Using a cat nail grinder

I’ve always used traditional nail clippers to trim our cats’ nails. However, I’ve heard a lot from other behaviorists about the benefits of a cat nail grinder - there is no mess to clean up (I have a weird thing about finding nail shards in the house), and the grinder itself creates a smooth edge to the nail as opposed to the sharp one made my clipping.

I got the CatSizor nail grinder and charged it via its USB. It has two speeds and two areas for grinding - one for small, thin nails and one for larger, thicker nails. The grinder itself isn’t very loud and as you can see from the video, didn’t startle either Kitten Man or Steve when I tried it on them. As always, I recommend attempting a new manicure method when your cats are sleepy and relaxed!

Grinding did take a bit longer than clipping in order to get long nails down to an appropriate length, but the cats didn’t seem to mind. I applied the grinder quickly to each nail at first to acclimate each cat, and then went back for a second pass once they were used to the sensation. While every cat is different and has their own preferences, I’ll keep up the practice of grinding for our cats who seemed to like it!