Furminator - is it really bad for cats?

June 8, 2017 7:05 PM

My cats shed - a lot. Help me decide if I should switch my grooming tool to a Furminator.

My three short-hair cats are shedders - I brush them every other day, and it feels like they could even benefit from daily brushing. Currently we use the Kong Zoom Groom brush (seen here), and I'm pretty happy with this and they're used to it now, but I've heard great things about the Furminator deshedding tool for cats (seen here). Basically it sounds like you don't have to brush as frequently if you use one of these, something I'd really appreciate.

However, besides being pricey, I've heard the Furminator can hurt your cat's skin.

Can you please weigh in on your experiences with the Furminator for short-haired cats? Did they object to it? Did it seem to hurt them? What were you using before and did they switch okay to the new brush?

I'm concerned about hair control, and tired of brushing them every other day, but cat comfort takes #1 priority. I certainly don't want to put them off "brush-time", which is a nice bonding ritual for us and a positive experience for them (they get treats).

I realize I signed up for this with my cats, just wondering if there's a better way to control fluff. Bonus fur control advice / tips appreciated.

Thanks!

posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome to Pets & Animals (26 answers total)

Best answer: I brush mine every couple of days with the Furminator, and she loves it. I'm careful to watch out for signs that she doesn't want it anymore, but I can't tell if it's because she's bored or it starts to hurt.

It doesn't get out as much as some reviews claim, and I can't tell if it helps control the shedding, but her coat definitely feels super soft and clean after the brushing.

Haven't been a cat owner for too long, though, so I'll be watching this for more tips on fur control and potential risks on Furminator usage.
posted by redlines at 7:13 PM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Two of my three cats love the furminator. The third cat will not let me brush him under any circumstances with any brush.
posted by bile and syntax at 7:17 PM on June 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Personally I don't think it's worth it. I have a short-to-medium-haired cat who sheds A LOT. For some reason he is just a mega-shedder year-round. Anyway, the cat was fine with the Furminator, but what I found is that it holds very little hair because the tines are so short, so it gets clogged very quickly and is kind of annoying to clean every few seconds. A regular wire slicker brush is every bit as effective and easier to use, in my opinion.
posted by karbonokapi at 7:18 PM on June 8, 2017 [5 favorites]

Best answer: The worst problem we've had with the Furminator is that the cat loved it so much that we accidentally combed a thin patch into her fur at the base of her tail. We paid attention afterwards to not over-combing her and didn't have any further problems.

We've never had trouble as far as hurting her skin goes. I think it would take some pretty inattentive and overly vigorous grooming with it to do that.
posted by Lexica at 7:19 PM on June 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I have two cats; they're litter mates, but they're very different. The gray tabby totally freaking loves every second he gets with the Furminator. The black cat, with slightly coarser hair, hates it. For him, I have to use one of those generic, many-millimeters-apart coarser brushes, but he totally loves that.
posted by kimota at 7:20 PM on June 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: We lurve the Furminator. It is ridiculously effective. So much so that we take the giant fur ball that is created and leave it out for birds to pick up for nest building.
posted by tafetta, darling! at 7:21 PM on June 8, 2017 [7 favorites]

Best answer: Extra tip: whichever method you use, run one of these old-fashioned ling brush over the cat and it will pick up a surprising amount of loose hair. My cat likes his brush but he loves the lint remover.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:30 PM on June 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I have a medium-hair floofy cat that loves the Furminator. Her fur mats super fast if we get lax on brushing her, and the Furminator is the best tool to get them out that I've found. She's much more OK with that than scissors.
posted by Fig at 7:33 PM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I've used the Furminator, the Zoom Groom, and tons of other tools. The best one I used was this one, in terms of seeming to decrease overall shedding and not hurting the cat. I think I was using the Zoom Groom before which he loved, but I didn't (all that static-y fur seemed to float around and stick to the brush, and him, and me...) and he adjusted quickly.

However my short-hair, domestic tabby was a year round, super shedd-y sort of cat, and even the best tool didn't make a huge difference for us. It's possible that it would have been more of a game-changer if I'd brushed more than once weekly but it just didn't suit either of us.
posted by sm1tten at 7:43 PM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: My short hair cat loves the Furminator and I've never noticed any skin problems or anything negative after using it. I think you'd really have to be aggressive to do any damage while using it. It makes a huge difference in controlling my cat's shedding. I do find that I need to clean out the fur after every few strokes but it's not a big deal. My cat especially loves it when I run the Furminator from the top of her head all the way down her back and to the end of her tail in one stroke--she leans into it and purrs and purrs! Just don't use overly heavy pressure and all should be fine.
posted by bookmammal at 7:54 PM on June 8, 2017 [5 favorites]

Best answer: Seconding karbonokapi. I've used the furminator on my cats but it clogs so quickly. I prefer a small wire slicker brush like this.
posted by irisclara at 8:59 PM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: My short haired cats both really like the Furminator and i haven't noticed any adverse effects, but I also don't think it's an anti-shedding miracle. You do need to pull out the fur from the comb every few strokes but if you get in a rhythm it's not a big deal.
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 9:15 PM on June 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: *door opens*
"Sarah Connor?"
"Meyess?"
"you have been targeted for Furmination."


Never tried the Furminator but it's got a great name. also, the slicker brush irisclara mentioned works pretty well for medium-longharied cats. Short haired cats, use the silicone sextoy looking brush, works pretty well ime.
posted by some loser at 9:25 PM on June 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

Best answer: My experience with many cats over the years is: it depends on the cat and the fur. (Useful, I know) I really think this is one thing you need to figure out for yourself.

We had a short hair who shed very little, but the Furminator brushed out WADS of undercoat hair. Her health actually improved after we started doing this regularly, and in the summer it was essential. Current short hair doesn't mind, but nothing comes off him, with any kind of brush. However, he does like us using the flea comb on him. One long haired cat hated brushes, we had to settle for cutting out mats of hair. Another tolerated being brushed, with anything.

I've never heard of the Furminator being bad for cats. In fact, I think I can say definitely that it is not harmful to cats. Cat owner behavior, however, could result in negative results.
posted by kestralwing at 11:12 PM on June 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

Best answer: The furminator is great - if you push it too hard into the cat's skin, you could probably hurt/scrape them, but it's not hard to goof it up. Out of all of the methods I've tried, the furminator easily gets more hair off of the cat. Also, said cat LOVES it.
posted by destructive cactus at 12:18 AM on June 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: We have five cats (long story, don't ask) two Burmese with very fine hair and three Heinz 57 with short but coarser fur. All love being brushed and we find that regular brushing cuts down on the number of hairballs we get from their self-grooming. We use the Furminator and also a wire bristle brush. They like either one. The Furminator does a really good job and has never caused any skin problems. The model of Furminator we use is self-cleaning with a button that ejects the hair removed and is well worth the few extra dollars.
posted by Freedomboy at 12:27 AM on June 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: We have two shorthair cats and the Furminator works really well on both - better than slicker brushes and like a zillion times better than the Zoom Groom. It gets amazing amounts of undercoat out. Occasionally I'll accidentally pull slightly too hard, but it's a hair-pulling thing rather than a skin-scraping thing and the offended party will let me know immediately - no actual damage. I don't think it even gets down to the skin.

I also second the sticky lint roller; it's surprisingly good for getting the loose hairs that were going to get left on your couch anyway, as well as for post-furminator cleanup, and it doesn't pull on still-rooted fur.
posted by Metroid Baby at 4:01 AM on June 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Our (recently passed) short hair had a serious undercoat, and we found the Furminator was the only way we could keep her shedding under control. The only skin issue we saw was that she had a bit of dandruff near her tail, but the vet told us that it was because she was a big girl who might not be able to groom there as effectively. She hated to be brushed regardless of what we used, so we figured we might as well be as effective as possible. (Our long hair loves to be brushed, but her hair is so fine that the Furminator doesn't do much - so we use the Zoom Groom on her. Purring galore!)
posted by librarianamy at 4:51 AM on June 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I got the furminator for my cat, but the $5 Hartz slicker brush from the grocery store works much better. Also, she prefers it.
posted by Stewriffic at 5:06 AM on June 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Any brush can be bad for the cat's skin if you brush too hard to too long.

I have two short-haired cats who shed more than I would have ever have thought possible. My experience is that to control the shedding, I really need to use two brushes: a furminator knock-off for the undercoat, and a shedding brush for the top coat. (Because they shed tons of both.)

One of the cats loves being brushed so much that she will continue rolling about in bliss until she has bald patches, so I have to pay attention. But I've never noticed any skin damage. You shouldn't be digging in.

The other one doesn't liked being brushed much, whatever brush is being used.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 5:27 AM on June 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: When I had a cat I had one and she loved it and holy crap was it effective.
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 5:50 AM on June 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: From trying to brush a lot of cats at a shelter, I found my best results were with a decent quality ($5-$7) pocket comb. The mid length tines are nice (flea combs are a bit short, grooming combs are unnecessarily long for a cat), the overall size is very wieldy, the fine + coarse tine setup is great for a two phase combing, and it's pretty effective. I wasn't happy at all with the Furminator - far too easy to over groom and make a thin spot for me. Ymmv of course
posted by wotsac at 5:57 AM on June 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: My short-haired kitty hasn't had any skin problems from the furminator. She doesn't love it, but then she doesn't *love* any brushings. So I get like one tolerated brushing a week - and it's much more effective with the furminator than with the other kinds. I would recommend getting the "for small animals" size; I find it is much easier to control the pressure with the smaller brush.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 8:31 AM on June 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Adding on that the furminator is great. It can irritate your cat's skin so its more of a few strokes every day kind of deal. Imagine you pulled a metal comb over your skin. Over and over would start to irritate. It's the same deal for them. My cats love it though. My one cat sees it and starts to give it head butts because he likes how it feels on his forehead. I mix it up with petting and scratches and another plain comb to grab extra flyaways. They get cuddly and floppy when I use it with them. Look online for a coupon, you can usually get at least $5 off.
posted by Bistyfrass at 8:38 AM on June 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you all so much - I found your answers incredibly useful.

I'm going to start with a cheaper version and see how they get on with that (e.g., the Hartz Slicker brush mentioned above). Thanks again, AskMe is the best.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:06 AM on June 9, 2017

If you would like a furminator, and also a longer "underbrush" comb for long-haired cats, I would be happy to mail you the two that I have.
posted by cyndigo at 11:14 AM on June 9, 2017 [2 favorites]