I can answer this question from personal experience without relying on so-called experts. I am referring to domestic cats and, in any case, I am an expert. 🤔
If you flea comb your cat daily or twice daily as I do you will know when your cat is losing their winter coat because there’s more cat hair in the comb and it is very noticeable. If fact daily flea-combing is a good way to see the development of a coat over the seasons.
The flea-comb has very tightly spaced ‘teeth’. This test only applies to single-coating cats because it’s impossible to get a genuine flea comb through a medium or medium-long cat coat I would argue.
But for the single-coated cat a daily flea comb has many advantages, one of which is to detect when there’s more fur in the comb indicating that it’s the start of the season when cats shed fur and that start occurs because there’s more light rather than more heat.
I combed my cat this morning. For several months past, there’s not been enough fur from the flea comb to offer to my cat to lick. Yes, he likes to lick the fur that I collect when I flea comb him. It’s instinctive. He enjoys doing it. I ball up the fur to make a nice, tight mass for him to enjoy. He likes to eat it afterwards too! Interesting behavior that. What’s the advantage?
It would indicate that cats want to ingest some of their fur for health reasons. What are they? 😊
Only this morning can I say that enough hair strands have been collected to offer to him to lick.
The date is 8 February 2024. This is very early spring if spring at all. The experts say May and April are the months during which domestic cats start to lose their winter coat. That IS spring but I think they might be a little wrong.
Although the answer must be dependent on where the cat lives 🙄 What about the north of Finland for example? Pretty well dark most of the time.
The shedding starts, as mentioned, when there is more ambient light due to longer days. That has already happened. This moment is the first at which shedding starts. Full-time indoor cats shed all the year round evenly. This timing does not apply to them.
They shed fur and this fur flies into the air around the living room and other rooms in the home and eventually forms little tumbleweed hair balls wafting across the kitchen floor into a corner where it resides until hoovered up.
What fun awaits all cat caregivers.
RELATED: Purina All Naturals reduces cat shedding? Plus, more info on foods reducing shedding.
