There are many grooming brushes, combs and products out there all claiming to be effective in helping keeping your cats coat at it's best, but where do you start if you have a long hair or short haired cat. Quite often customers have been mislead by well meaning pet shop workers as they just don't have the grooming education to be able to advise properly.
First picture below is an example of easy to buy essential tools for maintaining a short haired cats coat.
From left to right:
The molting comb, is as it sounds, great for removing dead undercoat and fur from your cats coat during molting and shedding.
The finely spaced teeth on these are also perfect for combing through the fine hair behind your cats ears, a place that is commonly missed and frequently gets knotty.
Second is the greyhound metal comb, (Either Teflon or Stainless Steel are the best) these are great all rounder combs, the wider teeth are effective in getting through the thicker longer fur on the cats tail and back of legs while the narrower teeth are ideal for working through the rest of the coat to remove loose dead hair.
Third the slicker brush, (Important to make sure the slicker brush you buy has the protected ball tip pins, stainless steel pins with soft protected teeth as cats have sensitive thin skin, the slickers without this are too harsh and hurt the cats skin and are a big reason why some cats don't enjoy being groomed). A slicker brush is a great follow up tool after you've used the steel comb to groom your cat, the wires get deep into your kitty's fur removing loose fairs and dander which prevents matts, great lil brush for separating the coat and for fluffing and finishing the groom.
Fourth is the Furminator, recommended for short coated cats only... ideal for going over the cats coat to make sure all the dead coat has been removed from after a groom or for helping rid the coat from dead loose hairs if your usual grooming routine hasn't been regular enough to maintain the cats coat. Always make sure your cats coat is completely dry before using the Furminator, Brush from head to tail, be sure to angle the teeth in the same direction as your cats coat, use long gentle strokes and move the brush up and away from your cats skin, brush evenly across your cats body.
Be careful not to apply too much pressure or brush the same area for too long with a Furminator as this can remove too much coat and or irritate the cats skin.
Furminators are NOT recommended for long haired cats as it tends to pull their coat and should also not be used on cats breeds with very short tight coats such as Balinese, Orientals, Rex's, Bombay etc.
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