Pet Grooming Tools: ShedMonster vs. Dust Buffalo
Having pets often attracts small, innocuous creatures called dust bunnies. You’ve heard of them, right? They’re those fluffy little creatures who burrow under furniture and reproduce faster than one can rid the house of them. We have a bigger problem: a nuisance herd of wild, roaming dust buffalo.
DUST BUFFALO: WHAT ARE THEY?
Wild dust buffalo reproduce most prolifically in spring and fall when their diet of Newfoundland fur is most plentiful. They form stable clans of as many as 30 individuals with home ranges of 175 to 300 square feet. Their habitat includes under-table grazing areas, corners sheltered from strong winds, and dog bowl wading pools where they wade in to satisfy their thirst. Only known predators are the insatiable Shark vacuum and the pouncing orange tiger cat … until now.
THE HERD GETS DEFURRED
A new species called the ShedMonster has since arrived on our prairie and disrupted the herd. This pet de-shedding tool is comprised of two subspecies, ShedMonster for medium to long coats with longer teeth and a deeper bite, and ShedMonster for fine, short coats with short, close teeth (Amazon affiliate links).
Our ShedMonster feasts on the same Newfoundland dog hair that makes up the dust buffalo’s diet, but collects its food at a far greater rate, thus thinning the herd – and fast. This photo shows the ShedMonster’s full harvest from its host Newfoundland dog.
FOOTAGE OF THE SHEDMONSTER IN ACTION
The ShedMonster’s rounded teeth are designed to prevent scraping of the host’s skin while inside blades trim the nutritious undercoat free. Because this tool can be a bit ravenous, a gentler touch prevents pulling, but this is clearly a successful grooming tool for long-haired dogs and cats.
SHEDMONSTER BREEDS DIFFER IN APPETITE
While the long-hair ShedMonster effectively reduced our herd of nuisance dust buffalo, beware introducing the short-hair subspecies to your pet-friendly ecosystem. We find it lacks the same efficiency in herd reduction. (See Cat Chat Caren’s ShedMonster Review for an experience similar to our own.) Perhaps with the evolution of future generations, the short-hair subspecies can grow to be as beneficial as its long-hair cousin, but that time has yet to come.
INTRODUCE THE LONG HAIR SHEDMONSTER TO YOUR HERD
If you’d like one of your very own, you can find the ShedMonster on Amazon.com, at PetSmart and at ShedMonster.com.
Note: ShedMonster has provided us with a long and short hair grooming tool, free for review. The opinions stated herein are unbiased and based strictly on personal observation during hands-on use.
16 Responses to Pet Grooming Tools: ShedMonster vs. Dust Buffalo
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Aw, Shamus is such a good sport
His coat looks beautiful! I have a similar tool that I got a few years ago for Cali . . .it works great, but she doesn’t seem to appreciate it – she’s never really enjoying being brushed!
@julesmelfi Oh no! Really? I can’t imagine a dog that doesn’t like grooming. I pull Shamus’ tools from the drawer and he runs over, sits down and waits for me to start. When I’m through, he whines because I’ve stopped touching him. All our animals love it, really. Poor Cali. She doesn’t know what she’s missing! Maybe Shamus can drop a little whisper in her ear.
We actually picked one up for my dogs at Walmart. My lab – it works great. Fred my bloodhound broke out in a rash after using it and had to go on steroids and get a shot of them. sigh. We will stick with the furminator on him I guess but I do like that the fact that the prongs on it are curled down to protect their skin.
@terrellkari Wow. I wonder what Fred’s reaction was about. Sounds frightening! I’ll be sticking with the Furminator for my other three, but it just doesn’t dig deep enough into a dog whose coat is 8 inches long (at least on his butt) and ridiculously thick.
I was actually going to write a review of the shedmonster next week! I tried it on my pack of short coated dogs and cats and it was worthless (glad it wasn’t expensive). Even on my border collie mix, who has a double coat (and has longer fur than typical “smooth coats”), the shedmonster was useless. It worked well on a neighbor’s golden.
Glad it wasn’t just me who found it to be lacking with the short coated critters.
@successjustclicks I’m hearing this again and again. Glad it’s not just me too!
@Kim Clune I’ve used the furminator, shedzilla, and Furbuster and by far the furminator has been the best one out there for my pups.
I’ve suggested it to a few clients and they’ve had excellent results–even on a great pyr who was blowing her coat (befor the furminator the classroom looked like a winter wonderland after she left because her white fur was EVERYWHERE… after the furminator there were just a few stray clumps of fur on the floor)
@successjustclicks Yeah, the Furminator doesn’t work well enough on our Newf. We have one but it takes about 4 more strokes per area to use and, even then, I don’t feel like the job is done. Here is where ShedMonster (for long hair) shines.
I love the way you wrote this review.
All I have to say is Oh My God!!! I cannot believe the amount of hair that came off of Shamus!! Have you ever considered saving the fur and having it spun into yarn to make a sweater? I would love to do that my my dogs, but Jersey & Dexter have really short hair.
@doggiestylish Actually, Karen, I have three HUGE bags of fur that I’ve been saving just for that purpose. I’ve been looking for good carding tools that don’t cost a fortune (might borrow some) and I’m interested in learning to spin it myself. I crochet so this would be such an awesome treat!
Chiengora… Oh yeah.
@Kim Clune @doggiestylish That would be awesome! Try ebay, you can probably get some good tools for a reasonable price.
I think a heard of those dust buffalo has invaded our RV! I wonder how the ShedMonster would work on Buster. I’m assuming, based on the other comments, it would be better to stick with the FURminator for Ty.
@Amy@GoPetFriendly You’d like the Shedmonster for Buster. It goes a bit deeper than the Furminator. I still like the Furminator for our short-hair hound and cats, so yes, Ty would do best with that still..
@Amy@GoPetFriendly You’d like the Shedmonster for Buster. It goes a bit deeper than the Furminator. I still like the Furminator for our short-hair hound and cats, so yes, Ty would do best with that still..
Which one to buy? I see comments that say they bought from XXXXX store for their “lab” yet those stores only sell the med-long coat model. So how is that brush working on short haired animals? Why have a short haired model?