How to tell when to bathe your Sphynx

[Jade]

Hi all!

I'm super new to the community and to being a Sphynx mom. I just got my Luna yesterday! I know that I will need to bathe her often, but I'm wondering if there's tell-tale signs of WHEN they need bathed and/or when an impromptu bath is necessary. Is it that you can literally tell that they are dirty? Is it when their skin feels oily? The breeder gave my girl a bath right before I picked her up, so maybe it's just because she seems so clean right now that I'm worried I won't be able to tell the difference. Any advice/suggestions?

 

[celsei]

Oh you'll know - you will literally see them get brown/rusty and/or smell cheesy. Another way to tell is rubbing a wet wipe over them and see if it gets brown. It depends on the sphynx how fast it happens, most pink/extra wrinkly ones seem to be dirtballs in a week at most but some others can go a month or more before the hoomahn decides they look too gross

 

[Sheldon13]

Lol. Yeah generally we bathe every 1-2 weeks here, but some people do it less often. It kinda depends on your kitty.


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[Toa and Ross]

If you want to know if you need to bath your sphynx, follow these steps:

1. Put on a white shirt
2. Pick your girl up
3. Hold her against you to cuddle for 5 seconds

Do you now have a brown shirt?
Then it's time to bath her

Do you doubt about the browness?
4. Hold your girl in front of your face
5. Snif

Do you smell mushrooms?

Then it's time to bath her!

Haha just kidding of course. My sphynx boys make brown stains already the day after they're bathed. And they always smell like mushrooms (have to admit I love the smell). So I could bath them everyday. But I never bath them more then once a month. The more you bath them the more oily they get.

For her first bath I would at least wait till you have her 2-3 weeks and she feels comfy and trusts you.

 

[Catzzzmeow]

We have 3 naked babies. Our tuxedo starts to look orange, our other 2 get brown looking wrinkles. Above all their ears get very dark and waxy within a week...that is my tell tale sign. @Toa and Ross very funny....2 days after bath my shirts are covered wax...wouldn't want it any other way.

 

[celsei]

.. and yeah they start to stain your clothes and sheets a rusty brown color especially after toasty cuddles that can happen even after bath time but less so

 

[Maddie]

Astrid looks like she has cheeto dush on her when she needs a bath lol, the browness looks like it is dusted on. That is when she will start staining stuff if she rubs up on stuff.
You'll figure it out once you just watch for a bit but don't wash as soon as they look dirty: sphynxes magically become clean sometimes lol

 

[Lickleone]

Mine get a bath when they need it which between you and me hardly ever which probably proves the theory the more you do the more oils they make. Mine are permanently glued to my lap they've never left a mark on my clothing

 

[Sheldon13]

Are all the clothes you own colored brown or grey?


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[Buterfly54]

I bath mine every month, I take them to an awesome place and the clean their ears, cut their nails and bath their lil bodies. I sometimes can go longer. But, it has a lot to do with what you feed them. When I got my lil ones it was weekly and they smelled. But, since I changed a lot to their diet they seem to last much longer.


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[Lickleone]

Are all the clothes you own colored brown or grey?


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Nope

 

[Zyra]

Hi! Welcome, fellow new mother! Have you made an introductory thread for Luna yet?

I think your question has already been answered pretty well. Generally I think weekly is a good place to start re bathing a kitten - my Neech starts to get a bit smelly and leaves red stains everywhere after this point. It may transpire your sphynx needs to be bathed more or less regularly than this. If your sphynx begins to produce far more oils than is normal and adopts a grubby appearance, you are likely over bathing.

I have heard oil, particularly coconut oil, is good to loosen dirt and retain moisture through bathing. We use olive oil.

 

[Jade]

WOW! Thanks for all the answers! I feel pretty confident now in recognizing when she's gonna need a bath Y'all are the best! And just because every thread should have a cute Sphynx Kitten photo...

 

[nudieluvr]

@Toa and Ross How do you even own white anything with sphynx??? LOL. I swore off white a while ago. Between owning sphynx and a horse it just doesn't work out! I only own my white wedding dress (which is nicely preserved) and white shirts I unfortunately need for work. Otherwise NO white anything!!!

@Lickleone I'm with you on the bathing. I think they do pretty well when they aren't constantly bathed. (Unless they need it of course)

My crew is bathed as needed. Honestly, they don't get too dirty looking ever. I do wipe them down every once in a while. Yes, there is a bit of brown grease but nothing over the top. I think diet helps a lot too. It really does vary from cat to cat though!

 

[celsei]

WOW! Thanks for all the answers! I feel pretty confident now in recognizing when she's gonna need a bath Y'all are the best! And just because every thread should have a cute Sphynx Kitten photo...

View attachment 78213

What a cutie! Yeah that pinkie is gonna get nice and rusty when she's ready for bath time. My dark ones are a bit better at hiding their grub, they start to smell before they look dirty (I also usually only bathe once a month or so)

 

[Legmaker72]

Can you give us some feedback on the diet you mention ?
Thanks !

I bath mine every month, I take them to an awesome place and the clean their ears, cut their nails and bath their lil bodies. I sometimes can go longer. But, it has a lot to do with what you feed them. When I got my lil ones it was weekly and they smelled. But, since I changed a lot to their diet they seem to last much longer.


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[Buterfly54]

Sphynx are very particular and get sick very easily. When I got my lil ones they were very sick and I did not know it. They basically came from a breeder that fed them fancy feast and tap water. I thought that was the right thing to do so I continued until I started to do more research. I completely changed everything he was doing. I will post pictures of the food I give my cats and remember every cat is different. Both my cats are from the same litter. I know Raw is definitely the route to go but my kiddos did not like it. So, I had to find another alternative. I feed them the kibble in the morning, this kibble has no meal. None of your food should ever have meal in it because technically it's not the real meal. It should say chicken, fish or the real deal. At night I give them the wet food and this is the best one I found which has the tuna itself with water. You can't get any better than that, I also put a pinch of organic turmeric and mix it in. I also give them Alkaline water, fermented goats milk (which they love), raw coconut oil, ghee, a tinture made just for cats respiratory system, colloidal silver in their water (20ppm) and I also drop some in their eyes. The place I take them to bathe uses a gentle soap on them, I will put picture on the bottom. If you have any more questions just ask, my kiddos were pretty sick when I got them 4 months ago. I am still trying to get rid of the last symptom with one of them but I know my babies will live a long time.

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[Buterfly54]

I also forgot to mention about regular litter, I recommend clay litter. Never use scoop-able litter. First of all, when the litter gets wet it cements. When cats use the scoop-able litter it gets in-between their paws and they lick it off and it can cement in their intestines. Second, scoop-able litter is not as sanitary as the feces is removed, but all the bacteria and germs remain. I highly recommend changing litter boxes often and letting them soak in boiling hot water with vinegar. Best!!! Yes I LOVE LOVE my boys!!


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[Maddie]

@Buterfly54 you should see if you can get Stella and Chewy's freeze dried raw. haven't tried the kitty one yet but the family puppy loves it. You can feed the pieces like kibble or slowly add water to it so they get used to raw.

 

[Buterfly54]

Tried it and Marley backed up and the other one just starred at it. Then I tried it again and Marley didn't like the smell or texture and my other kitty got diarrhea from it.


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[Maddie]

Awe thats too bad

 

[celsei]

I would be careful about feeding such a high amount of fish especially tuna and they definitely should not be eating only fish based food, it's not a natural diet for cats and has health concerns. Why Fish is Dangerous for Cats | Little Big Cat

Today’s best cat foods–reviews of canned and raw options
Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition

A list of quality foods with analysis and basics about nutrition in second link.

The quality/health ranking generally goes raw > freezedried (and rehydrated as fed) > airdied (doesn't rehydrate well but otherwise good quality) > canned (read the ingredients! first ingredient must be something like "chicken" not "animal byproduct meal" and no grain) > kibble (very bad for hydration, heavily heat processed, made of lowest quality ingredients. if you must feed it again read the ingredients)

The ingredient list is VERY important, there is next to no regulation in pet food so the package saying "CHICKEN" in large print with a large picture of chicken breast generally means "animal byproduct meal with minimum 4% chicken" and this will be stated at the back. 0% of that will be chicken breast, it will be beaks, leftovers from human meat processing, euthanized/sick on arrival animals, bones, etc. Same as in human food the less you can see what is in the food the lower quality it is. No one is going to put quality meat in chicken nuggets when they can get away with it being essentially sawdust, whereas unprocessed chicken breast must be chicken breast.

Proven by a study from Harvard: Incestuous Pet Food Regulation Allows Consumers to Feed their Pets Ring Dings and Krispy Kremes

And please don't forget that cats need water in their food Water - An Essential Nutrient for Our Cats' Health, same as you wouldn't feel very hydrated eating only dry cereal all day a 100% of cats eating only kibble are chronically dehyrated.

According to the Nutrition Research Council's "Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats", (on which AAFCO nutrient requirements are based), a cat can maintain a hydrated state as long as the moisture level of the food meets or exceeds 63%, as fed (as they’re dehydrated at 61%).

The moisture content of cat foods varies dramatically:

- See more at: Water - An Essential Nutrient for Our Cats' Health

Study Confirms that Dry Food Increases Risk of Diabetes for Cats - The Conscious Cat

Best dry cat foods (with caveats)

 

[Maddie]

@celsei that Harvard paper is not a study. Looks to be some kids third year research paper. All it is is a accumulation of evidence this one guy decided to present. Does not make it bad, it's just not what you are implying it is. It is taking other people's info and talking about it, which can be a study but there is no methods in the paper meaning the kid didn't do it as an actual study. Among other weird set up things. There is a way to take information and do it but that's not it from my experience. Plus big red flag, it's one guy and has not be published in a peer review journal.
So creditable information but it is not a study by Harvard.

The guy actually says it's a paper in his abstract: "This paper will examine the ways in which inadequate regulation results in confused consumers and sick, malnourished pets. Ultimately this paper seeks to reveal that multiple parties, including consumers themselves, share the blame for the current muddled state of regulation."

Very interesting information though! Not trying to be snotty, just that saying it's a study by Harvard holds a lot of weight but it doesn't appear to actually be that.

 

[Buterfly54]

Agreed Maddie, this works for my babies and I did state that in my reply. I also stated kibble is not the best but this kibble is the best I have found. I've done a lot of research and my cats are Not allergic to fish. Their natural veterinarian did a test. Once again, this is what is good for my babies not everyone.


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[celsei]

Agreed Maddie, this works for my babies and I did state that in my reply. I also stated kibble is not the best but this kibble is the best I have found. I've done a lot of research and my cats are Not allergic to fish. Their natural veterinarian did a test. Once again, this is what is good for my babies not everyone.


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It's not that they're allergic to it, it's just that a 100% fish diet or even primarily fish diet is universally discouraged for all cats (especially tuna, salmon and large predator fish) due to mercurcy content and pollution issues. Same as tuna is discouraged for prengant or breastfeeding women. Cats are a lot smaller and more sensitive to it than we are. It's fine to feed in smaller amounts just not *all* of their food *all* of the time as it adds up. It also dramatically increases the risk of yellow fat/fatty liver disease. Commercial brands do try to make up for the health risks of feeding fish but personally I would not risk it, as it is just an extra unnecessary risk you do not have when feeding species appropriate protein.


CAB Direct
"Abstract : Nine kittens, from 6 to 8 weeks old, were fed on a commercial canned cat food, which consisted largely of fish. The animals grew well at first, but after 6 weeks 2 lost their vitality and appetite and died. The remaining kittens were killed after 8 weeks. Severe steatitis, indicated by an orangebrown colour in all the fat depots, was found in both the animals that died. Histological examination of the affected tissues revealed the deposition of acid-fast pigment, and the presence of many mononuclear cells, mostly macrophages. In one of the other kittens the omental and mesenteric fat was brown, but elsewhere the fat depots were normal."

Neurological changes in cats following long-term diet of mercury contaminated tuna
"Young kittens of both sexes were fed daily with mercury contaminated tuna (containing about 0.5 ppm mercury). Neurological disturbances similar to those in Minamata disease or in experimental mercury intoxication (ataxia, weakness and incoordination of movements) were observed after 7–11 months of the experimental course. Microscopic examination revealed degenerations of the granular layer and some Purkinje neurons in the cerebellum. Neuronal necrosis was also observed in the cerebral cortex. The present investigation suggests that fish containing 0.5 ppm mercury (U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved level) may still be potentially hazardous to health when consumed in excessive amounts for prolonged periods of time."