We have welcomed a second family member into our home, whom my husband delights in calling That Abomination. I suspect my boy cat regards her the same way, but I just call her ‘Mina’ for short. She’s 9-10 weeks old, housebroken, eating kitten food.
We have an existing 12 year old male cat named Merlin who hates my guts right now. Mina’s only been here a couple days though and I’m pleased with their progress overall. She is friendly and fearless and Merlin has parked himself under the office desk and/or guest bedroom bed and only ventures out periodically to see if That Abomination is still here, but he is lingering longer and waiting longer before hissing, and he allowed me to pet him in my lap today. I’ve never seen such a ridiculous overreaction to a tiny, harmless kitten, but whatevs.
I’ve never had a kitten before. She is incompetent at the most basic stuff, like walking, climbing and jumping. She falls off of things and into things all the time. It’s really good for my self-esteem because I’m comparatively quite good at walking, but I do admire her gumption in trying for things she has no hope of achieving. She also seems to seek out the most dangerous ridiculous places to sleep, like the deepest crevices of the couch cushion or underneath my comforter in the bedroom. Her claws are too small to do much damage but I predict she will eventually destroy everything. She routinely tries to eat my laptop. I have no plans to declaw so I ordered a very large scratching post.
So, yeah. Pretty new to this whole ‘kitten ownership’ thing, but so far, so good. I am, in fact, in love.
Regarding the claws, now’s the time to get That Abomination used to having her nails trimmed on a regular basis. With treats afterwards, of course.
I only have trouble giving one of my cats his regular pedicures. He was raised by a friend of mine and moved to my house at the age of four, and his previous mama never trimmed her kitties’ nails. His littermate sister and his step-brother will put up with it (giving me the “why are you torturing me” look the whole time) but he squirms and twists, and is very strong and has very silky fur - he cannot be contained! Even the purr-ito technique is no good on him, unless I use a queen size blanket. If he’d been my kitten from the beginning I like to think he would be OK with pedicures. He’s OK with nail trims at the vet, so whenever he goes in for checkups, he gets his nails done as well.
Haha, that would drive my husband Dom insane. His whole schtick is to pretend he hates cats, though his true colors always shine through when he thinks I’m not watching. One of our friends calls them ‘‘Dom & Bom.’’
Is 9-10 weeks too young for that? Her claws are so tiny. Merlin can’t stand getting his nails trimmed, I always have the vet do it at checkups. I’m terrified of doing it, which doesn’t help.
I’ve looked into soft claws nail pads for the kitten but she’s still too young according to the manufacturer.
Start by handling her little feet as much as she’ll let you, including pressing on the pads to extend the nails.
[I’m kind of weird in that I like to trim cat’s nails. I volunteer at a cat shelter and it drives me nuts that I’m not allowed to trim their nails - I have to undergo further training before I’m allowed to do that. And some of them really need pedicures!]
She’s not too young at all for nail trims. The sooner the better. Start with just the very teeny fraction of the tips and you can move a little closer to the quick once she’s got full sized talons.
I have four cats. Takes 10 minutes to trim all of them. I’m convinced that once they know it won’t hurt and I won’t quick them, they don’t mind nearly as much. Some time ago, one of my old girls (RIP) put up quite a fight the first two times I trimmed her. Had to bundle her up in a blanket. But I really think she was afraid of getting quicked (she was 8 when I brought her home). Once I did her twice with no ouchie, I could put her on the kitchen table under one arm and trim with no problem. Treats after, but just for her. None of my others ever needed treats for a routine thing that’s just a fact of their life.
Aww, what a cutie! Agreed that it’s not too early to trim her nails. If she gets used to it early, it’s no big thing.
If you’re really feeling ambitious, get her used to having her mouth handled too, by rubbing your finger or a soft cloth on her teeth briefly. I’ve never had any success at it, but I don’t think I started mine young enough.
The imagery I have of your husband stomping around the house in faux-protest of such a tiny furball is causing me much amusement. But I hope that you’re letting him believe that he’s totally convincing!
No no no. When I moved in with my now wife, she insisted my cat get the soft claws. Trixie ended up with a couple infected toes because the glue they used glued the outer claw to the inner claw. The outer claw could not naturally fall off. Trixie had to have those 2 claws removed. The vet said she sees this way too often on cats that have had the soft claws installed. She gets her claws trimmed weekly and really doesn’t seem to mind it.
Our cats have scratching posts too, but those are for helping them to hone their claws, and slough off old bits. It doesn’t have anything to do with keeping them trimmed. If we don’t trim our cats’ claws, they get needles eventually. Also, if you don’t trim them at least occasionally, they can grow so much that they curl under. If this happens, at best your cat will be uncomfortable, and at worst the pointy part can grow around and pierce the paw pads.
I don’t know how common that is, but I do know it can happen.
