your skin making it's escape.

Third, retrieve the cat by covering it in a towel or pillowcase so it can't see where it is. Drop the cat out of the material into the toilet, immediately closing the lid and sitting on it. Flush once to wash and again to rinse.

Fourth, open the lid from a position not between the bowl and the bathroom door.

Your cat will now erupt from the bowl and make an immediate line for the door. Under no circumstances try to stop it. It will return once it has dried out.

From this moment you will need to sleep with one eye open at all times as cats do not forgive. You may want to consider moving to another country without the cat...

IslaTheWitch · Accepted Answer

no... cats clean themselves and it's needed for them to stay healthy.

Cats can be bathed ONLY if substance on their fur or skin can endanger their health or life. Or if they are sick and don't clean themselves. In any other situation we leave cleaning to them

DryGermanGuy · Answer

Very rarely, happened only on two occasions where he got really filthy. Once he must have rolled around in some tree resin. The other time he slept in a compost heap. We just put him in the bathtub and used the hand showerhead with warm water at medium speed. That got him clean enough.

David94358 · Answer

No he hates it, had to do it a few times because he got too close to a skunk but it was not a pleasant experience for anyone involved lol.  Besides he does a great job keeping himself clean normally

AviatorTom · Answer

Nope, I value my life. We did try once by putting the cat in the empty tub and then slowly turning on the water. Let's just say that didn't go well. We still have the scars to prove it.

FunkyMonkee · Answer

Oh, yeah. I give mine a bath at least once a week and she loves it!! The only problem is, getting all that fur off my tongue.

RebelinSteel · Answer

My two cats would kill me if I tried it I did used to bathe my ex gfs cat

RavVid · Answer

I think this is next step up right after mastering pilling your cat. So far I am stuck at the pilling your cat level.

SolitarySolace · Answer

No, I do not bathe my cat. She cleans herself. I sometimes playfully hold my cat over the bathtub full of water and she freaks out. 😅 it’s as if she drowned in a past life or something.

Iron_Man · Answer

You have to knock the cat out cold and you got about five minutes before he wakes up to wash the cat. This can be done weekly

exitseven · Answer

I used to bathe my cats but not very often. If they got really gross I would put them in the kitchen sink and give them a bath

DrPepper12 · Answer

Very carefully, in an enclosed glass door shower with several pre soaked towels to grab him with and defend my life.

Wiredone · Answer

We bathe our 3 cats twice a year in the kitchen sink. We use dawn dish detergent

msc545 · Answer

I've never need to do this luckily. Cats are very good at bathing themselves. Mine are quite fastidious about this.

boobliker · Answer

just put it in the sink and hold it wash it a be cool firm about it

OtterMan68 · Answer

I love it. My cat loves it sure the fur sticks to my tongue, but...

Dargil · Answer

Nope. She grooms herself.

eagle1951 · Answer

no way

Yannae · Answer

No they do it.

gorydetails · Answer

Nope. Never.

RedInnocent69 · Answer

No. That’s his job.

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