I am quite fortunate that I’m not allergic to cats. Or I’d be one of the many people I meet who have cats, despite their allergies. They are happy to pass on their tricks and tips.

There’s no silver bullet; there’s really no such thing as a hypoallergenic cat who works for all people, though at least one company hopes you would be willing to pay quite a bit of money for one. But it seems it was all just a scam from the beginning.

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The culprit is glycoprotein Fel d 1, found in a cat’s skin and saliva. Most allergy-prone people who won’t give up their cats find that a mix of strategies will work best. These include:

Choose a naturally low-incidence breed. Some breeds produce less of the pesky glycoprotein, either genetically, or through a happy combination of coat types and grooming strategies. There’s a great roundup of such breeds here.

The Siberian, though a longer haired cat, produces less of the glycoprotein than any other breed, which shows it’s not the fur which creates problems; it’s the skin oils, and saliva, found on the fur. This Siberian breeder even offers fur samples to see how it goes.

Cats like the Sphynx don’t shed; Rexes don’t shed very much. This can be enough to help a cat lover keep their symptoms in check.

Choose wisely, alter early. Female cats produce less of the allergen, then comes altered male cats, and by far the most allergen production comes from unaltered males. So choosing girl cats and getting them altered (so they won’t attract any males) seems like a sensible plan.

However, most allergic cat people don’t have particular breeds or sexes, though they do sensibly alter. They manage with other tactics like:

Keeping up with grooming and bathing. Getting an easy care coat, and getting the cat used to baths, was cited as an important tool in their allergy battle.

While cats enjoy grooming more than bathing, both can be made easier with training and routines. Then what fur does escape will have less of the protein on it.

Feeding a raw diet. This produces dramatic results; everyone who uses this tactic raves about it. By feeding the cat a more natural, raw food, diet, it apparently reduces the allergens the cats produce. Many allergy sufferers report having as many as three cats eating a raw food diet, without triggering their symptoms.

If this sounds interesting, try the kits at Wild Kitty Homemade as a simple way to get started.

Lower the load. Most allergy sufferers have allergies to more than cats. They figure they are taking something for the pollen, dust, or other triggers anyway, might as well have cats.

But they also use air filters and frequent vacuuming to keep ahead of all their triggers. Running an air filter in the bedroom was the most frequently cited area where it made a real difference to their symptoms. Often, people are advised to keep cats out of the bedroom, but many people slept with their cats anyway, letting the air filter cover for them.

Reduce their sensitivity. While antihistamines block the allergy reaction in the body, some people will go for a series of treatments which will “retune” their body to disregard allergic triggers.

While it’s only anecdotal, many people who have had to cut wheat or corn out of their diets because of a dietary allergy report their total allergy sensitivities have decreased as a result.

These can be seen as serious steps to take, but some people find their health improves when they aren’t struggling with allergic reactions to so many things; and then cats become less problematical.

Because exposure to cats can actually decrease allergy symptoms; at least, to our cats. “Getting used to them” was actually mentioned as a strong contributor to allergy-free cat enjoyment; many people who finally got a cat despite their allergies found that after a few months, they needed to do far less to keep their symptoms in check than they expected. It was random exposure, not constant exposure, that caused them the most problems.

While I cannot recommend getting a cat when it would lead to a strong possibility of having to rehome the cat, it’s certainly possible to have allergies, and cats.

At least; that’s what so many people tell me.

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There’s more to choosing a cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See my CHOOSING A CAT.

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