Do Norwegian Forest Cats shed a lot?

No, Norwegian Forest Cats do not shed a lot. Or, to put it another way, they don't shed hair faster or more furiously than other domestic cats! All domestic cat shed hair even the hairless cats shed some hair because they are partly covered with very fine down hair fibres. Although of course they will shed a lot less!

Norwegian Forest Cat from Winterfyre Norwegian Forest Cats.

The fact of the matter is, the purebred cats, although they look very fancy and special, in terms of their anatomy and behaviour they are very ordinary or typical. Selective breeding which creates these fancy purebred cats does not touch up or have any impact upon nearly all the basic elements of the domestic cat. Selective breeding only changes the appearance of the cats slightly over time and sometimes it fixes a certain behaviour but only to a certain extent.

All the other basic functions of a domestic cat remain the same. Please don't think otherwise. This breed of cat has a medium-longhaired coat but that doesn't mean, to me, that they shed more. It just means that the hair strands are longer so when they do shed hair strands you get a bit more hair on your sofa or on the carpet. I don't think that is of any particular importance, however.

For the sake of completeness, shedding hair strands in domestic cats is triggered by the fact that there is more light during the warmer months and less light during the colder seasons when the days are shorter. It is the amount of ambient light which dictates whether a cat sheds fur or not. It is not directly related to heat which may surprise you.

If a cat is a full-time indoor cat they will shed all year round to the same amount because the ambient light is pretty well the same all year round. It is the indoor/outdoor cats which shed more during summer and during winter.