Giving a Persian cut for health reasons (some do it for the look) is a loving aspect of cat care. But it is bit peculiar that we have Persian cat breeders doing all they can to give their cats long fur following the breed standard for it to be shaved off because it is impractically long. I hope you see the point. Fur serves a purpose. If it is necessary to shave almost all of it off something has gone awry.
Here we have a Perian kitten with a lion cut. It is both cute but sad that such a young cat has all her fur removed except the bit around her head. Bizarre really but necessary as poop was sticking to the fur around her butt. I guess the owner could have had the fur around her butt shaved off but decided for aesthetic reasons to go the whole hog and give her a full-blown lion cut which solved the poop-on-butt problem. This is not uncommon. You’ll see this on the internet in forums. It is almost de rigueur to give Persian cats lion cuts to avoid what the Persian cat lovers call “dingleberries” sticking to their tails and worse.
They can get knots in their fur frequently and sometimes dingleberries will stick to their tails.
Persian cat owner on Reddit.com
We do a lion cut on our Persian 2x a year to curb this issue. She likes to be brushed but doesn’t love under her legs so she can get matted there. The haircut really helps in those areas and keeps her cool in the summer.
Reddit user explaining the problems with Persian cat fur which is arguably too long for practical reasons.
BUT – and there are some big buts. Notice the symmetry in word usage! If the kitty is anxious and/or the fur is matted a veterinarian may decide to sedate or even anesthetize a cat to deliver the lion cut. Anesthetics are inherently a little dangerous. That’s at least one issue with lion cuts which I decided are okay in a post I wrote years ago.
Cats can become more active and probably sometimes happier after a lion cut. If this is true – and it is hard to get into the head of a kitten/cat – it would imply that the fur it often too long thanks to extreme breeding which also gives the contemporary Persian the unnaturally flat face which also causes health issues.
Long fur is great if it’s very cold. That’s natural. The Siberian cat living in barns in Siberia have long, protective fur. Great. Long fur on a decorative Persian living full-time inside the home where it is warm is the wrong coat. They probably become too hot so to have the coat removed might feel really nice.
If there are no dingleberry issues there will be the need for the Persian owner to groom their cat daily to prevent matting. I have seen some horrendously matted Persian cats on the internet. Here is an example:
Once the fur begins to become matted it is impossible to de-matt without professional help. You can try to cut out the matts but this requires a huge amount of care to avoid cutting the skin. Scissors should be used perpendicular to the skin to avoid this [link]. Combing the very long Persian fur is impractical it seems to me. Brushing should be okay.
RELATED: Infographic on domestic cat coat grooming care
Groom from an early age
The caregiving policy should be to brush and groom a Persian kitten as soon as they are adopted so they get used to it. It can be a loving and bonding interaction which the cat learns to like, even love. This certainly applies to me and my cat except mine is not a Persian.
Commercial cat groomers
There are many good ones but I believe that caution is necessary as you don’t know how good or bad they are and you don’t know what goes on in the back room unless you are present throughout. They are unregulated and there have been some disasters.
RELATED: Commercial pet groomers. 3 reasons why you should not use them.
Thanks Marcus. But you are a spammer and I have removed your link to Wikipedia. I did not know that Wikipedia paid people to spam websites to improve their search engine rankings. Pretty cheap behaviour.
Cool!