First thing first, fursuits are wearable art. Art can be delicate at times. Know that seam rips and damage is inevitable- but also know that with proper care, a fursuit can last a lot longer!

DO NOT APPLY ANY HEAT TO YOUR FURSUIT. I will repeat this several times. Do not leave your fursuit anywhere hot (like a car) for extended periods. The fur will become heat damaged and that is irreversible! I have a slide at the end of the care guide with images showing heat damaged fur and how it looks.

ALWAYS use COLD water. NEVER hot or even warm (to be safe). Heat can irreversibly damage your fursuit! Always store it in a cool, dry place when not wearing it.

NO part of your fursuit can go into a dryer. Fan dry only! Not even a tumble dry. I've seen dryers mess up suits even if they put it on tumble only!

When putting parts in the washer, always put it on DELICATE. The agitator could rip your fursuit!

Always use a slicker brush and brush the direction the fur is going. If brushed the wrong way, the fur can get matted, frizzy, and overall unappealing to look at.

Brush your fursuit often! If left neglected, the fur can become matted and/or frizzy. Brush after every wear, cleaning, and every so often even if you’re not using it.

If there is felt on your suit, try to avoid brushing it or it will “pill” and become unappealing.

Deep clean your fursuit after a big outing like a convention or meet. Wash your furusit if you've sweat in it a lot or got it dirty. Washing (and especially brushing) your suit often will keep it looking fresh and clean for a long, long time!

Fursuit spray is great. You don’t have to deep clean after every wear, but you do have to disinfect with fursuit spray of some sort to kill bacteria.

You can buy fursuit spray on Etsy or at conventions usually- or make it yourself! The recipe is: ½ water, ½ 50% isopropyl alcohol, and essential oils of choice (for scent). USE NO DYES WHATSOEVER. Then put it in a spray bottle of some kind!

If your fursuit has electronics (LED eyes, cooling fan, etc.), you may not soak it. You can only use fursuit spray or a Little Green Machine. Take the batteries out before washing and make sure its completely dry (1 full day) before attempting to use the electronics again.

If your fursuit head has bendable ears, do not soak the ears. The wires that make them bendable could rust!

Your fursuit head cannot go into the washing machine

You must wash your fursuit head using the tub method or the green machine method. The tub method is when you fill the tub full of cold water, add a splash of detergent, and then soak the fursuit head and brush the fursuit while it’s in the tub.

Before putting the fursuit in, put rags in the eyes to protect the paint on them.

Do not soak for very long. Rinse the fursuit out with water, and try to squeeze the excess water out. It will be VERY heavy with water, so this is a two-handed job so none of the foam rips from the weight.

You can put the head in the washer on a spin cycle only. make sure it's set to delicate so the agitator is off! This helps with removing the excess water so it dries quicker and has less weight.

For the Green Machine method, fill the green machine with cold water, add a splash of laundry detergent, and spray the soapy mixture over the suit. Use the vacuum to suck the soap out of the sprayed spots, doing this about 3 times. Once clean, empty the soapy mixture and fill it with just water. Repeat the steps of soaking and vacuuming until it no longer pulls soapy mixture up.

Put the head in front of a fan on high- with the fan pointing into the inside of the head to start.

Brush the fursuit immediately after taking it out, then every few hours after that. Rotate it every few hours as well so every part of it gets dry.

Do not remove from the fan until COMPLETELY dry. We don't want a moldy fursuit (ew)

Fursuit hands can go into the washing machine on cold and delicate only.

To wash the hands in a machine, I recommend getting a laundry bag. If you don’t have one, turn the paws inside out.

To dry, turn back right-side out, brush, then place the hands with the open end facing the fan. Brush them immediately after taking them out of the machine and let them dry completely in front of the fan.

Do not remove from the fan until COMPLETELY dry. We don't want a moldy fursuit (ew)

They cannot go into the dryer whatsoever.

Alternatively, you can use the tub or green machine methods (mentioned in the head and feet section)

Feet can only be washed using the tub or green machine method.

Fill a bathtub full of cold water, put a splash of detergent, and soak the feet in the tub while brushing in the detergent with a brush. Do not soak for too terribly long, though. Try to squeeze the excess water out. It will be VERY heavy with water, so this is a two-handed job so none of the foam rips from the weight.

You can put the feet in the washer on a spin cycle only. make sure it's set to delicate so the agitator is off! This helps with removing the excess water so it dries quicker and has less weight.

For the Green Machine method, fill the green machine with cold water, add a splash of laundry detergent, and spray the soapy mixture over the suit. Use the vacuum to suck the soap out of the sprayed spots, doing this about 3 times. Once clean, empty the soapy mixture and fill it with just water. Repeat the steps of soaking and vacuuming until it no longer pulls soapy mixture up.

Rinse the detergent off, then brush the feet again and put in front of a fan, with the fan pointing at the inside of the feet to start.

Brush the feet every few hours as they dry, and rotate them so the fan is drying a different area every few hours as well.

Do not remove from the fan until COMPLETELY dry. We don't want a moldy fursuit (ew)

If you have indoor digitigrade feetpaws, they will take a lot longer to dry. Point a fan at them for a long time, and make absolutely sure they are dry before taking them away from the fan.

Your tail can either be washed using a washing machine on cold and delicate, green machine, or the tub method (mentioned in the head and feet sections)

If washing using a washing machine, I recommend getting a laundry bag to put it in since the tail cannot be turned inside out

Once out of the machine or tub, brush it thoroughly and put it in front of a fan. It cannot go into a dryer.

Brush and rotate the tail every few hours as it dries.

Do not remove from the fan until COMPLETELY dry. We don't want a moldy fursuit (ew)

Your bodysuit can either be washed in a machine, green machine, or washed using the tub method (mentioned in the head and feet sections).

If washed in a machine, turn the suit inside out and remove the stuffing from the padding (if applicable). Put it on cold and delicate.

Once done washing, turn the suit back right-side out and brush it. Hang the suit on something (like the back of a door or a rack of some kind), and point a fan at it on high.

Brush the suit every few hours and turn it every few hours as well as it dries.

If you have padding, put the padding in front of the fan as well to dry.

Do not remove from the fan until COMPLETELY dry. We don't want a moldy fursuit (ew)

The same above is true for arm and/or leg sleeves.

I recommend using a box fan, preferably 2-3 at a time depending on how many parts you have drying at a time.

Brush regularly as the suit is drying. Once the fur is dried, it stays the way it was when it was wet. It's super important to brush it immediately after washing so it doesn't dry ugly.

For heads, what I do is have one pointing up inside the head, and another pointing at the face. If you only have one, point the fan inside the head to start, and rotate every 2 hours or so.

For feet, I have the fan pointing inside of the feet towards the shoes to start. It is very important the shoes get dried properly, or they could start to smell. Rotate after about 3 hours to dry the fronts of the feet. If you have sock paws, drying could take multiple days as the stuffing inside soaks up a lot of water!

For bodysuits, I hang the body on a rack of some sort, and have one fan pointing at the front and another at the back. If you only have one fan, rotate the bodysuit every few hours so every angle gets dried. Bodysuits can take up to 8 hours to dry.

For the bodysuit padding (if applicable), take the stuffing out and dry the fabric for the padding in front of a fan. It shouldn't take too long to dry. Do not wash with the stuffing in the padding, it makes it easier to dry later!

For hands, point the fan into the inside of the hands to start. After an hour or so, flip to another side and brush every time you flip. Hands take only a few hours to dry.

If you can, wash your suit in sections so you can optimize the fan usage! For me, I wash the head and hands first, dry, wash the feet, dry, then wash the bodysuit and dry.

Make sure every part is BONE DRY before storing it away. The worst case that can happen is mold growth, and that's extremely dangerous and not fixable.

Slicker Brush. This is a need. In order to keep your suit nice, you NEED to brush it regularly. These can be bought online, or in any pet section of a store.

Box fan. This is a need for drying your suits. I recommend actually getting 2-3 depending on how many suits and parts you have!

Fursuit spray. This is a need to keep your suit fresh between deep washes! This specific spray is by Furragrances on Etsy!

Laundry Bag. These are useful for washing small parts like hands, so you don’t need to turn them inside out!

Little Green Machine. This is a handheld carpet cleaner and can be used to wash every single fursuit part you have as an alternative to the tub and washing machine method. Put normal (preferably gentle) laundry detergent in it (NOT the harsh cleaner they provide with the machine). They run around $100 at Walmart! Make sure to get the NOT heated version as well.

For the Green Machine method, fill the green machine with cold water, add a splash of gentle laundry detergent, and spray the soapy mixture over the suit.

Do not use the harsh chemical detergent provided with the machine. Throw that away!

Use the vacuum to suck the soap out of the sprayed spots, doing this about 3 times over the suit.

Once clean, empty the soapy mixture and fill it with just water.

Repeat the steps of soaking and vacuuming until it no longer pulls soapy mixture up.

Brush the suit, then put it in front of a fan on high!

Link to buy a green machine:

The tub method is when you fill the tub full of cold water, add a splash of detergent, and then soak the fursuit head and brush the fursuit while it’s in the tub.

Before putting the fursuit in, put rags in the eyes to protect the paint on them. They are acrylic sealed, but this is just a precaution. If you have 2D eyes, disregard.

Do not soak for very long. Rinse the fursuit out with water, and try to squeeze the excess water out. It will be VERY heavy with water, so this is a two-handed job so none of the foam rips from the weight.

You can put the head in the washer on a spin cycle only. I highly recommend doing this! Make sure it's set to delicate so the agitator is off! This helps with removing the excess water so it dries quicker and has less weight.

Once the suit is done in the spin cycle, brush it immediately and then place it in front of a fan to dry.

Put the machine on COLD AND DELICATE

Turn parts that can be turned inside out, inside out. If you cannot turn them inside out, I recommend getting a laundry bag for the smaller parts such as the hands!

Use gentle laundry detergent for your fursuit! I recommend Woolite Delicates

Once done in the wash, you CANNOT put the parts in the dryer. No part of your fursuit can go in the dryer, period.

Turn the parts right-side-out and brush the fursuit parts immediately. The washing machine will make the fur extremely messed up, so brushing immediately makes sure the fur doesn't dry like that!

Place parts in front of a fan on high, brushing every so often and rotating them so all parts get dried.