Over grooming: How to help soothe your cat and calm this behavior down

Grooming is a normal behavior for your cat, and something they will spend many hours a day doing. When cats get stressed however, this behavior can tip over into overgrooming—cleaning the same area so diligently that the hair is pulled out and the skin gets irritated.

If your cat spends more than 50% of their time grooming (yes, cats do spend that much time grooming normally) or is getting excess hairballs or bald patches, it’s time to intervene. Here’s what you can do.

Start at the vets

Your pet is over grooming for a reason. It could be fleas or skin allergies are making their skin itchy, and they are trying to relieve it. They might be suffering pain somewhere, and find licking the area soothing. They may have a neurological issue that compels them to groom.

Without a thorough going over by a vet, you won’t know if the problem is due to health or not. If the vet finds a health issue, they can help address the underlying problem so that your cat no longer feels the need to over groom.

Other causes for over grooming

If the vet finds nothing, it’s possible your cat is grooming out of boredom or stress. It’s helpful to sit down and ask yourself if anything in your cat’s life has changed. Have you gotten another pet recently? Moved house? Blended a family?

Any big changes can mean stress for your cat. Your best bet is to help your pet cope as much as possible by keeping their routine the same, playing with your pet to help relieve stress, and creating a safe space they can retreat to where nothing scary happens to them.

Once you find and treat the underlying cause of over grooming, it usually disappears. Sometimes this is as simple as flea medication, while other times it can mean finding ways to help your pet cope through really stressful changes.