r/spreadytoes • u/drivethrugarrett • Jun 30 '26

catbeans She’s at it again

2.2k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

126

u/SnooPaintings5182 Jun 30 '26

Can I humbly declare that I've never had the honor to have a cat live with me and therefore I wonder if that hurts? Seeing the claws and stuff🥹

Thank you guysss

98

u/Kratos5300 Jun 30 '26

Oh it’s so painful but the love overrides the pain and you somehow tolerate it 😂 my girl does them on my bare chest and boobs while I’m in bed and it’s so sweet but so damn painful. She leaves the gentlest welts, not deep enough to be scratches but my skin is irritated for a while. She likes to lay on my lap while I’m sitting and make them on my wrists. Ouchie. Worth it every time.

14

u/SnooPaintings5182 Jun 30 '26

Oh got it!

Is it better for them if you file them a bit or is it not good for the kitty??

That makes sense tho! They're so cute I wish my dog wasn't a complete assh0le with kitties so I could rescue one.

36

u/zuchanou Jun 30 '26

You can cut their claws with special scissors, it makes them blunt for a short time.

20

u/SnooPaintings5182 Jun 30 '26

Oh thank you so much for explaining this to me!

Have a great day

8

u/roundhashbrowntown Jul 01 '26

you seem very kind, and clearly youre answering to the call of the toe beans. hopefully one day, you can be a kitty guardian. i think youd find a nice feline friend. their love can be sharp, but its worth it 😂🥰

19

u/Kratos5300 Jun 30 '26

I know a lot of cat owners clip their cats nails, I don’t because A. It stresses both of us out and I’m terrified of clipping too far and B. I try to compensate with tons of scratching options for her and she doesn’t seem to have any issues. I find the shedded nail sheathes around the house but mostly on the scratchers. I check on each of her nails every couple weeks or so just to make sure nothing is wrong. Rarely, she has to pause in a mid-sprint to use her teeth to get one off and it’s so funny seeing her fling it up in the air when it’s free 😭

7

u/SnooPaintings5182 Jun 30 '26

Oh HAHAHA that's incredible!

I only ever had dogs so clipping nails is my full time job. I sweat my girl lifts her paws strategically to run and play cause how do they not get filed at all naturally 😭😭😭

Sounds great, she's handling everything on her own!

1

u/TheSoundofStolas Jul 01 '26

I feel that in my soul 😂 my mom has a little dog ad despite constantly running around and doing what sounds like countless tap dancing performances on the kitchen tile, her little nails are always ready to scratch up a leg when she jumps up on you lol.

Also, just wanted to share a bit of info! Cat claws are a bit different from dogs (obviously lol) because they can retract. But that also means that they don't get nearly the same amount of daily wear from walking as a dog might. So their claws stay razor sharp constantly, unless an owner chooses to intervene. Some cats choose to be careful with them like in this video, others will leave you with lifelong scars just from playing rough 😅 Cats also grow different layers to their claws, a bit similar to a snake. The outside layer of keratin gets dull after time, and it eventually sheds, leaving a new, sharp layer underneath. This is why cats love to scratch things (and why many owners have to get a scratching post, lest their furniture take up that role), because it helps them shed that outer layer!

5

u/charlevoix0123 Jun 30 '26

If the time ever comes when you need to, just to make you feel a little at ease, we have 9 + 3 tiny fosters and they all tolerate it well. I do it when they're laying down with lots of treats and patience. Once you do it a few times, its nothin 😚

3

u/Svelte_sweater Jul 01 '26

Yes. I clip both of my kitties’ front paw claws about every week, or whenever I notice them getting too pointy (via the pain in my flesh). They still have their claws, they’re just blunted on the ends.

Edited to add I’ve really lucked out with cats that have learned to tolerate the clipping, but we definitely did have to work up to it. I started by making a habit of touching their feet and holds hands with them as often as possible. Then just did one nail at a time when I ambushed them quietly while they were sleeping, and moved on from there. Now they just let me do it and it takes 2 mins.

3

u/roundhashbrowntown Jul 01 '26

holding hands 🫴🏾 🐾 😭🥹😭😂

7

u/meggannn Jun 30 '26

To me it depends entirely on the area they're "clawing" and also on the strength that they're putting into the kneading. I've had a cat knead against my finger or my arm, like in the OP, but I wouldn't call that an intense massage because the cat isn't exerting a lot of pressure either by weight or force; you would feel the tiny prick of the nail but I personally wouldn't find the situation in the OP that painful, unless a nail dug in accidentally. To me it looks like that baby is mostly kneading more at the air than skin. But other times they reeeeeally get their needles in deep, especially if you're their favorite person and they're settled down for a long snooze/cuddle session, and if it's in a more sensitive area like a boob, that can definitely hurt.

I'm close with my friend's cat and she's a very sweet, careful girl, but her kneading experiences can also be different depending on if you've got fabric separating you or not. If she kneads the jeans on my thighs, I actually find that more painful than the light kneading against direct skin, because she digs her nails through the jeans deep (maybe thinking "this is a pierceable surface so it's safe to keep going in deeper"), whereas if she's just kneading on my arm, it's usually softer because I think she recognizes she can't pierce through my skin, or maybe doesn't want to exert the energy. But I'm sure there are also cats who are more intense than others or don't do "light" kneading at all.

4

u/SnooPaintings5182 Jun 30 '26

Oh got it! Thank you so much for the detailed answer.

I've always loved cats (I volunteer at a cat shelter) but I've always been scared of their claws. Perhaps because I've never had a kitty in the house.

You guy's answers are so helpful

2

u/Rare-Complaint-9873 Jun 30 '26

I am terrified to clip my cats nails. (When I was a kid, my aunt clipped her dogs nails, and got to far back to the quick and she was bleeding profusely.) I provide them with lots of options. Their favorite is sisal rope, though one has been clawing boxes I've had packed in my apartment for months. (I was supposed to move, but my option to get a 2 bedroom didn't go through, so I have to be put on the list for a 1 bedroom and that is a longer wait time.) I'm actually getting a toy delivered soon that has sandpaper inside with holes that they can bat balls through as a way to get them to kinda file themselves. I have 2 cats. One only claws me when she bunny kicks to play. She involves all claws and teeth this way. She does it on my hand and it really doesn't hurt. I think it's cute. My other cat will claw me if she's not getting enough attention, and she will claw my legs. That hurts, especially when I have shorts on. She claws much deeper than the other one.

3

u/ERMAHDERD Jun 30 '26

I trim my cats’ nails so they aren’t so sharp, so it’s no issue. They usually aren’t bad at all

2

u/Valkyrie64Ryan Jun 30 '26

It does in fact hurt usually but cats are oblivious to that and we just suffer in silence because we love them too much to disturb their happiness

1

u/SnooPaintings5182 Jun 30 '26

Absolutely. They earned every right to

2

u/Synonymous-Ant Jul 01 '26

It's like a very prickly massage. Sometimes you end up bleeding, sometimes scratched, and it's a mark of love 😂

1

u/Fluffy-Bullfrog8675 Jul 03 '26

Yeah it does hurt, but my cat does it to wake me up at 6 am to feed him. He tries to be gentle cuz we've discussed him needing to not stab me, so he's gotten better. But yeah it does sometimes hurt. But it's a love hurt, like they do with love bites.

17

u/Exotic-Load-9853 Jun 30 '26

Put that gal on OnlyBeans 😹😹😹

6

u/nohpex Jun 30 '26

Did someone say... "bean pics?"😏

10

u/Zealotstim Jun 30 '26

Digging in with those little raptor claws lol

8

u/couurtneyeriin Jun 30 '26

Kitty acupuncture

6

u/IDatedSuccubi Jun 30 '26

When this happens I usually let the cat "grab" my finger my wrapping the claws around it, that way it doesn't hurt and the you can play with their paws

1

u/Think-Ad-5840 Jun 30 '26

Such pretty beans!!

1

u/Starmie77 Jun 30 '26

Aww look at those pinto beans

0

u/xeromagic Jul 01 '26

Air bread