More Recycling Ideas: Uses for Cat Fur
Posted by About.com Cats
Cold winter weather makes for excess cat hair, which is copiously shed in Spring, as demonstrated by this pile of cat fur brushed from HOSTDru's five cats
Photo Credit: © HOSTDru. It also makes for excess hairballs, which can be avoided with regular brushing. The FURminator is an excellent tool for gleaning out all that loose undercoat.
But what do you do with all that cat hair? Inspired by HOSTDru's photo, HOSTPat started a new Discussion on Clever Uses for Cat Hair. Of course using "cat hair as a condiment" makes for funny conversation, but HOSTPat suggested gathering the hair and distributing bunches of it outside among tree branches as nesting material for birds, a great idea. Other forum members discussed the concept of spinning cat fur into yarn, which is not all that far-fetched. I have an exquisite knitted shawl, made from dog hair, spun with died mohair. At the time I purchased it, several decades ago, we were exhibiting Afghan Hounds, and I accumulated 15 paper grocery bags of the soft undercoat of those dogs. I didn't pursue the idea. However, now there is a company called VIP Fibers, which will spin your dogs' or cats' hair into yarn. It's fairly pricey, starting at $14 for one ounce of sport-weight yarn. But what a wonderful way to have a keepsake of your cat, in the form of a knitted cap, gloves, or other apparel. You could even copy that old saying, "Cat fur makes kitten britches," which my dear mom use to reply when I asked her "What fur?"
Surely there must be other uses for recycled cat fur. Let's put our collective heads together and come up with some original ideas. I'll accumulate the best of the bunch in a new list for this site. You can post your comments here or in the forum discussion.
More Recycling Ideas: Uses for Cat Fur originally appeared on About.com Cats on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 14:06:54.