06/02/2026
š¾ Low Stress Handling with Dr. Sophia Yin, Part 2: Teaching Your Kitten to Love Nail Trims
š¾ Have a new kitten in the house? Now is the time to start nail trims ā not because their tiny needle claws are destroying your couch (though, yes), but because what your kitten learns about handling right now will stick with them for life. Cats are not small dogs.
The five-and-under-five rule applies here: under five months old and under five pounds, you have a window where almost everything you introduce gently becomes ānormalā forever. Skip that window, and you may spend the next fifteen years wrestling a cat for one back paw.
In this short video, Dr. Sophia Yin shows the gentle, treat-based method for teaching a kitten to enjoy ā not just tolerate ā nail trims.
Notice what she doesnāt do: no scruffing, no burrito wrap, no holding the kitten down. Just patience, tiny bites of food, and stopping before the kitten has had enough.
A few kitten-specific tips from the AMC team:
š¾ Trim only the curved clear tip ā avoid the pink āquickā inside
š¾ One paw per session is plenty when youāre starting out
š¾ Right after a play session or meal is your golden window
š¾ Sharp cat clippers (not dog clippers, not human nail scissors) make a huge difference
Bonus: a kitten who learns that paw handling means treats grows into a cat who lets the vet examine those same paws without a fight. The work you put in now pays dividends every time we see them. Give it a try and let us know how it goes!
š„ Watch Dr. Yinās demo here: https://youtu.be/CmRhinN91io
Have a new kitten and want a hands-on lesson? Bring them in for a nail trim with one of our nurses ā weāll walk you through it step by step. š
A video demonstrating the steps to train a kitten to accept toe nail trims.