How To Tell If A Kitten Is Long Haired

Caring For A Cat With Long Hair

If you adopt a kitten with long hair, it will require more grooming than a short-haired cat. At the same time, the amount of grooming that you will have to perform for your long hair cat can vary widely depending on the type of hair and how well the cat grooms itself.

In general, the softer and silky are the cats hair, the more help it will need in keeping itself free of tangles. Therefore, be sure to invest in a brush specifically designed for cats with long hair. Spend a few minutes every day brushing out the hair to get rid of any tangles that might be present. In addition to taking care of your cat, this is also a great way for you two to bond. By removing extra hair, you can also reduce the chances of hairballs developing. Regularly brushing your cat is a great way to combat unwanted hairballs.

When you brush your cat, you may find that it has matted fur, tempting you to cut the mats out. Even though this seems like an easy fix, you could inadvertently cut the skin underneath, which can lead to a serious laceration for your cat and harm your relationship. Furthermore, the cut could become infected, leading to even more complications. Instead, it is a good idea to rely on a professional groomer to remove matted fur. That way, you dont run the risk of cutting your cats skin in the process. If you brush your cat regularly, the chances of his or her fur becoming matted are relatively low.

How To Tell The Gender Of A Cat

Though not 100% accurate, one of the ways to guess the gender of a kitten is by observing the coat color.

For example, cats with three colors aka tortoiseshell cats are usually females. This is because; the chromosomal makeup of female cats is responsible for this coloration.  

On the other hand, it is more common to find orange or ginger kittens as males than females. Even then, this is still not entirely reliable. 

When Determining The Gender Of The Kitten

Now, while youre certainly curious about the sex of your kitten, especially if they your cat birthed them, you do not want to disrupt the mother-kitten bond in the first few weeks of life. This is because mother cats sometimes completely abandon their kittens and even stop feeding them altogether if theyre handled too much during this time.

Instead of separating them every time to check for the traits, wait a few weeks or even longer before you handle.

Also, when trying to determine the gender of your cat, you should ensure that you minimize the stress level. For a really young kitten, you want to start by gently picking him up, petting him and snuggling him close to your body while you examine the areas in question.  If you notice your kitten is panicky, you should leave the activity for another day. 

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The Himalayan Or Colorpoint Longhair

‘Himmies’ are a Siamese/Persian cross. Their body type is stocky like a Persian’s and their coat is thick and long, but their coloring is pointed, making them look like long haired Siamese cats.

I must confess to a weakness for Himalayan Persian cats, these are absolutely gorgeous cats! They have fluffy tails, thick ruffs around their necks and bright blue eyes.

Guide To Long Hair Cat Care

“Any approach to long hair cat care requires a daily or 3x per week grooming routine with both a comb and brush. Daily cat grooming stimulates the natural skin and hair oils, and keeps mats from forming. This is also a practical matter to keep shedding hair from gathering on clothing, the floor and furniture. The key to grooming to to start young and make it appear as part of being petted. Providing a treat will also make grooming more pleasant. Look for mats with your hands daily. If a mat does form, it is best pulled apart with your fingers followed by use of a metal comb, then brushing or a specialized tool. Baths may be helpful depending on your cat’s grooming habits and tolerance for being washed. If your cat doesn’t have a healthy looking coat consider a dietary change, supplement or scheduling a consultation with a veterinarian.”

Long hair cat care on a daily basis helps to prevent the hair frombecoming matted, it also prevents excess shedding, and will reduce thedevelopment hairballs.. Cats withexceptionally long hair such as Persians should be groomed daily. Otherlong haired cats such as Birmans, Ragdolls, and Turkish Angoras shouldbe groomed two or three times each week.

TheFurminatordeShedding Tool is a popular andeffective way to remove loose cathairand to prevent shedding on floors and furniture. It can be the mosthelpful tool for long hair cat care.

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Have A Kitten Or Cat Hair Care Grooming Or Health Question For Our Vet

Do you have a question for our Vet about cat hair. We’ll answer it for free! Please include information such as cat age, breed, medications, diet, changes in behavior, anything that might trigger cat anxiety such as a change of home or the addition of a new pet, concern with your cat’s hair or skin, medical history and other details which could be of help.Our ability to respond quickly is based on the number of questions we receive. If you have an urgent question we suggest using this online veterinary cat answer service that is staffed by vets and available 24 hours a day. You only pay a small fee for answers you accept.If the condition is visible please upload a picture to help our Vet provide a more complete answer.

Do I Need To Take My Kitten Or Cat To A Professional Groomer

Yes, you should take your kitten or cat to a professional groomer regularly. Even if you brush your cat consistently, you still need to make sure that your cat receives the attention of a professional groomer because groomers do much more than brush your cat. If you have a long-haired cat, your cat should go to the groomer every 4 to 6 weeks. If you have a short-haired cat, your cat should go to the groomer every 8 to 12 weeks.

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Are Hairballs Painful For Cats

Large hairballs can be difficult for your cat to pass, causing discomfort and distress. They can also be painful. If too much hair builds up and cant be passed out through the cats feces, a large hairball will form, obstructing the cats gastrointestinal tract. This is likely to cause abdominal pain and swelling.

Talk With Your Veterinarian

Your veterinarian will be your best ally in keeping track of your cats weight.

They can help you understand what is normal for your cat and how to monitor their weight to make sure they are maintaining a healthy weight.

Working with your veterinarian to monitor your cats weight is also helpful because its much easier to address a cat that is at a BCS of 6 or 7 than a cat that has made it all the way to a BSC of 8 or 9.

Once a cat has reached the severely obese levels, they require specialized care to make sure that their weight-loss plan is effective and safe.

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Five Weeks Old Kitten

Showing their independence, Darling, Denby, Corduroy, Tweed, and Wembley are beginning to demonstrate their individual personalities: Darling is a talker; Denby is always up for adventure and a good wrestle; Corduroy is brave and confident; Tweed is sweet and loves belly rubs; and Wembley is a cuddle bug and full of silly mischief.

Corduroy, brave and confident!

Will My Kitten Be Short Or Longhaired

If you have brought home a kitten from a rescue shelter, it can be difficult to determine the kittens exact lineage, and you may be wondering whether it will be long-haired or short-haired. Often, the shelter may know the mother but the father may be a mystery. In this case, even if the mother is long-haired, there is no guarantee that her kittens will be the same, as the fathers genetics play a part too.

To make matters more confusing, the vast majority of kittens will have soft and fluffy coats when they are young, regardless of their breed. You will typically have to wait until about 8 weeks before differences begin to show. So, how can you tell if your kitten will be short or long-haired?

There are a few ways to determine with relative accuracy what coat your kitten will have. Read on to find out how!

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Figuring Out The Parentage Of Your Kitten: The Genetics

If you are adopting a kitten from a local rescue center, the vast majority of these rescue centers will know the parents of these kittens they have for adoption. Therefore, it is a good idea to ask about the parents of your kitten. Even if the shelter does not know the father, the shelter will probably know the kittens mother.

Remember that the long hair trait is recessive. Therefore, if the mother has short hair, there is a high likelihood that the kitten will be short haired. If the mother and the father both have short hair, it is even more likely that your kitten is going to be short haired.

There is still a chance that the mother may be carrying a hidden, recessive kind of long hair trait. If she mates with a father that is also carrying a hidden long hair trait, there is a one-in-four chance that your kitten will have long hair. On the other hand, if neither of the parents has a long hair trait, then there is no chance that your kitten will have long hair.

The genetics of kitten hair can get a bit complicated; however, if you are wondering if your kitten will have short or long hair, a good place to start at the shelter. Ask them if they have any information bout the parents of the kitten. They should be able to help you figure out if your kitten is going to have short or long hair.

Three Weeks Old Kitten

If you are bottle feeding, youll notice the kittens are drinking much more at each feeding, but at fewer feedings, probably four to five times a day. At this age you can start introducing solid fooduse wet food at first, and try mixing it with kitten formula. By the end of the week, their weight will have increased to close to 15 ounces. They are walking steadily, without too much wobbling.

Tweed is three weeks old!

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Is It Normal For Cats To Poop Out Hairballs

Its more normal for cats to poop out hairballs than it is for them to vomit them. If your cat has to vomit a hairball, it means the hairs built up for too long in the stomach. This isnt anything to worry about in most cases, as long as your cat seems otherwise healthy.

When hair comes out through your cats feces, it emerges as a firm, long tube that looks like poop at first glance. However, it wont smell as bad as normal feces, and itll consist of tightly-packed hair you can pull apart.

Does Cats Fur Grow Longer As They Age

If your kitten is a short-haired breed, its fur will not grow longer as it ages. It will remain short. However, you may notice changes like graying or fading as your cat enters the super-senior phase. But if your kitten is starting to have faded fur at a young age, its probably a sign of poor nutrition. Your kitten needs more omega fatty acids that will restore its coat health.

Most cats will have their coat length stabilize by the time it reaches a year old. It will not grow longer than that since hair length is dictated by genetics.

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Tip 10: Cutting The Long Haired Cats Fur

If it becomes absolutely unavoidable, you may just have to cut out a tangle either with a special defelting knife, or perhaps better with scissors .  

Please be really careful in this case, for it isnt often that the cat stays completely still. Insert a comb between the skin and the tangle before you start snipping then nothing is likely to go wrong. 

Tip: besides brushing, you should continuously trim the long hairs around the cats bottom. Because this is an area where faecal matter has a way of adhering to the hair, with very unpleasant consequences all round!

Choosing The Right Cat Grooming Brush Andcomb

Youll need the right tools for long hair cat care. In general, thewider and longer the hair, the more the bristles need to be space.Also, the coarser the hair, the stiffer the bristles.

PinType Cat Brush: Pin-type brushes work well with or without rubber tips for cats withlong or thick fur or woolly coats. A dual brush has a pin brush on oneside and soft bristle on the other.

SoftBristle Brush: For long, silky fur, softbristle brushes work best. They are good for most hair types. Use widerspacing of bristles for longer hair cats.

SlickerBrush: Cat slicker brushes are comprised offine wire bristles. They are helpful with mats and any smoothing outany tangling.

FurminatordeShedding Tool: The Furminator is one of the most popular cattools. It is designed to easily catch and remove loose undercoat hair.It is highly recommended for long hair cat care.  The manufacturerclaims that the deShedding tool reduces shedding by 90%.

GroomingShedding Comb: You can follow up with a metalcomb such as a flea comb. The flea comb can help you work out any matsin the hair and will also show you if your cat has any fleas. Combs aregood for everything, except wiry hair. They help with small knots ofhair. For more severe knots or mats, you need to use a mat breaker.

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These Cats Have Some Intense Manes

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One key feature that Persians, outdoorsy Maine coons, and rare, unique Scottish folds all have in common is their long, coifed coats that make you want to pet them for days. Longhaired cats are the result of a genetic mutation, and researchers have narrowed down the gene to the fibroblast growth factor 5 or FGF5, for short. That’s why it’s not unusual to see some kittens from the same litter with short hair and others with long.

Determining A Kittens Gender Through Its Behavior

Our kittens behavior as they grow older is another way to tell the sexes apart. This is because, as felines grow older, they begin to develop personalities/behaviors that are unique to their sexes. 

For example, male kittens often start to roam as they reach sexual maturity. Most also take it further by becoming territorial and you may notice them spaying to establish their authority in order to ward off trespassers or competitors. The males also are more aggressive and restless. 

Females, on the other hand,tend to go on heat from as early as four months of age. You may notice them yowling loudly or displaying any other attention-seeking behavior.

However, all of these behaviors can be significantly reduced by neutering or spaying the kitten early in their lives.  Many pet experts recommend Many pet experts recommend spaying or neutering once your kitten is five to six months while some others recommend pediatric spaying which can happen at six to eight weeks. 

That said, while some pet owners claim that male cats are friendlier than the females, this is not entirely true as cat personalities just like humans are varied. So, it may be best if you choose a feline that is based on other characteristics and factors instead of gender.

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How Often Do Cats Produce Hairballs

Its common to think that cats frequently produce hairballs. But a normal cat hairball frequency consists of once a month. Some only have a couple a year. In most cases, you wont even realize that your cat has a hairball, as itll get excreted out in the back yard or litter tray. Symptoms that your cat needs to cough up a furball include:

• Frequent gagging, retching, or hacking
• Dry heaving
• Hunched position close to the ground
• Yowling
• Stretching of the neck

The symptoms of hairballs vary in cats depending on how large the trichobezoar has become and how long it takes your cat to rid its body of the hairball.

Popular Fuzzy Kitten And Long

Maine Coon Cats

If you want a fuzzy kitten, this is a fluffy kitten! Even better, Maine Coon cats are known for being very friendly, which is very helpful when you need to do a little fluffy cat coat maintenance.

Ragdoll Cats

This fuzzy kitten will grow up to be a lovable furball beyond measure.  Ragdoll cats are known for being big sweeties who have a reputation for going limp in your arms when you carry them hence the name, ragdoll.

Norwegian Forest Cat

Maybe you not only want a fuzzy kitten, but a very large fuzzy kitten?  Well, youre in luck!  Norwegian Forest Cats can tip the scales at up to 16lbs in weight, and theyre known for being both athletic and playful.

A Norwegian Forest cat will need a little more maintenance in the spring and fall, since that fuzzy coat of theirs will shed at those times.

Persian Cats

When people think of fuzzy kitten, they typically think of Persian cats, and for good reason.  These cats certainly remain fuzzy, and they also tend to have calm, friendly attitudes.

Just know that their shorter noses can mean they need a little more healthcare than most and that theyre prone to sneezing.

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Natural Remedies And Supplements For Cat Hair Care

Several systems in the body, such as the liver and skin, play a rolein the appearance of cat hair. One approach to help cats naturallysupport these systems is the use of a homeopathic supplement formulatedto specifically enable the cat’s natural processes to improve hairappearance. Products such as Skinand Coat Tonic contain ingredients such as  Equisetum arvense,a well known herb for tissue support, and Dandelion, a natural sourceof vitamin A, D, C, B and iron.

Humphrey: A Historic Domestic Longhair

One of the most famous Domestic Longhairs is a former London street cat turned political ambassador named Humphrey. This black and white phenom was found as a stray next to the British Prime Ministers private residence, 10 Downing Street, when he was just one-year-old.

He must have charmed the governing elite. Shortly after being found, Humphrey was promoted from area stray to Mouser to the Cabinet Office. The title was apparently well-earned. Humphrey was said to be really good at his job, and the British government paid for his food for the equivalent of $200 a year.

Humphrey attended to 10 Downing Street during three prime ministers residency, and he was loved by both the public and the press. But after a life of great renown and global politics, Humphrey was retired to a quiet country home where he lived to a ripe old age of 18.

After reading about Humphreys story, you may be wondering, How long do Domestic Longhair cats live? The average lifespan for these felines is around 12-18 years.

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Healthy Cat Weight: Bcs 5

The ideal BCS for a cat is 5. A cat with a BCS of 5 will have the perfect blend of a little extra reserve fat without so much as to be causing health problems.

When viewed from the side, a cat at an ideal weight will have a small tuck right where the belly meets the area of the hipsin other words, the belly doesnt drag across the floor.

The stomach should be held nice and tight up to the cat and will actually curve UP to meet the hind legs.

When you look at the same cat from the top, you can see small indentationsa figure 8 waist right in front of the hips.

If you pet a BCS-5 cat, you can feel both the backbone and the ribs, but you really cant see them from any distance.

How To Tell If A Kitten Is Male Or Female

Just got the cutest kitten in the litter but not sure what sex it is? Or maybe you connected with it before you thought about the sex and now you need to find it a suitable name. 

While it may seem a challenging task, determining your kittens sex can be easy once you know what to look out for. 

In this article, well outline some things which indicate how to tell if a kitten is male or female. Well also look at some factors to consider when getting a new kitten. 

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Need More Help Sexing Kittens

I hope that my kitten sexing guide helped you determine the sex of your kittens. If you need any further help sexing your kittens then please feel free to contact me via the contact page, social media or by using the comments section below. If you can send me photos of your kittens sex organs as in the photos above then I should be able to let you know the sex of your kitten.

Ross

About the author

Ross writes extensively about cats and kittens and has been featured in magazines such as Your Cat and Our Cats and has also guest authored on newsletters for various cat organisations. He is also a guest speaker at cat seminars.

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Underweight Cat: Bcs 1

Occasionally, we see cats that are too thin, which will earn a score of 1-4. If a cat is a 1, that means they are extremely emaciated to the point of starvation. A cat at a 4 would be slightly underweight and will typically require a physical exam to determine the extent.

For these kitties, we see a severe tuck of the belly as it comes up to the hind legs, as well as a very noticeable waist from the top.

When you pet a cat with a low BCS, you can really feel the bones of the spine as well as those of the ribcage.

Although there are other reasons these bones can stick out , in a younger healthy cat, being too thin is the most common cause.

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