Is it possible for a cat to be TOO gentle and not dull their claws enough?

[EveAndHerThieves]

Kira is a very sweet cat I rescued off the streets several years ago. He's timid and heck, but everything about him is soft and sweet. I've NEVER seen him scratch except for one very unique incident. Even his bites are very soft. To give an example, once he kept waking me up all through the night playing with a toy. It was only several hours later that I realized the 'toy' was a perfectly unharmed mouse. He was using his famous "soft paws" to chase it happily.

I'm wondering if he could be TOO sweet. I see him at the scratching post a lot, although he even seems careful with that. He also uses them to bury his food after every meal. I've ruled out pain as he's been doing it since he was a kitten. But now that he's an indoor cat he's getting stuck more. Especially on his cat toy. My other cats have no problem with it. He doesn't seem to understand how to unstick himself and tips it every ten seconds, which scares him when the toy follows him.

Is it possible for a cat to be too gentle and not dull their claws enough? Can I get him to work his claws more? I could trim them except he has a LOT of anxiety about being held. I'd love to see him play a bit tougher someday, as weird as that sounds! If only to work his claws and unusually sharp teeth. (Seriously, they're pointier than a kittens)

Even his singing is gentle. He's currently in singing to the bathroom tub drain. It sounds incredibly happy and pleased. Very soft and kitten like.

 

[ArtNJ]

Scratching (and biting the claws, another method they use) takes work, and a lot of indoor cats dont do it enough to not have daggers. That said, it isn't strictly necessary to trim your cats nails, unless the nails get so long they curve enough to injure their own paw pads. Infection is apparently possible. I don't know how common of a thing that really is, and haven't trimmed nails for any of my cats for many years, and would only do so with a specific reason, like a cat that was hurting another cat with them. Some people regard it as part of routine cat care, and some (like me) don't. The major advantage of regarding it as routine care is that if you start as a kitten, its apparently not such a big deal. Trying to start with an adult cat can be nightmarish, and personally, as I noted above, I'd need a specific reason to do that. If you do need to start, folks can help with that. I found it a two human job, but some here will describe a one person + a towel method.

 

[molly92]

Even if your cat did scratch more, they would still be pointy because when the outer sheath comes off, it reveals the newer, pointier claw underneath. But, you might be right that maybe they wouldn't be as long.

I personally think it's a good idea to trim cats' nails regularly, mostly because they do stick to carpets and such when they get too long and that must be annoying for them. Plus, it's a good idea to get a good look at their paws once in a while to make sure nothing is wrong.

With practice, nail trimming can be pretty quick and easy, although fuzzy paws and/or dark nails can make it a little more challenging. My cat hates it, but she knows she'll be rewarded with treats at the end so she puts up with it for a little while anyway. Some people have success sneaking in a few clips while their cat is sleeping. My sister turns on a youtube video of birds to distract her cat while she does it, which I think is hilarious.

 

[sivyaleah]

I fall between both comments already written.

For my older girl, who was a rescue we tend to wait a lot longer between clippings because she does an excellent job of using scratch surfaces we provide for her. And she isn't the type to be clawing at furniture nor us. Her claws seem to grow slow but could be because she's older? Don't know. We have the vet do it at appointments so at least 2x a year and we also take her every couple of months to let them do it. I can not remember the last time we tried to do her.

Our younger one being just out of kittenhood, is good about using posts etc. too but her nails seem to grow a lot quicker and she likes to stretch up on my legs a lot still and wow, ouch! We can sometimes manage to do her front claws. One holds her, the other clips fast. But we prefer bringing her to the vet too and since she's had a few minor health issues here and there her claws are probably trimmed at least every couple of months, I bet it's a lot more.

Having said all that we personally experienced where one of the dew claws on the young one curled under so bad it embedded into her skin causing an infection and we had to have it surgically removed. And whenever I start hearing clicky noises on our floors I know it's past time for a clipping. I can't imagine it doesn't bother them when that happens.

 

[di and bob]

We moved into our new house with hardwood floors, and I know what is meant by hearing the nails clicking. I have never trimmed a cat's nails before in over 50 years, but I had never had strictly indoor cats before either, and that made a big difference. Trees and cement must have kept them in shape outside. My Yammy actually gets caught in our lap blankets while we are watching TV and I have had to unhook him many times, so I decided to trim him. He is also the one that hates to be touched and only allows stroking and kissing on the head. He is a nightmare! I do get in maybe one claw trimmed a day, but the looks he gives me across the room when I try is hilarious! I hope in time he gets more used to it. I don't want to stress him out too bad because of his leukemia. I will be watching this thread to get tips on trimming. I'll start giving him a treat after and see if that helps. it sure is hard to trim a claw that is hidden in fuzzy hair and the cat struggling like you are offering him to a snarling dog!

 

[neely]

Kira sounds like he is a docile and gentle boy. BTW, thank you for rescuing him from the streets. I have a similar although not exactly same problem, i.e. our present cat was rescued from a hoarder and in bad condition when we adopted him. However, he is one of the sweetest cats we have ever known. The vet thinks he may have been kept in a wire cage since the cats were purebred Persians and that's why his paws are so sensitive. Like your cat, he also uses what's left of his teeth. However, due to previous malnutrition and possibly genetic factors, he had FORL. But his sweet nature outweighs any health or other issues.

I thought this Article about how to care for cat claws might have some helpful information for you:
How To Best Take Care Of Cat Claws – TheCatSite Articles
Although this is an older thread I also thought there may be some tips about using a scratching post:
scratching post...plz use it...

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Feeby has to have her claws trimmed. It is likely in part due to her being an indoor only cat who doesn't play much, and is more and more sedentary as she ages. But, even when she was just a few years old and much more active, she still needed her nails trimmed - about once a month, and I still do it that regularly. In that period of time, I can literally watch her nails get longer and longer!

All of my cats have had to have their nails trimmed. I am amazed every time I hear someone who says they don't need to trim their cats' claws, or that it is, in many cases, unnecessary!

 

[Furballsmom]

Try trimming his claws when he's asleep. That's how I had to start with Poppycat because he hated having his paws touched. We got there eventually and now he's ok with it

 

[EveAndHerThieves]

I'll have a go at trimming them once he's done with his nightly play session with the exact same toy he's had for weeks now. While super sweet in personality, he can be a bit skitterish! He sent my landlord to the instacare when she tried to move him once...

Can rescues really just be too sweet to properly take care of themselves? Now that I think about it, I never really see him clean either. But he's always super shiny and the constant hairballs lead me to believe he does it somehow. (He's never rolled in dirt either, now that I think about it.) The weird thing is he's super fussy about everything else - litterbox must be VERY clean and poop buried properly, water dish must be very clean and shallow, food MUST be buried after eating, even if he has to go find something nearby to bury it.

He's always been prone to getting himself stuck on things, even as an outdoor cat. It's just worse as an indoor cat. Just typing this I've had to unstick him from his toy five times. Earlier he kept getting caught while pawing at my blanket. Are there ways to encourage him to work his claws more maybe? I could probably get a few cardboard scratchers as well. If I remember right he likes those. Most of his claw work is pawing at blankets or burying things since he's so gentle with toys - like I said, after hours with a live mouse it was perfectly unharmed, if traumatized for life.


Luckily I've trimmed rabbits claws for years, so I know what to do. But rabbits hold still, unlike Kira... (I wonder if someday I could get him to let me hold him without him tensing up)

He's a super fine haired, blue eyes ragdoll looking cat. I saw him across the street one day while pulling into my driveway and was drawn like a moth to a flame. I didn't even ask my mom if he could come in. Usually I just take food out to cats, not bring them in!! But this one said he was mine and asked me to save him, so I did. Hauled him in and sat him down at the food dish where he began pigging out. We even dealt with the HORRID gas he quickly developed. He's super sweet, just useless at... Everything. (Seriously, how does a cat NOT know how to find something that landed right in front of him?!? Ended up having to get three tiny kittens to teach him to to be a cat.) Anyway, there's your rambling cat story!



... We are now up to ten claw unsticks while writing this. I finally turned it off after he tugged it across the room trying to unstick. He huffed his big sigh like he does and is now staring at it sadly.

 

[Furballsmom]

Good thought about the scratchers !