Most cats shed to some extent all year round but in "natural" situation the degree to which shedding takes place is cyclical. Because many cats now live in an environmentally controlled home, the reactions triggered by changes in weather / day length can become less clear.

 

Sassy has shed pretty much constantly for the past 15 years. Some cats are just like that. If your cat will let you brush him daily that should cut down on the shedding a bit.

When I was cleaning my mom's condo before moving I got see just how bad Sassy's shedding was. Once all the furniture was gone there was a layer of fur behind every piece of furniture where the vacuum never reached. The friend who was helping me clean was amazed that it had all come from one cat.

 

Cats kept indoors will shed all year round as the majority of our houses are climate controlled. I recommend the Furminator brush. It is great.

 

eats Taste of the Wild dry food

The above is your problem. Canned or raw are both MUCH better than dry, which is inappropriate for cats for many reasons more serious than shedding (although that is certainly one side effect).

I recommend that you read this site carefully: Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition :: healthy cat diet, making cat food, litter box, cat food, cat nutrition, cat urinary tract health

Basically, ANY canned food is better than the "premium" dry foods--it's that important!

 

I second the use of a Furminator!!! I've seen someone on here recommend it and I went out and bought one the other day. They work miracles!!! Godzilla looked like he lost a waist size when I was done brushing him and i could have made a hat out of all the fur i got out of him haha they have them for short haired cats too! You can find them at petco petsmart small pet stores and I even found mine at orshelens

http://www.furminator.com/hairball-solutions/tools


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Ohhh, how Declan hates the Furminator! My bunnies hate it, too, but they don't fight back like he does We have this mitten brush thing that he tolerates as long as he has a toy to play with or is being fed treats while being brushed. Normally he's really sweet, but he gets bitey and scratchy when it's time to be brushed.

Hoofmaiden, I want to feed him wet, but my husband doesn't want to so we are giving him one of the better quality dry foods. I did read that the cheapest wet food is better than the best dry food, but the ingredients in the cheap ones freak me out and I must admit that I'm skeptical. Later this month I will finally graduate from college and once I start working full time, we will see about feeding him canned. I have been looking at the Wellness brand of canned.

 

The big cans of the regular Wellness Chicken and Turkey flavors are rather affordable and they're grain-free. EVO 95% is also very affordable in the large cans and grain-free too.

 

For a 12 pack of 13oz cans (which are the bigger ones) is roughly only 22 dollars in the EVO brand. I get mine from here:

http://www.chewy.com/s/evo,canned-food?dept=cat

Someone said on here that they are the most value. Ounces your getting per dollar I mean. I have calculated on a lot of others too and they are right it is a good value and its a lot cheaper than wellness. Wellness I think is pricey.... I buy brands like Soulistic, Weruva, and Natures Variety.... Natures variety is a little on the pricey side but I only bought some for some different protein choices. But recently I've ordered some of the Evo to give it a shot because its cheaper and they have a fairly good selection of protein sources you can choose from. Oh and all the brands I mentioned are grain free high quality. So no scary things in there! :lol: even if you can't feed full wet. Feeding dry in the morning and a can at night would be better than all dry. Something to consider.

Here is Weruva:
http://www.chewy.com/s?dept=cat&query=Weruva

Soulistic is a Weruva brand you can only find at Petco and if you go in there and compare this brand and Wellness I think you will see how much cheaper it is. So here it is:
http://www.petco.com/N_4294954775/Soulistic.aspx

There's also another option I like to recommend a lot called Honest Kitchen Prowl. It's a dehydrated raw food that comes in a powder. You add water and mix it up and serve. (Its slightly like an oatmeal) It's making your own wet food with out the cans and its WAY cheaper than all of them. A 4lb box of powder is the equivalent to 12lbs of food and that runs about 40 dollars. You can't even get close to that amount of food/price buying any canned brand. I buy this at that chewy.com site too. But here is the honest kitchen site where you can read about it. With one cat it would last a long long time. Especially if you were doing 50/50 dry and wet.

http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/products/prowl/


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Thanks for the suggestions for other cat foods! I will look into them. I already did the cost breakdown with the canned Wellness food. Even gave him part of a tiny can once and he went completely crazy for it. Unfortunately we live in Alaska and shipping costs are obscene here and cans of food are heavy, but I will look into what is available! Amazon.com has free shipping even up here, which is nice.

 

Chewy.com has an always flat rate shipping of 4.95 no matter what it is. Which is cheap compared to most sites. Unless you order over 49 dollars then its free. They also charge NO sales tax so thats another savings! And some of their prices are slightly cheaper than in store too. And pretty much I always end up right over 50 when I order. I get my cans and Honest Kitchen there. That's cool you live in Alaska though! I've always wanted to go there and watch the Iditarod!


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My cat eats Taste of wild canned food and cooked chicken meat or fish or shrimp, so i think it's pretty healthy. He sheds all the time and hates brushing. Will bite and growl at me. So I just deal with hairballs and got rid of all carpets in my house to make cleaning easier.