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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.

Sofa Encounter

Many of you asked how the resident cats were doing with a new kitten in the house.

Cupcake has a serious case of hero worship with all of the big kitties and wants to be near them, but she is respectful when they tell her to back off. The only times things can get tense is when she surprises them at close range.

This happened over the weekend with Ashton, and I happened to have my cell phone to catch some grainy photos of the encounter.

tuxedo kitten lurks behind one-eyed brown tabby cat

Ashton got suspicious that someone was behind her, but she was patient about it at first.

one-eyed brown tabby cat notices tuxedo kitten

Knowing that Cupcake was on the move behind her was stressful, though.

tuxedo kitten walks behind one-eyed brown tabby cat

When Cupcake tried to walk too close to her, it was too much for Ashton.

one-eyed brown tabby cat watches tuxedo kitten

Cupcake was fine after Ashton gave her a whack for coming too close, but she kept more of a distance afterward, which is exactly the message Ashton was trying to get across to her.

one-eyed brown tabby cat whaps tuxedo kitten

Everyone is learning new boundaries with each other, but they’re all getting extra treats and attention in the process, so that part of it suits them all fine.

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