Brushing cat that gets overstimulated by touch
I adopted my cat when she was 1 years old from a coworker. She either was under socialized as kitten and/or treated poorly. The person who I adopted her from was a huge drinker/partier and was probably gone most evenings and had 4 other roommates who she stated all did not like cats. For whatever reason due to her upbringing, she is very particular about being touched and gets overstimulated easily. She is very particular about only being touched when it's on her terms and gets upset (swats, meows, bites) if she is touched when she doesn't want to be. She is way more tolerant of me petting her than anyone but I still have to stop after a certain amount of time or she gets upset. I also have to watch her body language and only pet her when she is in the right mood. She prefers head and chin pets over anything.
So the problem I'm running into is with brushing. I'm not really sure if there is anyway to fix this but I figured I would see if anyone has any creative ideas. I brush her with a wide tooth comb. This seems to work best since it's more gentle. I only brush her when she comes to me for pets and when she starts to wag tail or back twitches then I stop. This works well, however she has been shedding a lot lately with it getting warmer and she still has tons of loose fur on her that I can't get and she does get hairballs sometimes. Using treats as positive reinforcement does not work for her. She usually will eat the first few times of me doing and then stop eating treats after she realizes that I'm trying to associate task with the treat. Even with her all time favorite treats. She is very smart. Any other ideas that might help?