Defeating Shedding the Eazee Way

Ashton sheds. She isn’t the biggest cat in our house, or the longest haired, but she seems to shed the most. And here in Florida, shedding season is all year round.

So when I saw the Eazee deshedding tool at Global Pet Expo, I immediately thought of Ashton, and I couldn’t wait to try it out with her.

Ashton tests the Eazee deshedding tool

The deshedding tool I had previously used on Ashton had metal teeth that cut her undercoat. When is was purring and asking for more, it’s hard to stop grooming her. That actually led to me overgrooming her. I went for about six weeks last year not being able to take a photo of her back because a metal deshedding tool thinned even her topcoat, making the black fur of her back look streaky gray from her undercoat showing through.

The Eazee deshedding tool promised to be different. Instead of metal teeth that cut live hair, it has plastic ones that only remove dead hair. If it prevented me from overgrooming Ashton and making gray streaks on her back from cutting her topcoat, this sounded like a great idea.

Eazee brush teeth

There are two interchangeable sets of teeth for the brush, one set white and another set black. The white teeth are for daily grooming, and the black teeth are supposedly for more intense grooming. Ashton doesn’t need anything more intense than the white teeth, but maybe they would make a difference or a cat with longer or curly hair.

It’s easy to tell by the way Ashton responds that the Eazee deshedding tool feels good. Ashton leans into it, and you can see her tail is up, a sign of happiness.

This is the hair that came from about ten seconds of brushing. You can see that Ashton has plenty to spare and needs some brushing to remove the loose parts of her undercoat.

The Eazee is made of a static-free plastic, , and it has a thumb switch you can use to retract the teeth. When you retract the teeth, the hair falls right off the deshedding tool’s head.

Ashton: Did all that hair come from me?

The thumb switch for the adjustable head position means you can extend the teeth less for short-haired cats or extend them fully for long-haired cats. It also means that you can fully retract the teeth both for removing hair from the deshedding tool. It also provides a simple way to store the tool. There’s no separate cover for the teeth that you can misplace.

In the animation below, you can see how quickly the deshedding tool pulls hair loose from Ashton. It practically piles up at her hindquarters as I brush her.

Ashton being brushed with th eeazee deshedding tool

I recommend not grooming your cat with this on the sofa like I did! You can see how much of Ashton’s dark fur ended up on the pillow and sofa cover. Pierre is probably hoping he won’t be blamed for the mess!

Pierre sleeps next to Ashton's hair

Speaking of Pierre, I tried the Eazee deshedding tool on Pierre, too. Pierre doesn’t actually like to be brushed. He just wants to rub the scent glands on his cheeks against the brush, especially the glands in the corner of his mouth. The result is what looks like obsessive rubbing against and chewing on the deshedding tool while he drools and purrs.

Pierre has cheerfully rubbed his mouth bloody on other brushes and grooming tools, so he has to be carefully monitored around anything that looks like a brush or any kind. He wasn’t able to injure himself with the Eazee deshedding tool because its teeth are plastic instead of metal and have slightly blunted edges. This extra safety measure is really reassuring. If it can’t injure the delicate tissue around Pierre’s lips, it won’t scratch him anywhere else, either… if he ever lets me brush anything but his cheeks.

PIerre with Eazee groom

Both Ashton and Pierre agree that the Eazee deshedding tool gets enthusiastic paws up for removing their hair so they don’t have to do it by getting a hairball.

Tips for the Deshedding

It’s easy to get gobs of fur off of Ashton, but some cats don’t have the same texture coat she has. For best results when deshedding your cat:

Make sure your cat is dry. This isn’t a grooming tool meant for cats who you have recently bathed and haven’t completely dried yet.
For shorter haired cats, only extend the teeth of the comb to the first setting. There is a longer setting for cats with longer coats or thicker undercoats. Ashton’s thicker undercoat really works best with the longer teeth.
Not only does the Eazee deshedding tool come with there two combs — white for every day deshedding and black for intense grooming — the combs themselves are reversible. One side of the comb is for thicker coats and the other side for thinner coats. If you aren’t getting the results you expect, you can reverse the comb in the handle for better results.

Eazee Deshedding Tool Giveaway

We want you to have a better shedding season, too, so one lucky reader will receive an Eazee deshedding tool so your cat can feel as good as Ashton and Pierre after their grooming.

Just enter via Rafflecopter below. Though prizes only ship to US addresses, readers worldwide are invited to enter. If a winner lives outside the US, they can gift their prize to a friend or shelter in the US. Entries end Wednesday, July 26, 2017, and will be chosen by random drawing.**

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Winners will be notified via e-mail. Prize winner must provide Sometimes Cats Herd You with a physical address to which the prize will be mailed within 72 hours. If this information is not received, an alternate winner will be chosen by random drawing.

FTC Disclosure: We received this product for free as part of our agreement to run this review and giveaway. The opinions in this review are my own and not influenced by any outsider. Sponsored posts always reflect our honest opinions and feature products we use ourselves and love.

Hiding Treasures in the Vittles Vault

I love having someone solve problems for me! This year at Global Pet Expo, I met the folks from Gamma2, and they reminded me that if enough minds work on them, there are better solutions than the ones I have come up with on my own.

Orange tabby cat stands between Vittles Vault Home Collection 18 and Vittles Vault Jr.

Here’s the thing: I’m not using their products the way they probably envisioned things at all.

Vittles Vault Solution 1: Leftover Litter

We only use corn-based litter. I believe it’s safer than clay for the cats to ingest when they inevitably lick some off of their paws, as well as safer for all of us to breathe the dust.

The problem with corn-based litter in my house is that when I clean and refill our litter boxes, I have litter left over. You can leave clay litter in an unsealed container for a length of time with no problems. Open corn-based litter has to be stored in an air-tight and insect-proof container, especially here in Florida.

You probably saw my previous solution in the background of blog posts already. A 5-gallon bucket.

Newton looks on top of 5 gallon bucket

Finding one with a screw-top lid was really hard, and as you can see from the photo above, it never closed properly. I had no idea until Global Pet Expo that Gamma2 makes a lid that converts press-to-seal lids into screw-tight lids with gaskets to make sure they are airtight. I wish I had known back when we had to search for our old bucket! Most buckets are press-to-seal, it took a lot of time to find the screw-top bucket that never really threaded properly.

An even better solution than a bucket is the Vittles Vault. Airtight, pest-proof, and made of a BPA-free, food-grade plastic, these containers are intended for holding cat or dog kibble. But the light bulb that came on over my head when I saw them was for solving our cat litter storage problem.

orange tabby cat looks at Vittles Vault from behind

Sorry, Newton, there’s no kibble in there, just corn-based litter that’s going to stay fresh until it’s time to top off your litterbox.

orange tabby cat looks into vittles vault

Bins in the Vittles Vault Home Collection line all have a label you can use like a whiteboard to indicate the contents, and they have curved bottoms so they can be stacked. The bin I’m using holds about 23 lb. of litter or kibble, and it is sized so you can put it on your counter and have it fit under the overhead cabinets. That’s clever! My favorite part about how it is sized is that it is narrow, meaning I could slide it into the gap behind the sofa in my sunroom.

vittles vault behind sofa

Pierre: What’s in the middle of the cat superhighway?

gray tabby cat peers over vittles vault behind sofa

Well, the boss says I can’t keep it there, so we’ll have to negotiate about that.

There was even a handy scoop that came inside the bin. I’m not using the scoop for the litter, but that would be really useful for portioning out daily kibble from the bin. For litter, I just pick up the entire bin and pour it into my litter boxes. Because of the bin’s compact size, I have a lot less trouble controlling the flow of litter. I haven’t had any incidents of dumping litter onto my own feet, something I did several times with the old bucket.

The Vittles Vault is a big win for storing leftover litter from my unsealed bags securely until I am ready to use it.

Vittles Vault Solution 2: Treat Break-Ins

There are days that I think Ashton may be a pig disguised in a cat suit. She is part of the reason we continue to use keep the bifold door on our pantry barred It’s really annoying to have to un-bar the pantry door countless times a day to get out a package of pasta, box of baking soda, or any of the other things stored there. But if we don’t, Ashton’s super-nose for food will lead her straight to the treats.

The Vittles Vault Jr. is a good answer for this problem. I know it’s intended for 6 lb. of cat kibble, but it’s a great size to hold multiple bags of cat treats tucked safely out of reach.

one-eyed brown tabby cat looks into Vittles Vault Jr. at treat bags

Made of the same material and with the same thoughtfulness of its larger cousin, this smaller version of the Vittles Vault reminds me a little of a half-gallon of milk. That makes it a good size for the fridge or freezer, if you had food or treats that needed to be temperature-controlled.

As long as you keep the air-tight lid sealed, the most determined cat isn’t going to be able to get into it. They won’t even smell that there are treats in there.

one-eyed brown tabby cat puts paw into Vittles Vault Jr.

The Vittles Vault Jr. also comes with what they call a scoop, but it’s actually just larger than the lid and fits snugly over it like an extra cap for the container. It is so well-disguised that I have tried to pick up the whole container by the lid several times and accidentally only lifted the scoop off the top instead.

orange tabby cat and one-eyed brown tabby cat look at Vittles Vault Jr Lid

Since the scoop is larger than the lid, I don’t think you can actually scoop with it, but you could use it as a bowl. This would be a nice way to set up travel kit or even an emergency evacuation kit, since the bowl and container would fit together.

Both the Vittles Vault and the Vittles Vault Jr. are thoughtfully made. Most important, they’re useful! They are important parts of our everyday storage, keeping our food and litter fresh and safe from paws that shouldn’t get into them.

FTC Disclosure: The Vittles Vault and Vittles Vault Jr were provided free of charge, but the opinions in this review are my own and not influenced by any outsider. I receive no additional benefits for talking about the product or company.

This post contains affiliate links, which means we get a small commission for our cat treat fund if you purchase after clicking the link on this page.

The Dreaded Dingleberry Problem

Ashton: Oh, boy, Newton.

Newton: What are you doing back there?

Ashton: You’ve got a dingleberry back here. You better not sit on the bed like this or you’re going to be in trouble.

brown tabby cat sniffs orange tabby cat butt

Newton: This is so embarrassing.

Orange tabby cat looks annoyed

Part of having plush fur like Newton means that sometimes dingleberries hang on while he’s taking care of his business in the litter box. And Newton is right, dingleberries can be really embarrassing, not to mention messy if they make it to the furniture.

That means when you see a dingleberry, you’d better take action to clean it up in a hurry.

That’s where earthbath tushy wipes come in.

one-eyed brown tabby cat and Earthbath Tushy Wipes

Before nice people at earthbath sent earthbath tushy wipes for review, I always reached for a baby wipe when there was a dingleberry alert in the house. But products made for babies aren’t meant for cats. For something to be safe for a baby, there are different considerations than there are for cats. Babies don’t lick themselves all over, after all.

So I was pretty excited that instead of being a baby wipe, earthbath tushy wipes are intended for use on pets. They’re safe, and they don’t have a bunch of scary-sounding, unpronounceable chemicals in them. The baby wipes I had in the house included ingredients which can irritate skin and even cause carcinogenic effects with long-term use. I don’t want Newton licking a chemical like that!

I didn’t have to worry about Newton grooming his fur after I used the earthbath wipes to clean up his dingleberry. The most unpronounceable chemical in the wipes is saccharomyces ferment filtrate, a type of yeast that helps neutralize unpleasant odors.

Also unlike thin baby wipes, earthbath wipes are thick and textured, so your fingers are safe from the dingleberries when you’re cleaning them off.

Earthbath Tushy Wipes

Newton: Look, everyone! No dingleberries! Thanks, earthbath!

orange tabby cat and Earthbath Tushy Wipes

FTC Disclosure: We were compensated to review earthbath wipes, but tthe opinions in this review are my own and not influenced by any outsider.

Keeping Moist Food Fresh With the SureFeed Sealed Pet Bowl

If you have a slow-eating cat like Pierre, you may leave food down for him all the time just to be sure that there’s food waiting when he decides to eat a few more bites. Unfortunately, most people who leave food out for hours on end opt to use dry food because they think it doesn’t go bad as fast. The problem is that dry food isn’t good for your cat.

When our friends at SureFlap offered to let us test their sealed pet bowl that closes over the contents of the bowl to keep it fresh, we thought this could be the answer to the dilemma of keeping food fresh for slow eaters, so we had to check it out.

Why is Moist Food Important?

First, let’s talk moisture. Your cat needs it to keep from getting dehydrated, and the older your cat is, the more likely your cat needs even more of it.

Here’s part of the contents label from a bag of dry food. Check out the moisture content:

Now here’s the moisture content of a can of cat food I had on the shelf of Pierre’s canned food. That’s a lot more moisture!

A cat eating dry food has to drink a lot of water to offset the lack of moisture content in his food, and a lot of them don’t keep up with the necessary water intake. Cats eating canned food are getting it as part of their dinner!

So… why do so many people feed kibble? In a lot of cases, it comes down to convenience, and I get that, believe me! When I first tried feeding canned food to my cats, it sat around a long time, and it ended up looking like this.

Did you say yuck when you saw the brownish dried-out parts? Me too! Cats aren’t big fans of it, either. If your cat is a slow eater and prefers to eat a little now and a little later (I’m looking at you, Pierre), this can be a real problem, and it’s part of the reason that a lot of people abandon the idea of feeding canned food and go back to dehydrating kibble.

Keeping Moist Food Fresh with the SureFeed Sealed Pet Bowl

What if you had a butler who would stand next to your cat’s bowl and put some cling wrap over it when your cat walked away and then took it back off so that the food was nice and moist when your cat was hungry for another bite or two in a little while?

I’m totally not going to tell you about that, because I have never had a butler, and if I ever do, I have some other tasks for him first. But even better than a butler is a bowl that will do the same thing for you 24 hours a day. That’s what I found with the SureFeed sealed pet bowl when Pierre tried it out. It comes with a bowl that has a silicone lip around the top and then a battery-powered bowl with motion sensors on three sides.

It’s pretty neat because it opens up when it sees your cat approach, and it closes tight again. Just watch. (If the video below doesn’t display for you, view directly on YouTube)

As you can see, this bowl doesn’t limit access to only one cat, so you would want to use it in a situation where all of your cats are eating the same diet. (SureFeed does make a bowl that limits access to a single cat. More about that here.)

The bowl has a training mode where the door only has limited motion so that you can gradually get your cat accustomed to something on their bowl moving like that. Since Pierre has been eating from a SureFeed microchip bowl for about eight months, we didn’t have to go through the introduction process for this bowl, but he learned in less than a week with his previous bowl using the same gradual process.

I did notice that this bowl is very quiet. When Pierre finishes eating and steps away from his usual bowl, I’m accustomed to hearing it from all the way at my desk in the next room, but the SureFeed sealed pet bowl is so quiet I couldn’t hear it from a room away.

SureFeed Sealed Pet Bowl Really Does Keep Moist Food Fresher

I was kind of skeptical about how well the SureFeed sealed pet bowl worked to keep food fresh. I mean, how sealed could that hinged top really be? So I put half a can of cat food on a saucer and the other half in the SureFeed bowl, then I left it in my spare bathroom.

You may remember we wrote before about Newton and Pierre objecting to a closed door in the house, and some of you wondered what was behind the door. Those photos were of frustrated kitties who could smell the food in the open saucer for nine hours while it was sitting in the bathroom for this test. Cats have an amazing sense of smell, so maybe the two of them could smell the food inside the sealed SureFeed bowl, too, but I can’t smell it when the bowl is closed. That led keeps in smells and keeps flying insects out when it is shut since it sits snugly over the bowl against the silicone lip of the bowl.

So how did the SureFeed bowl do for keeping the food fresh? You can see that the food left on the plate for hours had dark, crusty parts from exposure to the air, while the food that spent that time closed in the SureFeed sealed feeder still looked moist and fresh.

I was surprised at how fresh the food looked, since I expected it to look a little worse for wear, but the bowl sealed it up really well.

Fresher food has to be healthier for slow-eating cats, so that’s a paws-up win for everyone.

FTC Disclosure: We were compensated to review the SureFeed sealed pet bowl. The opinions in this review are our own and not influenced by any outsider. We receive no additional benefits for talking about the product or company.

Defeating Shedding the Eazee Way

Tips for the Deshedding

Eazee Deshedding Tool Giveaway

Hiding Treasures in the Vittles Vault

Vittles Vault Solution 1: Leftover Litter

Vittles Vault Solution 2: Treat Break-Ins

The Dreaded Dingleberry Problem

Keeping Moist Food Fresh With the SureFeed Sealed Pet Bowl

Why is Moist Food Important?

Keeping Moist Food Fresh with the SureFeed Sealed Pet Bowl

SureFeed Sealed Pet Bowl Really Does Keep Moist Food Fresher

All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer

Policies