How to Desensitize A Cat to Trimming Nails
This is my kitty. He loves cuddling, knocking things off the counter, and eating plastic. He HATES being disturbed, bugs he can’t get to, and most of all: trimming nails. There’s screaming and bloodshed from both parties, and everyone is bitter and angry afterward. Until now!
Here are the tips and tricks to how I desensitized my cat to nail trims.
-> START SLOW. This is NOT going to happen over night. In fact, we have been working on this for a month now, and still have a long way to go. I didn’t even introduce the nail trimmer until I could hold his paw in my hand for a few seconds, which was around the 3 week mark. Don’t be frustrated if it takes longer than you think. Also, my kitty won’t tolerate more than a 5 minute session, so don’t overwhelm your cat with an hour long training session. Ain’t no one have the patience for that!
-> Use POSITIVE REINFOREMENT! Lots of good treats! As my behavior professor used to say “Every bad scary thing should predict something good.” So every time I touched or held my cat’s paws, he got a treat!
-> Don’t be afraid to use certain things to your advantage. Like adding sand paper to scratching posts so you don’t have to trim as often. Or wearing the cat out by playing with him for 15-25 minutes first. Or wait before dinner time where he might be more motivated to take treats.
-> Start up HIGH. Some cats don’t even their shoulders touched (including mine), so I started there. How it worked (and this can be tweaked for how it best works for you and your cat!) was this: Touch their paw/elbow/foot, say “paw,” and immediately give a treat. Then, I started to go down the leg, as in the photo below. By this point he knew treats were coming and let me hold his paw for a few seconds!
-> Once you can hold their paw, then go to spreading out the nails. Again, as soon as you get done, give a treat!
-> At long last, introduce the nail trimmer! I personally only did one nail at a time, but this is what was best for my own cat. I plan on doing a few nails a few times a week, because the more we practice it, the more we are comfortable, and the less stress it is for the both of us.
-> TADA! No blood, no screaming! Honest to goodness, my cat and I are both much happier with these sessions, and I hope someone else can use this to make nail trimming as stress free as possible!
