How do you prevent cat hair on bed sheets and covers?

I have noticed that the higher the thread count on bedsheets the more difficult it is to remove cat hair during washing. What do you do to cat hair proof your bedroom? Do special bedsheets exist?

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My Thoughts:

I couldn't resist adding a picture of Teddie with just her tail and back leg sticking out. She loves to hide when she's sleeping.

Reducing the amount of cat hair in the sheets and other fabrics is a tough one. I don't know of a line of sheets that won't attract cat hair. There is a line of fabric, though, that they make pet beds out of called Crypton (http://www.cryptonfabric.com/). They have mattress and pillow protectors, and I've got to figure they're going to have sheets if they don't already. It's supposed to be pretty resistant stuff.

I do know that fabrics with tighter weaves tend to fair better against the hairy little monsters. I have a duvet over a cotton comforter. That comforter will suck up cat hair like a magnet. The duvet, on the other hand, doesn't collect much at all (relatively speaking) and has a really tight weave. What it does collect, fortunately, is hard to spot unless you're looking for it. Still it requires a lot of lint rollers and some elbow grease to get the hair off it.

You can reduce your issue a bit by grooming your cat as often as possible. You can also get products that can help your cat to self groom more completely, which can cut down a lot on the amount of cat hair being spread around. Here are some of those products...

The Furminator will remove an enormous amount of the undercoat and can dramatically help with hair ball and shedding problems. This product comes highly recommended by those who have multiple cats and need to reduce the cat hair in the house.

FURminator

There are some other products for self grooming. There's at least one product, such as the Cat-A-Comb that attaches to the wall and allows your cat to get some of that hair off. That won't necessarily make vacuuming any easier, but it may keep some hair off the bedding.

Cat-A-Comb

Now, a couple of additional points that are worth mentioning. There are people recommending that you use dryer sheets to help remove pet hair. In fact, Catster even recommends it in their "Cat Owner's Manual" in the "Guidelines for Controlling Cat Hair." They mention fabric sprays for repelling cat hair, and using fabric softener sheets for removing cat hair from clothing.

The thing is, how does a cat's fur get clean? Anything that gets on your cat's fur, including what you bring in on your shoes, and whatever chemicals you treat your fabrics with, is going to be ingested, right?

Here's the problem... The Merck Veterinary Manual warns that cationic detergents (like that used in dryer sheets, fabric softeners, and so on), are toxic to cats.

Here's what the Bounce dryer sheets package says...

"contains cationic softeners and perfume" and "Keep out of reach of toddlers and pets to avoid accidental ingestion."

And here's what Merck says...

"Exposure to cationic detergents may result in local corrosive tissue injury as well as severe systemic effects. All species are susceptible. Cats are at increased risk of oral exposure due to grooming habits."

It goes on to compare the corrosive property to that of "alkaline corrosive agents." So, basically, it does the same thing to your cat's skin, eyes, and insides as Drano.

Also, interestingly enough, it's not recommended to use ammonia based cleaners around cats. Forgetting about any toxicity issues, if the cat smells ammonia (similar to urine), it may stimulate inappropriate urination. Many of these cationic products are ammonia derivatives. So, the next time someone's cat urinates on the bed instead of in the box, it might be due to ammonia based cationic detergents in some of the laundry products that is causing the problem!

OK rant over!

If anyone has any ideas about the best bedding or cat friendly product to repel cat hair, let's hear it!

-Kurt