Clipping claws

I had a friend of mine (who owns cats) show me how to clip their claws. I did Marbles' the other day (2 days ago maybe?) and was just now able to do Alex's. How often do I need to do this? Once a week? Every other week? Thanks for any help!

I do it about once a month.

Every few weeks...just keep an eye on them and trim whenever they seem to be getting long and sharp

Depends on how fast they grow - the more you clip, the slower they seem to grow back.

I would check and do as necessary - check once a week and do which ones are needed. The front will grow faster then the back.

I just did the front for now, to get them used to having them clipped. It took two to three different sessions to get one of Alex's paws done. I didn't do too much b/c the lighting at our house isn't very good and I didn't want to clip too far back. Thanks. I think I'll check them once a week on Saturdays and clip as needed. :-)

I do my kitties every other week

We clip Hannah's about every 2-3 weeks and Callie's about every 4-6 weeks. Hannah's fully clawed and Callie only has the back claws (she came to me that way).

Stephanie

I clip the nails as they gorw. Every once in a while you get a freak nail that grows long really fast and I'll nip that one off. Usually, I clip twice a month, but not every nail gets clipped each time. And as I said, if I notice a super long freakish one I'll snip that one.

can someone explain to me how to do it as i needto start clipping my girls

Well, try and get your cat calm first, it's always easier that way. Then pick up her paw and apply pressure to the pads so her nails extend. Then cut the nails (I use large nail clippers as they seemed to work better than the cat nail cutters - but you will have to find something that both of you can deal with) to right above the pink. The pink is the tissue that connects the nail to the paw so it is very sensitive. If you cut it, it may bleed a little. Just press your finger on the nail for a few seconds and it will stop, or try and use one of those sticks for stopping the bleeding on shaving nicks. The more you cut the nails, the futher back the pink will recede.

If you can, do all the nails at once, if not, do the front, then the back. And if your cat wont remain calm, try wrapping her in a blanket and covering her eyes. They get less frantic that way.

Hope that helps!

I've found its kinda pointless to clip the back nails unless your cat is a frequent rabbit kicker on you. They grow more slowly and are thicker so they end up being blunter anyway, plus I've never seen a cat try to sharpen its back claws. I clip Zissou's claws every now and then, but I check them every few days to see if they need it. When they look sharp on the ends, they need clipped. It depends a lot on how far down you cut them in the first place. When you start, I would clip off just the very tips until you are more comfortable with what you're doing and so is the cat. When Zissou got spayed they cut her nails way down (too far in my opinion, a couple of them had bled a little) but I usually cut just a little bit above that pink inner claw-shaped quick.
I also use the scissor-type cat claw cutters with the little half moon blades. They work great. When I used plain human nail clippers I found it cracked her claws (like, the outer layers that shed would be damaged) alot more often, which is bad.

Originally Posted by Zissou'sMom

I've found its kinda pointless to clip the back nails unless your cat is a frequent rabbit kicker on you.

Click to expand...

Haha, "frequent" is an understatement with Oliver... I would put money on him being the bunny kicking king of all cats - he will bunny kick ANYTHING your hands, feet, shoes, toilet paper tubes, a small stuffed dog, chair rungs, even his jingle balls and smaller toys

Ollie wears softpaws on his front feet, so they get clipped as each cap falls off. I check his back feet almost daily, just cuz he's my personal snuggle buddy, so I'm usually playin with his feetsies anyway and I just clip when they look (or feel, haha) too sharp