I don't know what would be considered normal, but when I brought my 2 short
hairs home form the shelter they where hacking pretty often and passed a
total of 5 hairballs between them in a short period of time.  I started
feeding them a Hairball formula dry food and the problem stopped. Could be
that they got all the crap out of their system. I have noticed that they
will start eating the HBF when they've been eating mice and or grooming
themselves  a lot. It's almost as if they now there might be some medicinal
value in that food. They always have the regular dry food available and eat
that and wet food as their main diet.

Stone

Sometimes, I think it depends on the cat. One of my short-haired cats
has a very plush coat, like a teddy bear. I brush her every day, give
her anti-hairball food, and provide the occasional fatty tidbit,  but
she still barfs up hairballs. By contrast, the other short-haired cat
and the medium/long-haired cat get brushed just once a week, and they
never have hairballs.