Recycling Loose Cat Hair

Putting loose cat hair to use

Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

You can do useful things with cat hair that is lying around the house; floating against skirting boards, on the bed, on sofas and chairs, you name the place, it is likely be there. You’ve probably eaten quite a bit of it over the years. Cat hair that has been shed by a cat tends to get everywhere. Cat hair shedding can be minimized by regularly grooming your cat. We know that. The Furminator is the tool of choice. Groomit is another one. Incidentally, there are no non-shedding cat breeds.

If the Furminator is good for collecting loose hair from a cat, a Bizzy brush is good for collecting it from beds and furniture. This is a velvet brush and the grain of the velvet picks up cat hair extremely effective. Once on the brush the hair can be removed by pushing the brush against a carpet with the grain of the velvet. The hair balls up on the carpet and can be picked up. Now that I know of some uses for loose cat hair, these balls of hair will put to use.

Incidentally, the Furminator, itself can be used to collect loose cat hair from upholstery, so says Caroline a regular contributor. Thanks Caroline for these ideas.

Crafted Cat Hair Products

For interested people, beautiful cat hair products can be crafted. The book below is the definitive work on this:

For the Birds

Crafting products from loose cat hair doesn’t really appeal to me but this does: balled up, collected cat hair can be used by birds. I like this idea. It is creating a partnership between predator and prey and the human is acting as the intermediary. Wonderful concept. The idea is to place balls of cat fur next to the bird feeder. Birds building nests should collect it to line the nest to provide insulation, comfort and warmth. When do birds build nests? It varies a lot; from February through to September with March and April being the more active months. When I try this, next year (2014) I intend to put some cat fur out with the bird feed around March and throughout the summer and see what happens.

The Ultimate Natural Free Homemade Cat Toy!

You probably know this one. I wrote about it years ago but it is very clever so I’ll repeat it! This is an “invention” of Zach Scott in America. He has made a video. Using the Furminator or some other effective cat grooming tool you simply ball up the hair into a cigar shaped wad (it binds together very effectively and naturally) and that is the toy. Done and dusted in about five minutes. Cats seem to be interested in the smell and shape of their own hair. My cat will sniff it and eat it! Until I stop him.

Other Uses

There are other uses for this natural resource. Wads of cat hair have been used as booms to pick up oil from oil spills. I am sure there other uses which are yet to be devised. I suppose it could be used as padding for cushions and such like. Perhaps not. Do you have any ideas for recycling cat hair?

Conclusion

A nice aspect of recycling loose cat hair is that a lot of people see cat hair as a nuisance, something to get rid of as soon as possible. If it can be used and put to use  – particularly to help nesting birds, for example – it turns a negative into more of a positive. I like that.

Photo: Sean and Lauren on Flickr

Please search using the search box at the top of the site. You are bound to find what you are looking for.

16 thoughts on “Recycling Loose Cat Hair”

  1. Hi
    I have read these posts and article with interest and have a suggestion. I am a felter, I make scarves and jewelry out of wool and pet hair…etc.. If you gather the hair and roll it in the palm of your hands, keep rolling until it forms a hard ball, you can then use it like a bead by putting a jewellery pin through it and attaching it to a bracelet or necklace, you will always have your pet with you.

    Reply
  2. I like the idea of the birds getting the fur to use in their nests as warm bedding, that’s something nice that cats can do for birds after all the bad press they get for supposedly trying to wipe out the entire bird population. And I can sympathise with Marc and carolneale, I still have a bit of Felix’s beautiful ginger fur somewhere, after we’ve lost any of our much loved cats I’ve always hated getting the hoover out and gradually bit by bit over the weeks removing all traces of them as the fur they’ve shed is hoovered up. I’ve found at work that quite often bereaved families ask for a little bit of hair to be snipped off for them to keep (wish I’d thought of that years ago when our mother and then my husband John died) there must be some connection between this and us wanting to hang onto beloved fur. Another good way to clean up fur from furniture and carpets is to put a rubber glove on and wet it then brush it over the fur, it comes up in balls and is easy to pick up.

    Reply
    • Hair is a dead substance. I think it is made of keratin which the same substance (a protein) that makes nails and a cat’s nails. It lasts for ever almost. A great memento because it is exactly the same as it was when your cat died.

      Reply
  3. I had a photo of my cat put some fur on it for a memories and that she was never for got I look at it at time and think l still think of you milly we still love you we still have a bit of fur of her

    Reply
  4. Memories.

    When Red was alive we had a big carpet in the living room which i didn’t vacuum nearly enough so it was covered in mainly Red’s long hair. When he died it was the last place I laid him down after holding him for ages. When I got back from burying him the first thing I did was roll up that carpet with everything untouched and I still have it, rolled up. In that carpet I must have alot of Red’s fur in there. I just found a little ball of it the other day. I am not sure what I will do with it but my purpose for keeping it is memories.

    ….it has alot of uses though.

    Reply
    • Phew..I found your comment very touching indeed. It is hard to know what best to do. You might have thought about making something from his fur. Maybe it is best to just leave it all alone.

      Reply
  5. I have used my cats hair for making a kilt form of a pant for one of my African mask’s human etching of a tribal guard.I had purchased this handicraft during one of my shipping voyages to Maputo in Mozambique in the 1980’s.The original skirt was of goats leather which wasted over the decades.I have posted a photo of the same, a idea for other cat owners. Cats fur can be substituted for leather in many cases and also used as decorations.This fur belongs to my male traditional Persian cat “Matata”.

    Reply
    • This is a very original and novel way of using cat hair. Fascinating, Rudolph. This is a very exotic usage. My article is quite mundane by comparison. Hope you have a great new year with plenty of adventures.

      Reply

Leave a Reply to Michael Broad Cancel reply

follow it link and logo