Hello, I’ve always managed to train a cat to accept regular short sessions of brushing/detangling (prev cats have been long haired and needed help with this). I’m beginning to think our latest cat (also long haired) is going to be really difficult to win round for grooming … she is friendly and settling in well but won’t let me brush her at all. The rehoming centre advised cutting out tags for now, which I’ve been doing (she is massively overweight and can’t reach everywhere herself so needs a lot of help until we can get her weight down). I am persevering (e.g giving her a few quick strokes with a soft brush before food to get her used to brushes).
If I can’t resolve this, has anyone had experience of using those bags you can use to restrain a cat, and then ‘safely’ access various areas via zippers or Velcro openings ? I think some vets must use them ? Or has anyone found gauntlets that are thick enough to protect from scratching but also give your fingers flexibility to tease out matt’s ? If I try to brush my cat with the toothed side of a brush she will definitely bite/scratch, but is very well behaved and becoming more loving otherwise. It’s early days (only 3 weeks) and my preference is to train her to accept grooming, but it would be nice to have a Plan B in mind if this doesn’t work out. I wouldn’t use a ‘grooming bag’ if it really stressed her out, but it would be at least good to know if they actually work. I’ve always used the ‘towel wrapping’ method for giving pills and the prev cats all got used to this, but of course it doesn’t help for grooming. Thanks.