Why does my cat get hooked on everything with his nails?

Question

My cat always seems to get his front paws stuck on any fabric when he uses his claws.

We have blankets on the sofa (so we can wash them out every now and then) and if he stretches his paws after a nap, 9 out of 10 times one of his claws is hooked in the blanket and he seems to have an issue unhooking his paw. Even when he uses a scratching pole, his claw seems to get stuck in the rope of the pole.

He does not intentionality dig his claws into anything, but still gets stuck on it. He goes on a yearly check up every year but the vet never said "its time to clip his claws a bit" even if we ask if its necessary.

Sometimes he will even have both his paws hooked onto something. He usually gets himself lose but it always looks like its a problem when he does so.
Our other cat never seems to get his paw stuck on anything.

The only thing worth mentioning is that he does suffer from the same affliction as shown in this post Why does my cat get calluses on his paw pads?

Answer 1

Some cats seem to have this problem more than others. I would suggest trimming his front claws regularly. You only need to take off the sharp pointy tip so they're blunted a bit. It doesn't need to be a precision job. If he isn't used to getting his claws trimmed, then just do one paw at a time, or even just one nail at a time! If you do this regularly, you'll probably find that there are only a few claws that need trimming at any one time.

This should eliminate the problem. Any time he gets stuck, check to see if a new nail has appeared; if so, trim it.

If the problem persists despite nail trimming, consult your vet.

Answer 2

Since he objects to trimming maybe gently pet and practice expressing his claws with out clippers until he lets you occasionally clip one claw. Build on this as he is comfortable. Just take the tip. Other idea would be purchase claw sheaths from vet or specialty shop.

Answer 3

I don't have comment privileges so I can't comment on mhwombat's answer, but I agree that trimming the claws should help or possibly solve this. I trim my cats' claws approximately once a month. One of my cats used to regularly get her claws stuck in carpet even while walking normally, and keeping her claws trimmed has prevented that from happening. When I first started trimming her claws she gave me an extra-hard time, but I think part of the reason was because her toes were sore from getting caught on things; she was much better about it the times afterwards.

Answer 4

I also agree that the length of the nails can affect the incidence of hooking to things. If clipping is not for your cat, which in my experience is only reserved for really calm cats, then you can try scratch posts or boxes to 'de' sharpen the nails.

Place a scratch post close to the area he spends a lot of time and sprinkle some Catnip over it to start the 'bonding' process. It's a more natural way and worth a try.

Answer 5

Cats are individuals when dealing with their claws. For example, some cats will keep them sheathed when playing, others don't so much. Some cats will scratch at scratching posts more than others. I imagine your one cat is partially getting caught more due to individual differences in behavior. It'll help if you take particular care to keep them clipped, but your cat will probably still get caught sometimes anyways. As for the callous thing, I had a cat that had those type of callouses, but he did not seem to get his claws caught on things very often.