How is my cat not bald?

[RoJoHen]

Holy crap, she has been shedding so much the last couple months! It's getting out of control. Anytime I pet her a giant clump of hair comes with me. I realize it's warming up and she's shedding her winter hair, but good lord, this is ridiculous.

I just don't understand how she's not bald yet. If I was losing that much hair, I would certainly be bald.

 

[John Picard]

Holy crap, she has been shedding so much the last couple months! It's getting out of control. Anytime I pet her a giant clump of hair comes with me. I realize it's warming up and she's shedding her winter hair, but good lord, this is ridiculous.

I just don't understand how she's not bald yet. If I was losing that much hair, I would certainly be bald.

Winter coats are thicker on an animal than their summer coat.

 

[RoJoHen]

Yeah, the rolleyes was totally necessary there. Thanks for that, especially since I already said that in my fucking post.

 

[sojourner]

Holy crap, she has been shedding so much the last couple months! It's getting out of control. Anytime I pet her a giant clump of hair comes with me. I realize it's warming up and she's shedding her winter hair, but good lord, this is ridiculous.

I just don't understand how she's not bald yet. If I was losing that much hair, I would certainly be bald.

Winter coats are thicker on an animal than their summer coat.

No!?! Really? I never would have guessed that from the OP.

 

[Joshua Howard]

Your hair grows, and grows, and grows, and if some of it comes out, that is more or less accidental. In the case of a cat, it grows to a certain length over the course of a couple months and then ALL falls out. Imagine what it would be like if a tenth of your hair all fell out in the sink every week to make room for completely new folicles; then imagine further that your whole body is covered with hair just as densely as your head is.

You also have to take into account left over hair from previous hair growth cycles that got stuck and didn't fall out. If your cat isn't combed very frequently, it is like a walking rug that doubles in fabric mass every two months.

If you need more information concerning this, consult the ships computer banks, have an unassigned engineering team look into it, or just ask Data. As for me, I'm just some random guy in 10-forward.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I came out one morning and found cat fur all over the lounge room. I assume that the long-haired cat Georgy had got into a fight with my other male cat Spider. It was Georgy's fur all over the carpet. I don't know how I managed to sleep through a big cat fight. I got the vacuum cleaner out to suck up the fur and both cats bolted.

My cats don't shed all that much maybe because we don't get really cold winters here.

 

[Kestra]

Sometimes I wonder how I'm not bald. I feel like I shed way too much hair all the time, especially when it's long.

 

[kustirider2]

One of my cats hardly sheds at all, but the other, who is pretty chubby (still a baby), sheds so much it's crazy. He's not allowed on beds because his hair gets everywhere. Doesn't stop him sleeping in the clean laundry basket though

 

[RoJoHen]

Your hair grows, and grows, and grows, and if some of it comes out, that is more or less accidental. In the case of a cat, it grows to a certain length over the course of a couple months and then ALL falls out.

This is why I feel like she should be bald right now, but to look at her, you wouldn't think she's shedding at all. Her hair is just as thick as it ever was.

It must grow incredibly fast in order to replenish all that has fallen out.

 

[nevermore]

She's probably shedding mostly undercoat. One of my cats has some sort of fluffy breed in her background which has given her a super thick undercoat that basically comes out in clumps this time of year. I try to Furminate her once a week or so to reduce the amount that ends up on everything in the house and to make it possible to actually pet her without coming away with a handful of fur...

None of my other cats have ever shed nearly as much. In fact one hardly shed at all; the other sheds, but in a much more reasonable manner.

 

[mari]

Cat fur grows like tribbles. My sister combed our tortie for five minutes today and came away with a good 1.5" diameter ball. And I'm pretty sure she's up on my bed shedding another pound of fur right now.

Our other cat has shorter, coarser fur (she's a grey tiger) and doesn't seem to shed nearly as much. She's 18 (the other one is... 8?) so maybe that's a factor.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Are you sure you have only one Cat?