Top 5 Best Cat Nail Clippers (We Tested Them All)

Hey everyone, it's Mallory here with All About Cats. In this week's video, we're going to be taking a look at the top five best nail clippers you can get for your cat. So trimming your cat's nails is one of those things that I think a lot of us don't think of as a cat care essential, but which can really benefit both your and your cat's life. Trimming your cat's nails regularly can help to keep them from damaging furniture, along with proper training and providing a scratching post. And it can also help to keep them from kind of damaging carpet just as they walk around. And it can also help to protect you a bit, you know, when you're handling your cat and their claws make contact with your skin. So there are a lot of benefits to trimming your cat's nails and a really good pair of nail clippers is going to help you out with that. So in order to choose the best nail clippers on the market, I spent hours researching the different types of nail clippers out there, looking at the qualities of a good nail clipper, and selecting some of the most highly rated nail clippers with all of the features I consider to be ideal. So I tried them with my cats, Wessie and Forest, and observed how quickly they were able to trim through the claw, how easy they were to hold, and what types of safety mechanisms they had. I also did a little bit more of a controlled test with some toothpicks. So I snipped through the toothpicks and looked at how quickly and effectively they clip through them and how easy they were to use with a little bit more of a controlled material. I also did all of these tests with a basic toenail clipper I had around the house just to see if these nail clippers actually were any better. And I'll just say that yes, all of these nail clippers were more effective than my toenail clipper. And so they're probably going to be a good investment if you're going to be clipping your cat's claws on a regular basis. All of them have slightly different qualities, you aren't going to see any guillotine clippers, and you're also not going to see any electric grinders on this list. All of them are sharp and effective products that are going to allow you to clip quickly through your cat's nails. And most of them have some sort of safety mechanism to prevent you from cutting into the quick. So the quick is an area with blood vessels that can really hurt if you cut into it. So your cat's claws are mostly just like your fingernails or toenails. They don't have any feeling. But if you go too low, you'll see that quick, that pink area on your cat's claw, and that's going to really hurt if you cut into it. So all of these clippers or most of these clippers, all but one, have a little safety guard to keep you from cutting into them, which is really nice. So with that being said, let's jump into those top five recommendations. There will be video navigation to allow you to click to the section that interests you. And of course, I'll also have links to all of the products in the description. My first recommendation is Safari's Pet Nail Clippers in the smaller medium size. So again, it's a plier style nail clipper. So you're going to hold these handles and then clip, clip, clip. And I find that it has a very comfortable grip that makes it very easy to hold and handle, even if you're wrangling a cat who doesn't want to have their nails clipped. And I was impressed by how well it clipped through my cat's claws. So it has a nice sharp blade, and it has this nice spring mechanism that allows it to open up really quickly after each cut. Overall, I found it to work really effectively. The size is nice, everything's appropriate for a cat. And I found that the safety features worked quite well. So it has this nice little safety guard. It sits just in the right place. Everything works quite well. It also has a nice lock that's very easy to use. Overall, I was pretty impressed with these clippers. Everything worked exactly the way it should. And at $11.92 currently on Chewy, this nail clipper is pretty economical. So overall, I would highly recommend this as a good nail clipper for your cat. My second recommendation is the Zen Clipper from Pet Product Innovations. It seemed to work a little bit more effectively than the Safari Clipper. It did excellently both on my cat and in my little toothpick test. The blade seemed to be really sharp. And I think of all of the clippers I tried, this was the sharpest and fastest one. Another thing that I like about this clipper is that instead of having a safety guard, it has this little wheel that you're going to turn to tighten it. What I also liked about this design is that it works both as a lock. So if you turn that little wheel all the way, you can close the clipper entirely. And as a safety guard, as I mentioned, so overall, I found that the Zen Clipper was probably the highest performance clipper on this list. My only complaints are for one the price. So currently it costs $22.95 on Chewy. And also the grip isn't quite as comfortable as my number one recommendation. It's a little bit small in this junior size. And I found it was just ever so slightly more awkward, though still perfectly comfortable to hold and really easy to use. So if you're looking for a more economical nail clipper for your cat, the Miller's Forge Pet Nail Clipper here is probably going to be a good option. So when I was researching the best nail clippers, I found that this brand gets recommended more than seemingly any other. In fact, Wirecutter's article on the best nail clippers for dogs only included Miller's Forge products because the vets and groomers to whom they spoke during their research process all recommended this brand. So I had high hopes when I purchased it and started testing it out. But I have to say, I was hoping for and expecting a bit more out of this product. So there are a few issues with the design that I found kind of annoying. One is that this plier style clipper opens up really wide. My hands are, you know, relatively small, but even so, I think for most people, the opening is going to be a bit wide and a little bit difficult to handle. Another thing that kind of bugged me about this, the rubber grips tend to slip off. So if you're kind of wrangling your cat and kind of moving around a lot, you could find those grips kind of slipping off. My third complaint about this clipper is that the safety guard tended to slip out of place and it doesn't seem to be adjustable. So you can't tighten it to make it a little bit more controlled. And I found that sometimes it would kind of slip out of place and then the nail would be able to come through, which is not good if you're new to trimming your cat's claws and you want to make sure that you're blocked and not able to hit that quick. The good thing about this clipper is that it has a really sharp blade. I found that in all of my tests, it snipped through really quickly and effectively. And based on the reviews I've read, it seems to last for quite a long time. So if you're looking for a good sharp nail clipper, you're not worried about these little fiddly features, you can deal with that. Maybe you're more experienced with trimming your cat's nails. And you want to get that clipper for a good price, then this Miller's Forge Clipper could be a good option. So currently it's available on Chewy for $6.99. If you buy two at once, you can get them for $12.58. So it's a pretty good deal compared to the other clippers on this list. Now if you prefer a scissor style clipper kind of like baby scissors, you might like the Nekoichi Precision Nail Clippers. These clippers are supposed to have a 30% thinner blade compared to the competition. They also like to note that these are manufactured in a city in Japan known for some of the world's best swordsmiths. Maybe a bit gimmicky, but worth mentioning. And I found that the blade was quite effective. It snipped through my cat's nails really quickly. This scissors does not have a safety guard, but it is pretty easy to see what you're doing because of that thin blade. If you have a cat who tends to wriggle around a lot, and maybe you're less experienced with trimming, then you might want to go with something that has that safety guard. It's a very small scissors, so some people might find it a little bit cramped. I found it to be perfectly comfortable. At $19.60, this clipper is definitely on the expensive side and you can find scissors style nail clippers for a bit cheaper. But I'm impressed with the design and I like what I've seen from Nekoichi so far. So it certainly could be worth it. And my last recommendation is going to be a good option for multi pet homes. If you're looking for something that's going to work for both your cat and for your dog, then the Hertzco nail clipper and file set could be a good option. So of all the clippers I tested, this one probably had the worst blade. I found that both when I was trimming my cat's nails and going through those toothpicks, it's just ever so slightly slower. But what I found to be good about these clippers is that it has a nice, reliable safety guard that sits just in the right spot. It's possible to adjust it if necessary. And the opening is flexible enough that you can use it for both a dog or a cat, probably a smaller dog and with the file included, it's going to be a good option for multi pet homes. Compared to the others, it was a little bit less comfortable to hold kind of a big awkward grip. But if you have larger hands, you're more comfortable with this and you're dealing with multiple pets. I think it should be comfortable enough. At $10.99, it seems like a relatively good value, especially given that it comes with that file so you can get that perfect polish. Maybe not that comfortable for cats. But if you have both cats and dogs who are using this could be a good useful tool. So that's it. That's all five of my recommendations for the best nail clippers for cats. I hope you found it helpful. Again, trimming your cat's nails is one of those things that we don't usually think of as an essential but once you start doing it, you really see the value of it. It's a great practice that can make living with your cat a lot more comfortable. Something with a razor sharp blade and a comfortable grip is going to make your job a lot easier, as well as getting started early. I know a lot of cats are not so comfortable having their nails trimmed and some people don't even feel comfortable doing it themselves. But there are a lot of good tips available. I'll put some links in the description so you can learn a bit more about trimming your cat's nails. And we plan to come out with a video soon explaining step by step how to do this effectively. So I hope this video helped you and gave you some ideas. Again, there will be links to all of these products in the description. And of course, there'll also be a link to the written version of this review, which has some additional recommendations as well. So thank you so much for watching. If you're interested in more buyer's guides like this one, as well as specific product reviews, and information on all things cats, please go ahead and subscribe to the All About Cats channel. We put out new videos at least once a week. So there's always something to look forward to. So yeah, thank you so much. And I hope to see you next week. Bye.