Caring for Dog and Cat Claws

The dog and cat are by far the most common and popular species of household pets in the world. Since ancient times, people have been keeping dogs and cats for protection, pest control, herding, rescue, but most importantly, love, friendship, and companionship. It's our love for our pets that drives us to try and take care of them as best we can. We buy any number of special tools, food, toys, and other objects to help improve the health and lives of our furry friends. But many pet owners neglect to properly take care of one of the most important parts of your pets body, it's nails or claws.

How Important is Pet Nail Care?

To put it bluntly, ignoring the condition of your pets nails or claws can cost much, much more than taking care of them of them on a regular basis. When a dog or cat's nails grow too long, any number of unfortunate things could happen. First are the obvious pet health issues. Uncared for pet nails can grow long, get caught, and break off, harming your pet's foot and possibly leading to infection. Beyond that, uncared for nails can certainly do a number on furniture, not to mention scratching up a hardwood floor simply by walking on it.

Taking Care of Your Pet's Nails

When you decide to take care of your pet's feet, it's important to have all the right tools for the job. Clipping or trimming a dog or cat's nails with the wrong tool can leave them looking jagged and unhealthy, and maybe even lead to injury! Having the proper pet nail care tools on hand will ensure that you do the best job possible for your pet. Clipping is however not the only way to take care of a pet's nails, and is actually quite uncommon for cats as they ware their nails down naturally through scratching.

To take care of your dog's nails, you must first select a pair of dog nail clippers. These specialty nail clippers come in a couple different forms, the main two being the manual dog nail trimmer and electric dog nail grinder. The difference between them is the nail clippers resemble a stumpy bladed pair of scissors that simply cut the nail, while a dog nail grinder is actually a modified dremel tool which grinds dog nails away.

Taking care of a cat's claws is actually a pretty hands off job, you merely have to supply certain things to help your cat do the job itself. Cat's naturally scrape their claws against rough surfaces to wear them down, keep them clean, and keep them sharp. To help your cat facilitate this, and spare your furniture at the same time, investing in one of the many cat scratching posts available can be a real money saver in the long run.