Best Cat Nail Clippers for Safe Trimming

We love our cats and they love us, but part of the way they express that love is by kneading their little claws into us and all of our things.

One reason they scratch furniture, carpets, and whatever else is because they need to naturally keep their nails trimmed, but with a good nail clipper we can solve two problems with one solution.

That said, you can’t just use a regular human nail clipper to give your cat a pedicure; since they’re not designed with cat nails in mind, you’ll end up splitting the nail, cutting the quick (which is very painful for your cat), or simply blunt them, which can also be painful.

By exploring our cat-specific nail clipper options, we open ourselves up to a much better nail-grooming experience, both for you and your little feline friend.

The following article is a comprehensive guide, providing benefits and reviews for the best cat nail clippers available. If your’e pressed for time and just want to know quickly what the best one is, we recommend the Epica Professional, one of the best-selling, highest recommended cat nail clippers available!

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What follows is a list of the top nail clippers on the market today; some are professional-grade, and some aren’t, but they’re all easy-to-use, affordable, and produce amazing results that will keep your cat comfortable and drastically reduce the damage your cat does with those claws, especially if your cat enjoys scratching important things, e.g., *YOU*.

Not surprisingly, the cat nail clipper market is pretty saturated, so we’ve gone through dozens of brands and styles to find what we consider to be the five best cat nail clippers available currently:

1. Brask Pet Cat Nail Clippers
2. HDP Professional Stainless Steel Nail Clippers
3. Epica Professional Pet Nail Clipper
4. Pet Republique Professional Nail Clippers
5. Boshel Cat Nail Clippers

What Are the Benefits of a Cat Nail Clipper?

Cats have a small blood vessel and nerve that run actually into their nail. This keeps them sharp and healthy, but it also poses a problem when you go to snip them into shape; how to avoid cutting these? A regular human nail clipper is designed for our almost flat nails, whereas cat nails are definitely curved. A professional grooming clipper set is designed to cut cleanly and sharply so you can get a precise cut that avoids the quick and all the associated pain and apologizing that would come with you cutting your cat’s nails incorrectly. Let’s take a better look at why you want to use actual cat nail clippers over any others.

Specificity of Design … for Cats!

You want to, if possible, opt for cat-specific nail clippers because these are designed with a cat’s sharp-but-tiny nails in mind. This takes the guesswork out of the equation, eliminating the worry that you might splinter the nail or worse. These products were designed specifically for cats, which means they’ll work best on cats.

Precision

Because of the potential for damage when using anything but actual cat nail clippers, the precision these provide is very welcome. They’re designed with high pressure and a sharp wedge right where you want to cut, ensuring that you get exact trims every time (and avoid unnecessary ouchies).

Ease-Of-Use

Naturally, a cat nail clipper is designed with cats in mind, and that starts with making sure mom and dad can actually use the product as intended. Luckily, cat nail clippers are intuitively designed so that you can an accurate, safe cut each time, and each of these products comes with a detailed guide to cutting your cat’s nails, so all the guesswork and worry is safely eliminated.

What are the main things to consider when purchasing a cat nail clipper?
Ease of use is probably the most important feature; after all, it’s highly unlikely your cat wants to be held in place so you can trim your kitty’s nails. There are other things to consider, so let’s go over those now:

Reactivity

Most cat nail clippers are built like shears in that they are supported by the resistance of one or two tightly coiled springs. This makes them – depending on how much tension the springs have – very sensitive to the slightest pressure (ideally). You definitely don’t want to begin cutting your cat’s nails and find out that it takes straining on your part to get the clipper to cut. This is dangerous to you and the kitty, so you’ll want a pair of clippers that is nice and reactive to the pressure of your hand, so you and the cat have a great experience.

Sharpness

Since cat nails are so much thinner than dog nails, you want blades that are sharp enough to cut once, cut cleanly, and cut precisely. This comes from very sharp blades in a crescent-moon design. This helps guide your cut directly along the nail’s natural shape, avoiding the need for multiple snips or a prolonged trimming session.

Comfortable Grip

This might sound superfluous, but you’ll find that clipper designed like scissors are not the best for the job unless they’re ergonomically designed with comfortable, rubber grips. There are plenty of cat nail clippers on the market that look basically like children’s safety scissors that have special blades attached, and these aren’t good for you or your cats. Considering that you can get a quality, professional-grade set of clippers like these in our review for under $10, there’s no excuse to buy a cheap pair that’s not comfortable, easy to use, and efficient at the task at hand.

Cat Nail Clipper Reviews

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Brask has designed a nail clipper that is ergonomic, flexible, and comfortable in your hand without sacrificing the edge or ability of the blades. With two scissor-like blades and a third, circular cutting tool, a slight amount of pressure will ensure an exact cut without crimping or splintering of the nail.
The single, solid coil spring allows for exceptional reactivity and exactness in your cuts, helping you make the process quick and painless. Also, this particular model has a built-in nail file hidden inside the handle. It’s not essential, but it’s a nice little addition that will keep your cat’s nails from snagging and also help them grow uniformly.

Pros:

• Ergonomic handle is comfortable and handles very well
• Extra nail file is a great additional tool for the health of your cat’s nails
• Sensitive spring makes for easy cutting
• High-end stainless steel blades are guaranteed for life, and make quick, clean cuts
• Extremely precise cutting along with easy-to-follow instructions ensure you avoid the quick and get exact trims each time

Cons:

• Barely a con, but these are larger than most nail clippers and so would be less easy for smaller hands to work with than perhaps a smaller set of clippers

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Safari’s HDP Professional series clippers are exceptional, especially for so simple a design. They’re great for people who have never cut their cat’s nails or for seasoned pros alike. The design is much more akin to shears, in that they take a bit more pressure to get to cut, but the resistance of the coil allows for extremely precise trims each time.

Included in the design is a “safeguard” that will, with very minimal effort, keep you from cutting too close to the quick, ensuring a safe trim each time. This is exceptionally handy if these are your first cat nail clippers and your first time cutting your cat’s claws. Finally, these are ideal for the beginner because the blade is only able to trim to 3/16” at a time, which might make you take multiple cuts but it makes sure you don’t accidentally cut too much which is far worse than a few minutes of extra practice.

Pros:

• Extremely easy-to-use and designed for beginners to learn how to cut nails
• Sharp blades but limited cutting length ensures precise cuts without cutting too much nail
• Guards prevent going to close to the quick, another safeguard for your pet

Cons:

• The “clipping” sound can be frightening to some pets, and this model hasn’t designed to mitigate that sound at all. While it’s not always a problem, with a skittish dog or cat, this could be an issue and might take some getting used to before they’re comfortable with these particular clippers

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Epica is one of the highest-rated brands among professional groomers and for good reason; they’re easy to use, comfortable, and the precision cutting mechanism ensures a clean, quick cut each time. Extremely durable and made from stainless steel, they won’t dull, bend, or rust, and they have a safety lock that will protect curious kids or clumsy adults from accidental trimmings of their own.

Designed with a safety “stop” guard, you can avoid overcutting your cat’s nails fairly easily. Semi-circular blades on the top guide your cat’s nails into the perfect spot to get a clean, easy cut and avoid injury. Combined with how sharp the blades are, you shouldn’t have much difficulty with a one-click clip, which will be a relief to pet and owner alike.

Pros:

• The simple, easy-to-use design shouldn’t fool you; these are exacting tools that cut with extreme precision and avoid painful accidents to both humans and cats
• One of the highest-rated brands among professionals, these have thousands of positive reviews that emphasize precision and safety
• 100% lifetime money-back guarantee

Cons:

• Simple design foregoes some extras that might be appreciated like noise-reduction

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Compared to the other products we’ve reviewed, which often appear more like kitchen shears, the Pet Republique nail clippers with looked at are extremely precise and small.

This serves to avoid accidentally cutting yourself, or perhaps, more importantly, cutting too much of your cat’s nails. The grip is rubber-coated and fairly small which is great when working with tiny, squirming patients like a cat that doesn’t want to have its nails trimmed.

Though this particular model doesn’t have many of the “extras” we like – a spring-loaded handle, a safety guard, etc. – it does have a few other things going for it based on its size. It’s naturally going to have less of, if not none of the associated clipping sounds that can scare pets. In addition, the small size of the cutting area should ensure that you don’t accidentally cut yourself – it’s a tiny section of the bladed clipper, but it’s perfect for cutting tiny cat nails. Finally, for each purchase you make, Pet Republique donates 15% to the American Animal Rescue Society, a no-kill shelter that finds homes for abandoned pets.

Pros:

• Precise, sharp, and exact cuts each time
• Stainless steel construction and a 2-year warranty mean that on the off-chance these break, they’ll be easily and quickly replaced by the manufacturer
• Compact design allows for easy storage
• 15% of the purchase price goes to help abandoned animals
• Least expensive of the highest-rated brands on Amazon

Cons:

• These are more like small scissors than shears, which is fine – they make up for their small stature by being precise, sharp, and easy-to-use. That said, they don’t have the spring-assisted cutting mechanism, which means you need to be more precise as the pressure is entirely dictated by your fingers, which can be seen as a pro or a con, honestly.

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Perhaps the most unique design in clippers we reviewed, the Boshel brand model offers a scissor-like design that curves upward. This gives you both a better vantage point to ensure you’re not cutting too close to the quick, and also more control over the angle and depth of the cut itself.

The rubber loops are soft and comfortable, and the strength of the cut is determined by your hand, not by tension springs. The blades themselves are tucked under scooped guards, making them safe for even teenagers to learn to use. In addition, the handles are curved slightly outward, unlike with scissors, which gives you more control over the pressure used to cut. This singular design element makes them unlike just about any other cat nail clippers available at this level of quality.

Pros:

• Unique blade and handle design gives you precise, sharp cuts that you control the strength and depth of, ensuring incredibly accurate cuts and less fuss, time, and potential for injury to you or your pet
• Comfortable grips, spread at an angle that actually suits your hand means no strain or stress while you do what is arguably one of the most nerve-wracking parts of being a pet parent (at least at first).
• 100% money-back guarantee if the product won’t work on your pet, or you simply aren’t delighted with them
• Safe for use with even kittens’ delicate nails

Cons:

• No safety latch
• No spring-assist, which might be more or less favorable depending on your view, but it’s less favorable for a newbie into the pet nail trimming experience
• Far more expensive than most other brands – not that they’re not worth it, but you can get comparable spring-assisted clippers for half the price in some cases

Conclusion

Rather than spending $20 per visit at your vet’s office to have your cat’s nails trimmed, do it at home yourself with a good pair of cat nail clippers. It’s far easier than you might think if you’ve got the proper tools, and even the best pair will still be cheaper than a single visit to your vet for a trimming.

While we recommend the Epica brand nail clippers due to its comfortable grip, sharp stainless steel blades, a lifetime guarantee, and the perfect tension to ensure a precise cut, there are certainly many others that could suit you just as well.

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Safer for you, your cat, your furniture, and your wallet; pick up a pair of professional quality, well-made nail clippers for cats and say goodbye to paying someone your hard-earned money to do what you can do at home!