Why cut your cat’s nails? 

Beyond the obvious damage to furniture and the pain it can inflict on your body, there are other sound reasons to cut your cat’s nails regularly. 

If your cat’s claws grow too long can curl around and dig directly into their paw pads, causing severe pain, inflammation, and infection.Overgrown nails can also catch in carpets or other padded surfaces, causing broken nails, injured toes, and stress or panic. Finally the extra claw (dewclaw) on the front legs doesn’t wear down as fast as the others and may curl into the leg if not trimmed. 

Trimming Methods

1. 
Breed

While there are no hard and fast rules about which cats prefer which toys, due to individual differences, certain cat breeds do tend to be attracted to toys that cater to their particular interests and lifestyle.

Active cat breeds, such as Burmese, Bengals, Somalis, and Angoras, tend to enjoy high-energy play, involving stalking, chasing, and pouncing. They also may be attracted to puzzle-type toys, where certain actions are rewarded with treats.

Wand and fishing pole toys, robotic birds and mice, mechanical toys, such as hide-and-seek toys, and laser pointers all have the potential to captivate high-energy cats.

Mouse Toy – Buy on Amazon

Chiller breeds like Ragdolls, Persians, and Russian Blues may enjoy stuffed animals (especially when laced with catnip), soft or crinkly balls, springs, etc. They also may tend to prefer to play on their own, whereas high-energy cats love interacting with their humans.

Chirping Bird Toy – Buy on Amazon

Assuming that your cat has been neutered or spayed, gender may still play a role in how your cat plays and its toy preferences. Male cats tend to engage in more energetic and attack-focused play and frequently enjoy human interaction. In contrast, female cats, while possessing similar hunting instincts as males, tend to be more independent and display less overt aggression with their toys.

Cat Dancer – Buy on Amazon

That said, many of these stereotypes can be thrown out the window when it comes to individual feline behavior. We’ve boarded a wide variety of cats. One of the most aggressive is a Persian female, who couldn’t get enough of our cat dancer and who attacked it with genuine ferocity. Likewise, we’ve boarded Siberian female cats that literally tore apart our battery-powered hide-and-seek toy.

Streamer Toy – Buy on Amazon

2. 
Kittens

Kittens love toys that simulate hunting and catching prey, emulating what they do in the wild.

There are a variety of “hide and seek” toys on the market that cats, especially young ones, love playing with over and over again. The only problem we have faced with these toys is figuring out how to get the various cats we’ve played with not to destroy them.

Stuffed toys are especially popular with kittens, who paw, cuddle, lick, or hold these toys. Sprinkling a bit of catnip can produce more aggressive play behavior.

Hide and Seek Toy – Buy on Amazon

3. Young Adults

Young adult cats enjoy a wide variety of toys, especially wand and wire toys. In our experience, mouse wand toys seem to bring out the most feral and aggressive responses in cats, especially males. Spring toys, and mechanical/robotic ones are also popular with maturing cats.

Crinkle Ball Toy – Buy on Amazon

View Spring Toy– Buy on Amazon

4. Mature Cats

As cats age, their appetite for aggressive hunting behaviors may wane; however, that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy play. You just need to find the right combination of toys to get them stimulated enough to use them. Laser pens seem to have the right kind of movement and are bright enough to attract the attention of many senior cats.

Laser Pointer – Buy on Amazon

Wand toys provide an opportunity to interact and bond with your older cat while improving their mental and physical health through exercise. They may not launch savage attacks on their favorite mouse anymore, but may still enjoy a swat at them a bit, and in post-catch licking/pawing. The thing they probably enjoy the most is the bond they feel with you when you positively interact with them.

5. Where to buy?