MizLiz wrote:
Hi folks,
Any tips on trimming your indoor Bengal's nails? My first one is no problem - I do it about every two weeks when she's sleepy and laying down. My second little one is not so cooperative. Even if I catch him when he's exhausted, he won't let me at his nails (I managed to get three front ones trimmed over the last week and a half). He just gets up and zooms off. He's somewhat skittish (only been with us for a few weeks, and he had a lot of stress at first), so I'm hoping to use something other than sheer force. Any tips on how to get this done? His claws are pretty sharp right now, and it's shorts season :).
Every cat is different. I've had cats where I could put them on my lap, and just do it with a minimum of complaint. With the bengals though, I've decided to give up

The one thing that really did it for was seeing them try to climb after getting their claws clipped, and they had some painful looking falls where they tried to clutch their tree or poles or whatever, find they couldn't grip it (no claws) and fall hard.
It's also sort of a "cost analysis", taking into account how stressed out they get, how much they resent me for attempting it, and the consequences of not doing it.
For the most part there aren't much in the way of consequences for not doing it imo. A little more wear and tear on their trees, scratching posts, and very occasionally me, so even though I've always done it in the past, for these cats I've decided it just wasn't worth it.