Medical issues Image Credit: Andrey_Kuzmin, Shutterstock Loneliness and boredom can also potentially cause excessive claw chewing, so you may need to spend more interactive time with your feline or consider purchasing stimulating cat toys. However, more subtle reasons may take some detective work. If you’ve moved to a new house or brought home a new pet, the reason is obvious and you can treat your cat accordingly. You’ll need to identify the reason that your cat is stressed or anxious in order to stop the behavior. This stress could be caused by something as simple as wanting to go outside or more obvious reasons, like a new pet in the home or moving to a new house. Just like humans who bite their nails when anxious or stressed, the same symptoms may manifest in anxious felines. This is usually the result of stress, boredom, or loneliness, and your cat may be using chewing their paws as a mechanism for self-soothing. Sometimes, normal self-grooming may morph into obsessive behavior, manifesting in excessive licking, scratching, and claw-chewing. We recommend having at least two or three different types of scratching posts available to your cat to keep them interested. The reason that they are chewing on their claws may be a lack of a suitable scratching surface. Make sure your cat has a scratching post or something similar, as they’ll typically use this to keep their nails clean and sharp. Cats are private creatures that usually find a quiet and private place to groom themselves in peace. This behavior may seem alarming at first, especially if you have never noticed it before. Often, the outer layer may become frayed and damaged, and your cat will pull away the top layer to expose the cleaner, sharper layer underneath. Sometimes licking may not be enough to dislodge these things, and you may notice your cat pulling or tugging at their claws to free up the stuck debris.Īdditionally, cat’s nails are often described as onion-like, with several distinct layers in their composition. Routine chewing, licking, and pulling on and around the claws are a part of your cat’s normal self-grooming habit, and since their paws are in constant contact with the floor, they are prone to getting dirt, hair, dust, and debris stuck around them. Normal grooming Image Credit: AlexanderDubrovsky, Shutterstock In this article, we look at common reasons behind your cat chewing and pulling at their claws and what to do about it. ![]() While almost all cats will chew on their claws from time to time, if the chewing becomes excessive and compulsive, there may be another more serious issue at hand. They may chew on their nails to shorten them and chew and lick around them to clean any loose dirt or debris. Cats are fastidious groomers, constantly licking and cleaning themselves, and chewing their nails is just one other aspect of this practice of self-grooming. For the most part, the biting and chewing of claws is a perfectly normal behavior in cats, and if you notice your cat doing this, there is usually nothing to be overly concerned about.
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