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Why Does My Cat Have Dandruff?
Article featured in City Kitty's June 2011 Newsletter

The Signs:
White Flakes are appearing in your cat's coat.
The skin is peeling
Itchy skin and scratching  

Your cat is constantly creating new skin cells and shedding old ones. The reason you don't usually see the flaky castoffs, is that there aren't a lot of them floating around at any one time. In pets with dandruff however, the skin-replacement cycle is vastly accelerated, causing the fur to become littered with a blizzard of little white flakes. Skin problems are a wake-up call from the body that something is wrong.  

Many skin problems are caused by the chemical additives and preservatives in commercial pet foods. Grains can also cause this as cats do not possess the enzyme to break down and utilize grains, so they turn into waste products. Getting your cat on a grain free can food may help. A folk remedy of undiluted vinegar rinse will kill a number of common organisms, including yeast, pseudomonas, and staphylococcus, within one to five minutes. At our salon we are now doing a natural salt scrub which has worked wonders on the cats. We can get rid of dander temporarily but health and diet are the root causes.