Our little monster, Libby (aka booger), is quite the drama queen when it comes to trimming her claws, and her claws grow pretty fast. Any tips on how to chill the cat out before trimming her claws? She's about a year and a half old, is there anything we can do to train her so that this isn't a problem as she gets older too?
2006-09-06 07:37:47 · 18 answers · asked by GLSigma3 6 in Pets ➔ Cats
Kudos to you for having paws with claws!!! And double kudos for wanting to learn how to trim them. Some cats are great about having their claws trimmed, others are convinced that the claw clipper is the murder weapon and you are OJ Simpson!
Believe it or not, using 2 people to execute a kitty-pedicure may not be the best idea. It may actually stress your cat out more than if you can finagle it on your own. Here's the best way that I've found. When your cat is standing or sitting the floor (not lying), approach it from behind on all 4s and straddle it from behind in a kneeling position. You should have kitty's body firmly between your legs with your knees right next to her face and your feet crossed behind you (so she can't back up). Don't actually sit with all your weight on kitty...that will hurt her! But use your legs to firmly control her so she cannot move away other than forward. You are basically going to trim her front claws from behind her. It sounds obscene but having her in this position will actually make her feel more secure. Also cats find a head-on approach much more threatening and stressful than one from behind. Grab her front paw one at a time, squeeze each paw pad so that the claw is extended and clip just the white tips (watch out for the pink part visible in the nail - that's the quick. If you clip the quick, kitty will bleed and feel pain.) Try and do it as quickly and in control as possible. Fumbling will just stress kitty out and make her think of OJ again. Your cat can sense your stress which will cause her stress, whereas if she senses you are in control, she will relax. If she tries to make an escape after one paw or one claw...let her go. Don't restrain her if she's really fighting you. If you let her go, before she is riddled with fear, she will never get to that point. She will learn that you will release her if she asks nicely by squirming just a little bit after allowing you to trim a claw or two. And after you release her, praise her like mad and tell her what a good, brave girl she is! (Cats have massive egos and stroking them goes a long way!) Try again in a few minutes. Straddle her from behind and try and clip another claw or 2. Again, let her go if she fights you, but not before triming at least one other claw. Release her, and praise her again. Keep doing this a little at a time, each time trying to get more claws at a time...maybe even an entire paw. Just remember, when you've gotten all those claws, brush her, pet her, give her a treat and sing her praises. The goal is to get it done with as little stress to you and her as possible. When you allow her some control and you maintain your control you will gain her trust and while she may not like it, she will tolerate it more and more with time. Good luck!
2006-09-06 08:33:08 · answer #1 · answered by Alleycat 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
My husband and I do this together, so you will need some help. We take a beach towel and lay it out flat on the floor. Lay the cat at one end of the towel with front arms and head on floor (above towl). Roll the cat up in the towel (not too tight). All that remains sticking out of the towel roll is the arms and head. This prevents the cat from trying to run away and getting scrached by the back claws. You can also get the back paws (claws) trimmed too. This works great for us. We also use this when cleaning ears but we secure all four paws for this task.
Hope this helps. Good luck!!!
2006-09-06 14:52:47 · answer #2 · answered by exxavier 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
What's worked for me is to have two people work at it. Have one pet and scratch and otherwise distract her. Get her all lovey and chilled. While in mid scratch, have the other move down and start gently rubbing her paws. You might be able to sneak in a claw or two before she notices, and maybe even the whole paw before she gets uptight. When she gets wound up, there are two options:
1) Have the first person just hold her steady and do the best pet/restrain multitask that they can while you continue on with the trimming, or...
2) Stop the trimming and continue petting or just let her go to chill out a bit and come back to another paw later.
2006-09-06 14:48:34 · answer #3 · answered by Trid 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If your cat acts up real bad then next time use a towel or blanket and wrap it around the cat. It will calm her and make it easier to clip the nails. Do it quick or she will be too upset and run away and hide the next time you have to clip her nails again. It also helps to extend/retract her claws by gently aqueezing her paws, makes it easier to clip. Make sure you never go below the quick of the nails(the white part) it hurts and she will bleed bad. Good luck! Worse come to worse? Take her to the groomers! :)
Oh yeah, after you are done, give her alot of loving and a treat wouldn't hurt either.
2006-09-06 14:50:04 · answer #4 · answered by peg 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
pet the cat while the clipper is near, and also use the clipper the stoke the cat. Get her used to the smell and appearance of the clippers. Don't always clip her claws when you have it in hand, make her at ease with it. You also may want to get a professional clipper, this is the clipper that does not have the hole in the center of it, but looks more like shrub shears, it may make it a little easier to use, and they only cost about 4 dollars from Wal-mart. After that its all luck of the draw. Good luck!
2006-09-06 14:44:10 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Usually kitties do not like their nails trimmed so usually it takes two people.. one to hold and the other to hold a particular paw and clip. When you clip, try to see under the translucent claw, the QUICK(which is the blood vessel part) and do not clip into that. I hope you have paw nail clippers as they work best.
2006-09-06 15:05:53 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is typically a two-person job, but I am somehow capable of getting our nearly 14lb. male's nails clipped by myself (he's pretty easy-going, so....).
I like everyone's suggestion of using a towel. I may try this when it comes time to trim my female's claws. There are also bags made to put your cat in for this purpose. You can find one here;
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/NavResults.cfm?N=2002+113036
And be sure to give her a treat when you're done!:)
2006-09-06 15:00:25 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hold her under your arm like a football, (try doing this when you aren't cutting her claws for her to get used to it), put your finger under her fingers & your thumb over her fingers. This will make her claws come out. Close your hand around her wrist. Clip away now!
Hold on for dear life! She sounds like she knows when the trimming is coming!
2006-09-06 14:46:43 · answer #8 · answered by lostintheclover 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
For my cat that gives me a hard time I usually use two people, one of us to hold her and the other to clip. Like someone else said, if she starts to struggle I stop and tell her how pretty she is and pet her alot. Once she settles I go back to clipping.
My other cat used to give me a hard time until he realized that he was going to be getting a treat afterwards. I give him something that he dosen't get often (cheese, and I swear he knows the word and knows what it means). So once I get done he runs out and goes to the fridge and starts meowing at me for his treat.
I also clip them in a room with a door and no where for them to hide (I use the bathroom). That way if they jump off of me or try to escape it's easy to find them and go at it again!
2006-09-06 21:42:46 · answer #9 · answered by valeriedleech 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
We clip all three of our cats nails ranging in age from 6 months to 5 years.... my hubby holds the kitty and gently holds a foot as I talk gently to the cat and very calmly clip her nails with gentle pressure on the toes/foot to help the nail stretch out.
Quite easy even with our 2 younger and more wild cats, it is very possible with another person and both being very calm and talking gently to the cat.
2006-09-06 14:50:28 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋