Claws getting caught

Hey, my third question here now, thanks for the help on my other ones guys! ^_^

I have two four month old kittens, the male (Gully) is one week younger than the female (Yoshi), and although he is much bigger than her (he eats too much), she kicks his arse when they play fight. She's also much, much better at running and jumping. I think his biggest problem with most play activities is that he seem to have trouble retracting his claws a lot of the time, like if he's chasing a toy he keeps his claws out pretty much all the time and you can hear the ripping sound of them against the carpet. Surely that doesn't help?

Also, he gets his claws stuck in most anything =P If he's playing of the bed then he'll usually get a claw stuck in the sheets, if he's on the windowsill then he'll get one stuck on the curtain nets etc. Then if he tries to go after something (like a toy) then he just swipes about with his other paw and pulls his stuck paw with no success.

Is there any reason for this or is he just stupid?

Willow had the same thing happen to her: she just didn't seem to grasp the concept of contracting her claws after she extracted them. So she'd get stuck everywhere. Sometimes it was handy, if I wanted to catch her and she couldn't get away from the chair she was attached to, but I worried that she would hurt herself by twisting the claws when trying to get away.

My cure: clip 'em. Give each itty bitty nail a snip or two and the velcro kitty is velcro no more! lol

Hee, thank you! That would probably work =P I wonder why I didn't think of it before... The good thing is that he is a dopey cat so clipping his claws should be easy enough. I'd just be worried about cutting them too far, but I will read up on it to make sure I know everything!

Maybe he'll be able to beat her up for once, or at least run away properly!

If you just cut off the very tip, you should be just fine, and he'll stop sticking to everything.

Originally Posted by Little_Pumpkin

Hee, thank you! That would probably work =P I wonder why I didn't think of it before... The good thing is that he is a dopey cat so clipping his claws should be easy enough. I'd just be worried about cutting them too far, but I will read up on it to make sure I know everything!

Maybe he'll be able to beat her up for once, or at least run away properly!

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Willow gets her arse kicked by our other kitty, Buffy. She could fight, but she's long since figured out that no matter what Willow does, Buffy won't stop attacking her. It eventually reached a point where Willow was reduced to hissing while running, with Buffy in hot pursuit. So now she just sits still and lets Buffy abuse her, lol (because a dull Willow makes for a boring toy )

In a house where kittens are present for at least 6 to 8 months of the year, I couldn't survive if I didn't clip little claws. I found that the regular sized clippers weren't easy to handle on the babies, so I bought one of those little human baby finger nail clippers. Since these old 40-something eyes of mine aren't the best anymore, I don't go any further than the very sharp little tip.

Best of luck,

~gf~

Yep, I recommend trimming nails too. It has worked very well for Izzie. I did use a pair of human nail clippers but they didn't cut as well as the little pair of cat size scissor clippers that I bought.

Thank you so much people! ^_^ I'm sure he's appreciate not being a velcro kitty, but I'm not sure how to get at his claws... I tried having a look at his paws the other day but cats don't like having them touched really, do they? How do I go about trimming his claws without a struggle and how do I get his claws to come out to trim them? =P

If you have never done this before, it might not be a bad idea to take him in to a groomer or the vet and have them clip his claws this time - observe carefully and ask questions so you can do it yourself in the future.

~gf~

Play with his paws each day so he gets used to being touched there, be patient with him and good luck.

Yeah I would trim off the tips of the nails as kitten's nails do grow fast. My brother had a neat Idea and that's to put your cat on the top of the dryer as its too slippery for them to grab you when you trim their nails. I do it for my cat and cats I had in the past.


My cat Taffy's nails get very long and her nails always get caught and then I trim them. Its better for them as well as for your furniture but I would get a scratching post and train your kittens to go there when they want to scratch things. Reward them with a treat if they use it. My cat uses hers all the time and she has one with a little bed so she can sleep in it.

That dryer idea is a good one - it's the same theory behind why vet's tables are always so slippery - easier to control a resisting cat or dog!

If you can get close enough to have a look, the tips of his nails will be white and then go clear (if he's not a black cat...lol). The white bit is the bit you need to clip off. It's pretty hard, especially with a kitten.

I would suggest you get the vet to do it the first time, and then before they need clipping again start playing with his paws a lot so he gets used to having them handled. Cats are very prickly about having their paws touched - they are their primary defence and they can feel very vulnerable when they don't have control over them. They really need to get used to your touch.

Sashka used to get stuck to things (hence the reason she was called Scratchy for the first 8 months of her life...). I thought it was funny - it definitely made it easier to catch her being naughty she was such a quick, slippery little thing. She couldn't work out how to retract her claws either. I have read that most kittens have their claws out nearly all of the time, until they learn to control them better.

I did not clip my kitty's claws. As he got a bit older he learned what to do with his claws and it wasn't a problem anymore.