Nail trimming advice

I've been trying to regularly trim 12 week old Sweetie's nails. As she gets older it gets to be more and more of a circus. I've read through alot of old posts on the subject and know that many people have better luck by wrapping the cat in a towel and pulling out one paw at a time to work on. My problem is that Sweetie is terrible about biting. Not terribly hard, but hard enough to make this a miserable thing to do once a week! Other than the towel trick, any suggestions on dealing with the biting during nail trimming?

Thanks!
Kelley H.

Zissou also suddenly HATES having her nails trimmed. I don't know why, I know I never cut down too far. Maybe she's proving that she's a big strong girl now and Mommie doesn't have to help her?
I never do the towel thing, but I would keep it in mind as a last resort. I hold Zissou in the crook of my left arm while I'm sitting, basically pinning her down between my ribs, the chair, and my elbow, with her belly up and all four paws easily accessible. I suppose you could do this with a towel over her as well. Then I pull out one paw at a time and do it as fast as possible, leaving a few second between paws for her to calm down. When she starts freaking out biting and growling and such, I stop trimming but don't let go. If you let go, it just reinforces the behavior because they learn that biting / scratching / hissing routine gets them what they want-- like Terrible Twosies and temper tantrums.

Whenever I do nails and the cat wants to bite. I tap him/her on the nose and firmly tell them NO and to sit still.

I also sometimes take a min or two to pet them and then continue to trim nails. The problem is that most people give up and let the cat go and that makes it worse cause the cat learns if it gives you a hard time, then you will stop what you are doing.

Hitting your cat will make any problems that already exist worse. So don't do that! It will only serve to make nail-cutting a terrifying experience for the cat and a bloody one for you... or make your cat so scared of you it turns into a fraidy-cat.

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Whenever I do nails and the cat wants to bite. I tap him/her on the nose and firmly tell them NO and to sit still.

I also sometimes take a min or two to pet them and then continue to trim nails. The problem is that most people give up and let the cat go and that makes it worse cause the cat learns if it gives you a hard time, then you will stop what you are doing.

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That's exactly how I do it, works for us. Tapping on the nose is what momma cat does to say she's the boss, it is not hitting it is very light.

Originally Posted by Zissou'sMom

Hitting your cat will make any problems that already exist worse. So don't do that! It will only serve to make nail-cutting a terrifying experience for the cat and a bloody one for you... or make your cat so scared of you it turns into a fraidy-cat.

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No, no, not hitting... she meant tapping the cat's nose, just gently, not enough to hurt at all. It just makes your finger come up into the cat's face so it has to back off.

my local petsmart will do it for me for like $10 and also brush her and if i want they will use powder shampoo for like $5 more (i think) i do this once a month or as needed. at first she wanted nothing to do with it but now she just doesnt care.

Thank you Missy and Calli. At least you understood what I meant. There's a big difference in hitting your cat and tapping its nose....geez

What I do is I put trout between my legs, kind of as If I was riding her like a horse..except I don't put any weight on her. I just have her there to keep her still and it still gives me both hands to deal with clipping the nails. I'm not sure if this would help the biting, but it really helps to keep her still and no matter if she tries to claw or get away, she can't.

Well, my Simon is impossible to do, even the vet tech couldn't get them all done Sapphire I don't do, just because she never really does anything bad with her claws. I haven't done Pandora yet, she had a bit of a traumatic experience a couple weeks ago and I didn't want her to be even more freaked I did do Antigone's, she was in my lap and I just clipped them, only the front though, she just sat there and looked at me like "whatcha doing there, Ma?"

I start with some cuddling. Then I put them belly up between my legs while I'm sitting on the couch. Imagine a headlock but under their front arms with the paw in my left hand so I can cut with the right. I usually have to ambush them a little and get them while they're sleepy. I don't trim the back and only have to do the front from time to time. Usually they do a pretty good job of it themselves on the scratching post.