British Shorthair Grooming

About the British Shorthair

A British Shorthair has a short coat and an enormous amount of it. The coat is famously dense and plush, standing slightly away from the body rather than lying flat, with a full undercoat beneath a short crisp top layer. Running a hand through it feels closer to a plush toy than to a cat.

That density is the whole story. It almost never mats, because the hair is too short to tangle, and it sheds a great deal, because there is so much of it and it is cycling constantly.

Grooming one is therefore simple and worth doing: a comb through weekly, and a proper deshed a few times a year if you would rather the coat came out in a salon than into your sofa.

What a full groom involves

Short, and mostly about removing coat rather than shaping it.

A comb through with a fine toothed comb first, which on this coat has to actually reach the skin rather than skim the plush surface. Then a rubber curry or grooming glove worked in circles against the lie, which lifts loose undercoat that a comb alone leaves behind.

A bath is optional and worth it a few times a year: a deshedding shampoo and conditioner to swell and lift the undercoat, then a dryer on a low setting to drive the loosened hair out. The amount that leaves a short coated cat at this stage surprises people every time.

Then nails, ears and a look over the skin.

Under an hour. Many British Shorthairs are placid enough that an owner can do most of it at home.

Shedding is the whole job

Short does not mean low shedding, and with this breed it means close to the opposite. A British Shorthair drops a remarkable quantity of coat, and it does so steadily year round with heavier periods seasonally.

The hair also behaves badly once it is off the cat. Short, stiff and straight, it works into fabric point first and stays there, which is why it weaves into upholstery rather than sitting on top to be brushed off.

A weekly going over with a rubber curry or a grooming glove, worked in circles against the way the coat lies, lifts loose hair out ahead of schedule and most cats of this breed enjoy it. A fine comb once a week catches what the glove misses.

Hairballs follow directly, because everything a cat pulls out while self grooming it swallows. Combing is a more effective answer than any dietary product, because hair removed by a comb is never ingested. Repeated unproductive retching, lethargy or a cat that stops eating is a veterinary emergency rather than a hairball.

Sudden heavy shedding, thinning or bald patches outside the normal pattern belong at a veterinarian. Thyroid disease, parasites and allergies all show in the coat first.

Weight, and why it matters more here than in most cats

British Shorthairs are cobby, solid cats that gain weight easily, and this breed is one of the most common in veterinary obesity clinics. That is a grooming issue as much as a health one, and the mechanism is worth understanding.

A cat grooms itself by reaching. A heavier cat reaches less of itself, and the areas it stops reaching first are the lower back, the base of the tail and the hindquarters. On a long coated cat that produces mats. On a dense short coat like this one it produces something slightly different: a greasy, flaky, sometimes scurfy patch over the rump where the coat is no longer being managed, often with dandruff visible in the dark coats.

So a scruffy looking lower back on a British Shorthair is frequently the first visible sign that the cat can no longer reach it, and it is worth acting on rather than brushing away.

Arthritis does the same thing and is under-diagnosed in cats. An older cat that stops keeping its back end tidy is telling you something.

What moves the price

Very little on the coat, because there is no cutting and no dematting to speak of.

Where the cost sits is in finding somebody who takes cats at all, which is a smaller specialism than dog grooming, and in the time a particular cat needs. A placid British Shorthair, which most are, is a quick appointment. One that objects is priced for the time rather than rushed.

A deshedding bath costs more than a comb out and is worth it a few times a year on this coat specifically, because the dryer removes an amount of undercoat that no amount of home brushing matches.

Size adds a little at the top of the range: an eighteen pound British Shorthair is a substantial cat to handle and bathe.

What to tell your groomer

Ask for a deshed rather than anything involving clippers. There is no reason to clip this coat and a groomer reaching for a blade on a healthy British Shorthair is the wrong groomer.

Mention if the coat over the lower back has become greasy, flaky or scurfy, because that is usually about reach rather than about coat, and it points at weight or joints.

Say the weight when you book if the cat is at the larger end.

Ask whether the cat can be kept away from dogs and noise, which matters more for cats than for dogs and which any cat groomer will already have considered.

And ask them to check the nails. Indoor cats do not wear them down and this breed is not the most athletic, so they need clipping more often than an active cat's.

Keeping the coat between grooms

Common Questions About the British Shorthair