HOW TO CONTROL FELINE HAIRBALL USING DIETARY CELLULOSE.

Cellulose-enriched dry and wet cat foods make claims on hairball control. Research data indicate that supplemental dietary cellulose reduces hairball symptoms and raises fecal hair excretion in cats, but the type and amount of 
cellulose determine the efficacy.
 
  The Grooming behavior of cats is associated with the ingestion of fur and most of the swallowed, non-digestible hair passes through the gastrointestinal tract and is excreted with the feces. About 10% of short haired cats bring up hairballs periodically, the need being around twice as common in their long haired counterparts.     

Aggregates of hair formed in the stomach have reached a size that cannot enter the duodenum and will eventually be ejected by vomiting. Occasionally, fur masses obstruct the intestine and cause severe clinical signs and even potentially mortality.

 Normally, gastric hairball formation and elimination is harmless. 
Bringing up hairballs is common in pet cats and presents an unpleasant nuisance for many owners as they dislike the signs of vomiting, retching and coughing.

 This situation forms the basis for industrially produced cat foods with a hairball-control claim. 
When the pet food label declares the ingredients by individual names, powdered cellulose is usually found in the list.
 The hairball claim is often explained by the food formula moving hair through the digestive tract for fecal voiding. 

 The anti-hairball effect of dietary cellulose as shown in cats is based on two synergistic mechanisms; Cellulose may prevent the clustering of single strands of hair in the stomach, thereby increasing the transfer of loose hairs into the duodenum.

This effect may be greater for fibrillated cellulose prepared by modern and sophisticated milling technology and facilitating the formation of an insoluble fiber network.

 Cellulose ingestion also accelerates the transit of digesta and thus propels duodenal hair into the feces.

Together, the two mechanisms lead to the observed cellulose-induced fecal excretion of hair. An unchanged grooming behavior with ingestion of fur results in an increase in fecal hair excretion .
 This infers less formation of mats of hair in the stomach, Consequently there will be less vomiting of hairballs.
     Read about research at allaboutfeed.net