Hey Pet Parents & Pet Lovers,
Similar to a post I wrote before about whether you can use dog shampoo on cats, let’s cover the non-pet specific soaps you can use on your kitty!
Precautions & Safety
The main precaution before using any product (or anything in general with pets) is making sure that they are made out of the most basic ingredients, and don’t have chemicals that are lethal to them. It’s a bit of a balancing act, especially since not all basic ingredients are fine to use on your pets. For example, I use vinegar to clean a lot of my fish stuff as well as household items that Beau chews on or has the potential to lick, but vinegar is much too acid to clean your cat with. And as covered in the previous article, some shampoos/soaps made for dogs are actually toxic to cats because of ingredients like peppermint, lavender, tea tree, jojoba, and glycerin.
Remember, like humans cats will absorb these products through their skin, and even after a few washes they may still have some on their coat which they will potentially lick and in turn digest. You want to be very, very safe when using non-pet specific products!
Human Shampoos (Specifically Baby Shampoo)
The first question people usually ask is, can I use human shampoo on my little ones? Actually, sometimes yes! You’re looking for human shampoos that are made for babies though. Make sure to read the ingredients thoroughly though, and if there are any that you don’t recognize or are on the list we’ve provided above, stay away or do some extra research! As always I recommend using cat branded shampoos since someone has already done the job of making sure it’s not toxic for your kitty, but I understand that we’re sometimes in a pinch or your local pet store is out of stock. A lot of baby shampoos are going to use dyes, fragrances and other detrimental ingredients and are some brands will even hide behind the word “natural” even when they are not fully natural, so do yourself a big favour and do some reading to make sure your cat is safe!
Natural Soaps
Sometimes we think that the word natural means non-toxic, but this isn’t 100% true. Some natural ingredients can actually harm your cat, so make sure you’re looking for soaps such as pure castile soap. These are made from olive oil bases and are both chemical free and dye free. When using these soaps make sure to rinse your cat very well until the water is clear. Since there are a number of oils in this kind of soap, the residue may be tart or unsettling for your cat, so you want to make sure that they’ve been given a good wash before they start trying to lick themselves later!
Dish Detergent
I know, I know, I covered this in the past article, but it’s still important to bring up. It is possible to find a dish detergent that is gentle enough and safe for your cat to use, and one of the most popular is Dawn. Now, I will say again that I wouldn’t use Dawn often as it is meant to take out oils and will dry out your cat’s skin when used long term. It is very effective when your cat has gotten too dirty for themselves to clean or has fleas (although the latter I can’t speak towards since I haven’t had that issue, but I have done a lot of digging on forums and petcare blogs which have all stated positive improvements against fleas.) Please remember you are looking for the original one as it is the gentlest and doesn’t have any ingredients your kitty can’t handle.
In conclusion
You are looking for main allergens when choosing whether or not to bathe your cat in a product. At the end of the day, these are all great substitutes for infrequent bathtimes, but if you’re looking for longterm use
Good information. Anxious pet parents sometimes forget that “skin breathing” thing… At our shelter, we did use the Original Dawn for a first bath (both dogs and cats/kittens) and a dose of Adams Spray to de-flea, followed by combing, picking off the fleas, and – if necessary – later on a little more Spray to kill the eggs. Checked ears for mites, too. Finally, we had clean, healthy and happy kitties ready for their forever-homes (after they were neutered/spayed).
Home remedies and cleaning products can be lethal for your new kitten. I devote a chapter in Pasha’s book to “Home, Sweet Home – May be Hazardous to Pets.”
I haven’t actually heard of Adams Spray before, but I’ll have to check it out! Luckily we’ve never had fleas before, but I’m sure it’s such a worry in shelters.
The only time I have fully bathed any of our kitties is when they were covered in fleas from where they had come from, which is dangerous for kittens. Simba, and Minko. got the wet treatment! MOL! But I did use a kitty specific ‘shampoo’. Then it was off to the vet for flea meds…but no way were they coming into the flea free den without a bath! (Let alone come in contact with the others here.)
Hahahaha! I’m so glad none of my kitties have gotten fleas. I’m so nervous they will one day (especially if I take them out for walks on harnesses) I’ll definitely have to look up how to prevent them and what time of day they’re most viscous!!
Great information. I am glad my cats haven’t needed a bath though 🙂
Haha! I’m glad too! It’s such a chore if you have to do it!
We don’t get baths but if we need spot washing, the mom uses a very mild soap.
That’s good to hear! You’re clean kitties
I’ll just keep hoping that I won’t have to wash any of my cats…it’s worked for this long…hehehehe!
Hahaha! Yeah, we try to avoid it as much as possible, but Beau has gotten himself in a few sticky situations we’ve had to clean.