What's a Deshed and do I need it?
A true ''deshed'' is not a single one tool that we use here at Sweet Whiskers. We do a whole combination of things to get the results we need. Check out some of the steps we do in the process and why:
Degreasing Bath
Cat's are actually pretty greasy creatures, some owners struggle to see this when they are with their cats daily, but it does build up. We see this best with separation in the fur into clumps, dandruff being visible, and sometimes visible greasy sheen to the coat.
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The bath step is where we get to wash all that extra grease out of the coat. This helps unstick a lot of unsightly dandruff from the surface of the skin, but more than anything it's where we get to really help loosen up that already dead and blown out fur.
This step is not always great at removing the fur from the body, but it is awesome for getting it loosened up and prepared to slide out of the coat in the next step. Although sometimes we really see it slip out and it clogs the tub!
Photo of 3 different cats in the tub getting a bath. Two of the cats are domestic short hair mixes and one is a long haired blue Persian. All 3 cats are wearing a green e-collar to help keep water deflected away from their ears and face to not stimulate the whiskers more than necessary during the process.
Watch time: 4 Minutes
Blow Dry
This portion of the groom is one place professional cat groomers just don't skimp. The magic happens when blow drying the cat, thoroughly.
Here we gently introduce a high velocity dryer to get powerful air streams all the way down to the skin surface.
By parting the fur this way we help physically separate it from the clumps of other fur as well as thoroughly dry both the fur shafts as well as the surface of the skin.
This does allow the groomer an ideal inspection of all fur and surfaces of the cats skin. It's not uncommon to find unknown lumps, bumps or moles to have owners keep an eye on.
Watch time: 1 Minute 47 seconds
Comb out
Now that the coat is thorough dry we need to really work through it and make sure all tangles are gone. That is where we use a general body comb. First on it's widest tine spacing, then very a bit more thorough check through, it's finest tine spacing.
For the face and down legs we use a very tightly tine spaced comb that really gets those densely packed areas of coats. The crown of the head is usually always an area needing some extra attention.
Finally we use a tightly spaced staggered tooth tined comb, which helps assist pulling out hair from both the skin surface and up off the skin surface to really be sure we are getting a thorough comb through.
All three types of combs are found on our product recommendation page. To check out what we use or see more details on the purpose behind each comb, read about combs here.
ALERT: 90% of cat grooming can stop here!
After going through such a thorough process, a solid 90% of all cat grooming stops at this point. That is considered an all inclusive groom and nearly all breeds fit into this category as well.
Here you can see the power behind a degreasing bath followed up with a good blow dry session and thorough combing. This is a huge difference and honestly, all that most cats need.
This is a thorough full coat groom, with no deshed package added on.
Deshed Rake
This is truly an additional add on meant for a very small portion of clients. How this would be used is typically at the very END of the groom, and only if the cat can tolerate it.
Coat types that tend to need this are those who are long haired cottony coats very bushy full coats (big forest cats, ragdolls, persians, etc) as well as the short hair coats that are densely packed (british shorthairs).
Watch time: 3 Minutes
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