Need QUIET Vacuum for my Cat!

March 5, 2005 7:45 AM

Since spring is almost here I would like to get a small vacuum to use on the cat. I have used my big vacuum with a long hose and a soft brush on the end on the cat and that was acceptable to the cat ;-) so I would like to get a small QUIET hand held one that wouldn't freak the cat out. I tried a Shark? one that was advertised as quiet but it was everything except quit! Obviously I only need one with fairly low suction, don't want the cat stuck to it.. /Peter
posted by Ferrari328 to pets & animals (15 comments total)

(lol)

This electrolux looks pretty good.
posted by swift at 7:50 AM on March 5, 2005

Actually, that's not a hand-held. Sorry.
posted by swift at 8:02 AM on March 5, 2005

My cat is soooo pissed that I read this to her.
posted by goatdog at 8:23 AM on March 5, 2005 [1 favorite]

Now that is one cool cat. Most cats would never let you do anything like that. If it works you may want to stick with it as I do not think you will find a hand held that is quiet enough. All of the ones I have ever used have been pretty noisy, with a Dirt Devil being unbearably so and a Black and Decker rechargeable being fairly quiet. The problem is that the noise is pretty close to the cat with a handheld. Good luck. Why do you want to vacuum your cat anyway? They do a more than adequate job of cleaning themselves, unless they are infirmed in some fashion.
posted by caddis at 8:36 AM on March 5, 2005

caddis, every hair removed from the cat via brushing or vacuuming goes straight into the garbage, while every hair ingested by the cat is fodder for hairballs that kitty will yack up someplace you'd rather s/he didn't. Like in your bed.

ferrari, you've got one cool cat. Sorry I can't answer your question... my cat is happy with a slicker brush/full body massage. Can't imagine he would tolerate being vacuumed, though.
posted by Alylex at 9:42 AM on March 5, 2005

Rather than a vacuum, we use a Love Glove (not one of these) whose sticky rubber palm attracts fur in really impressive quantities. One of our cats loves it, the other tolerates it.

Then we bathe them. Neither likes that much.
posted by Aknaton at 9:56 AM on March 5, 2005

while vacuuming the cat makes for a much more amusing askme question, you might find that simply brushing the cat will fulfill the purpose best. I have a regular cat-brush from a pet shop & my kitty generally likes being brushed (sometimes it gets her a little too excited, but she never resists to begin with). Gets lots of hair and is not much of a production (ie, I just do it when she's sitting on/by me anyway and I notice the brush, kinda thing).
posted by mdn at 10:08 AM on March 5, 2005

First the vacuum. Some of the old dustbusters were pretty darn quiet, especially on the middle setting. The only problem is that most handhelds don't seem to take attachments, so you're left with some dopey little mouth shaped slot.

The "Luuuuv Gluuuv" works well for me. I scratch his head with one hand, and take hair off with the other. It seems to pick up faster once there's already a layer of hair on the glove. It beats the metal brushy thing by a mile.

Is their a superior hair-removal device out there though? My cat-fur hat is coming along awful slow.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 11:55 AM on March 5, 2005

I work for Black and Decker (manufacturers of the aforementioned Dustbuster) and a smaller model (2.4V, 3.6V possibly) should be fairly non-scary for the cat since they have tiny, tiny motors. The attachments they come with won't help, but there are converters for connecting universal attachments (brushes and hoses and stuff from larger vacuums).
posted by Elagabalus at 1:04 PM on March 5, 2005

Wait, wait, wait, let me see if I understand this correctly. You use a vacuum on your cat, like to groom it?

Wow. Does anyone else do this? Your cats don't mind? Wow. I've got three cats, two of whom are unbelieveably chill, and they all flee in terror before a vacuum.

BTW, side question- how do you bathe your cats?
posted by mkultra at 2:45 PM on March 5, 2005

We used to have a cat who loved being vacuumed. He purred. It removed all his loose hair around shedding season, and seemed to pick up fleas and dander too. (I kept a flea collar in the vacuum canister to make sure they stayed there.) It was great for all concerned. His sister, however, damn near took my arm off the one time I tried to vacuum her.
posted by LarryC at 2:58 PM on March 5, 2005

I'm looking for any excuse to buy a "Dyson"... they are $550 but all of my friends swear by them.
posted by bamassippi at 6:13 PM on March 5, 2005

Answering how I bathe my cats (to whom I'm allergic, which answers "why")...

Ingredients: bathtub, 10 gallon pail, cat shampoo, 2 cats (to taste)

1. Fill bathtub halfway with 100 degree water (we used a thermometer to begin with; now we just approximate), fill pail. Turn off scary noisy water. Disrobe.
2. Force 1 cat into bathroom, close bathroom door.
3. Sit on bathtub rim with feet and cat in water. Redirect any efforts at escaping left with the possibility of going right, and vice versa, while scooping water onto cat.
4. Place saturated cat in lap, and shampoo cat.
5. Repeat step #3, now vigorously using pail to dump water on cat's back. (They actually don't seem to mind water on their heads that much, but I don't press my luck.)
6. Replace cat in lap and wring out cat. Do not omit this step.
7. Allow cat to escape to bathroom. Towel dry. (This is actually the most difficult step, for one of mine.)
8. Allow cat to escape to house, ideally to a sunny window.
9. Repeat from #2 with other cats.
10. Repeat from #1 every week or two.

The big issue now, for smaller kitties, is to keep them from shivering for an hour. Combing out their fur while warming them with your hands helps a great deal. We've been thinking of investing in a heat lamp.
posted by Aknaton at 7:42 AM on March 6, 2005

This is such a great question. But I have no answers, just to say that my cat hates the vacuum, hates being brushed, and is a vicious biter. How do I brush him, you ask? He loves to chew on the metal spikes, but otherwise I have to give him treats and brush him while he's distracted enough not to lunge at me.

Surprisingly he is a docile bather (also loves accompanying my baths: watching the water fill the tub, drinking from the tub, and playing at the edge of the tub). Usually I or my boyfriend has to be in the tub with him, the other one is ready with a towel. However he does get upset when the hair dryer comes out, probably for the noise and the grooming invasion (I know they have sensitive skin so I do it on warm/cool). And I really only bathe him when he's going to go stay at an allergic's house. /lackofanyusefulinformation
posted by scazza at 2:02 PM on March 6, 2005

First I find out that people vacuum their cats, then I find out that people join their cats in the bathtub.

AskMe is very enlightening today.
posted by mmoncur at 10:56 AM on March 8, 2005 [1 favorite]