My cat is constantly losing hair and for quite a while i’ve been scratching my head over it. How do cats do it? I’m not talking about just a small amount of hair either, he loses a LOT of hair each day, if you’ve had one of those fat black and white cats you know what i’m talking about. He loses so much i’m amazed he hasn’t gone bald years ago. He seems to lose the same in the summer and winter also. So my question is this, why do cats lose so much hair? I guess it has something to do with the temperature but my cat loses the same in both seasons. Also, how can they grow hair back so quickly? My cat never seems to be short on hair, one small stroke will leave your hand covered in hair, ontop of what is already around him. And lastly, is there any “remedy” for this? Like some kind of medication/diet for him to stop losing so much hair?
Umm, this is completely unrelated, but I like your screen name (being an Ian and all)…
Actually, come to think of it, my whole body has a lot of hair that tends to grow back pretty quickly after losing it (you know, the occaisional mishap with fire, that sorta thing…really).
The hair that comes off your cat is dead. :::Forrest Gump::: And that’s all there is to say about that. :::end Forrest:::
We’ll give this question a bump and maybe one of the animal experts on the Board will see it. And there are tons of cat lovers here. If there’s an answer, they’ll have it.
I have two cats. I get up in the morning and there are clumps of cat fur all over the carpet. They like to tussle, thump each other and roll around, yowling and hissing. Rick, the black and white, must be winning, because most of the hair is gray. Mick outweighs Rick by a good five pounds, but Rick has the experience edge.
My cat also loses quite a bit of hair. Nothing to worry I would think, unless he developes bald spots. 
Peace,
mangeorge
Cats (and dogs) have an undercoat of hair that they use to keep warm during the winter. In the summer, they shed this to help keep them cool. Especially longhair cats, because long hair in cats is a man manipulated state. But either way, not to worry because they have soo much more hair than people do-and people shed hair too. I think we just happen to notice it more because when we pet them we get a good ol’ handful. However, there are some cats and dogs that hardly shed at all. Siamese cats and Poodle dogs for example. But I have no idea why not.
My cat has had a bad shedding problem and a lot of dandruff-like flakes on her coat. She has been tested repeatedly and I eventually sprung for a skin biopsy. The end result: it’s just one of those things.
My cat is allergic to a lot of foods and I have to give her a special diet, but that has only made the problem abate slightly.
Nevertheless, she’s a nice well-behaved cat who likes people.
She just doesn’t look as nice as other cats.
First, go to someone who is familiar with the problems of the feline portion of your community…Your VET would be a logical suggestion. There is always Rogaine.