Review of the FURminator

by Alexa Campos

Well I finally did it. I took the plunge and went for the gusto in my battle against furrballs gone wild.
I got the FURminator, a pet hair deshedding tool.

Hmm interesting-looking contraption. Reminds me of a modern hybrid between sheep sheers (or what I imagine sheep sheers to look like) and oversized shaving razor for humans.

With six cats and a dog in a small house, the fur is everywhere. I love pets but draw the line at my home- turned- jungle pet hair.  The goal is when strangers walk in, they have no inkling that I have six cats (seven is the new crazy cat lady limit by the way).  You see I vacuum my house DAILY, religiously.  It makes a difference for my sanity, my border-line obsession to have a clean home, and my husband's allergies to pet dander.

Now for victim, I mean tester #1--CJ (Curious Jorge). Those round green trusting eyes--aah little does he know until I whip out the FURminator. His eyes widen. A toy? His paw extends to touch it...Then I start scratching his head to distract him while I take the first FURminating stroke. YIKES--that's a lot of fur!   Did I do it right? Did I hurt CJ? No worries, he was fine and seemed to want more. Frisky fella.  Instructions?  Silly me, I misplaced the DVD that came with it when I ripped open the plastic packaging.

Curious Jorge--tester #1 of the FURminator

I was amazed at the amount of fur and visible dander! I had never seen the dander on any of my pets except for Darth Vader who's jet black hair is speckled with dander towards his lower back where obviously he can't lick there.

After 8-10 strokes on one cat

But what about preventing hairballs? Well I FURminated Bella who's always grooming herself and appears to cough up more hairballs than the other cats.  But then I realized she's licking her belly and legs. Can I apply the FURminator to the tummy? Where are those darn instructions?

 I decided the best way to test the efficacy of the FURminator was to use it consistently for two weeks on each pet.  Bottomline results:

On the plus side I was able to reduce my vacuuming to every other day. That's huge.  Now you're probably calculating it takes as much or more time to FURminate six cats as it does to vacuum an entire house. Well you're right. However, the vacuum is the monster and cats scamper under the beds (unless you're Darth Vader and he observes with laser precision and eery calm from his perch--a bed, a suitcase..).  So this means less appearances by the monster a little less anxiety. For me vacuuming daily has caused severe tennis elbow and further complications.  So I would rather spend that time bonding with my cats ironically with a tool that rhymes with the Terminator, and at the same time remove excess fur and dander.

Another plus: I didn't tell my husband and FURminated during the day while he was at the office and sure enough he commented that his dependency on allergy meds has lessened. This was the best news of all!

Now in terms of hairballs I can not say with certainty that it alleviated the hairballs as I was reluctant to FURminate the belly region or towards the genitals where most pets lick. 

I highly recommend this product if you have cats or dogs.  Consistent use makes a difference.

Now the price. When I visited my local Petsmart it was $49--ouch. After some online research I discovered that retailers such as AMAZON offer it for 60% less!  Click on this link to get yours for about $14 and free shipping. (This one does not include the DVD but you can visit their website for instructional help.) PLUS, if you order through the link above, our nonprofit receives a small percentage so you are helping your pets and our homeless pets find homes!

What do you think? Have you tried the FURminator? Click on comment below and share with us!