Static causing cat's fur to mat

March 7, 2020 4:50 PM

It's so dry this winter that my cat is getting lots of tiny mats in her fur from the static. How can I help her?

Cat is medium-long haired and gets brushed almost daily. Her undercoat is very cottony and dense. She's been getting tiny mats in her underfur, that I believe are caused by static because of how the fur clings together and acts when I separate it. It's so staticy in my apartment that she crackles when I pet her and her fur stands up. We shock each other constantly.

She tolerates de-matting for about 5 minutes, and then gets upset because it's uncomfortable. I use my fingers, because brushes pulling at the mats clearly hurt her a lot.

I run a small humidifier when I'm home. Is there anything else I can do? Are there pet-safe products that work for static? (I will absolutely not be rubbing dryer sheets on her or doing anything else that could harm her health.)

posted by Feminazgul to Pets & Animals (5 answers total)

The only thing that will help long term is to get a bigger humidifier and run it more so the apartment isn't so dry.

Short term you can mist a microfibre cloth with water, just a little, and pet her with it wrapped around a hand. The dampness will dissipate the static electricity.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:45 PM on March 7, 2020 [3 favorites]

Get something oily on your hands. Take your pick of something safely edible like olive, coconut, vegetable oil. The tiniest drops, a few, rub your hands together hard to thin/emulsify it. Stroke her with your oily hands. It will weight the fur and retain moisture and prevent static buildup. Use the humidifier too, but get the fur a tiny bit greasy.
posted by Lyn Never at 7:03 PM on March 7, 2020 [2 favorites]

A metal comb would probably help even if you weren't grounded because that would prevent any charge separation between you and the cat, and since you probably have much greater capacitance than she does, the voltage on her generated by brushing would be much less.

Ideally, you would be grounded, because that would drain away any charge generated by brushing as well as any pre existing charges on either one of you (the first touch of the comb might be interesting, however) but that's trickier — a metal ankle bracelet connected to the ground of an electrical outlet? I hesitate to suggest any messing with an outlet, but connecting to a grounded plumbing fixture might do it.

But you might be able to finesse the whole issue with a negative ion generator, since cat fur is positively charged by brushing, and the negative ions would tend to neutralize her. If you choose to try that make sure you get one which does not generate ozone.
posted by jamjam at 7:46 PM on March 7, 2020

staticat
posted by jamjam at 12:45 AM on March 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

Pet her with coconut oil to reduce static electricity. Furminate her to prevent future mats in her undercoat.
posted by nirblegee at 7:14 AM on March 8, 2020