nail trimming for outdoor cats?

[annabelle33]

Can cats still catch mice and have the ability to defend themselves if their nails are trimmed? The reason I'm asking is I have a young semi-feral neutered male who lives in my yard/my garage/sometimes my house who loves to be outside. He's always in at night but he really can't stand being cooped up and he gets a little frisky unless he's out and in any case my house is pretty isolated in the middle of nowhere so he's generally safe. Well, his nails are getting long, even tho he uses scratching posts and stuff, and lately he's been getting stuck to the back porch carpet, and if he's in the house sometimes he'll get stck to the carpet, so I'm assuming his claws are too long. But I DO still want him to have use of them because every now and then I'm sure he'll get in a little cat skirmish every now and then and I also LOVE the fact that he catches mice before they make it to my house =P.. So does trimming them make them less effective? And wowsers how would i go about doing that in the first place (he's a tad rowdy..lol)..

tia =)

 

[angelzoo]

I think if the cat is getting them caught on things often a SMALL trim wouldn't hurt, but not very often, and we don't want them growing too long that they can grow into his paw. But if he uses a good scratching post often you shouldn't have to worry about that.

Are you sure the cats claws are getting in caught in the carpet because they are too long/sharp, or are his nails brittle and kind of cracking, and the cracked/brittle parts of his nail are the things getting caught on the carpet.

Take a close look at them.

Personally, I would say don't trim them, but I would hate to see him pull out a claw after getting it trapped on the carpet.

 

[annabelle33]

I checked out his nails and they look fine.. I've noticed that when he relaxes it's easy for him to get his paws unstuck, the only time they get stuck is when he's playing, so I guess it's not life threatening.. It's annoying tho because I play with him a lot and I always have to help him up, then he attacks my hand lol..