I have a very calm, very tolerant 10 lb tortoiseshell female. She likes her belly rubbed, and she is fine with her paws being handled. I apply these caps and once I week, I replace any caps that have come off. Applying an entire set, front and back, takes me about 10 minutes from start to finish, but replacing caps as they come off takes about 3 minutes. Judging by how long different colors have remained on her feet, I would say that the caps average 3 weeks or so before being shed. I will break down what I do in case it could be of any help to other users. Supplies: Towel Soft Claws Glue New Applicator tip for glue Fingernail clippers Clipnosis clips (optional) Hood Procedure: I keep all of the supplies I need for application in a small mesh zippered pouch in the junk drawer of my kitchen. When I get ready to apply her nails, I lay down a towel on my kitchen counter (to place kitty on). I collect kitty, place her on the towel on her side, and apply Clipnosis clips. My cat will lay quietly in a zen-like state with the clips, but even without the clips she is easily manageable. I think if this is a terrifying procedure for your cat, you'll want to work on desensitization by playing with their feet more, providing lots of treats when they accept foot petting, then move on to just hanging out on the towel with the tools around, lots of treats, then eventually moving on to just nail clips with lots of treats, etc. If your cat is terrified of this procedure, clipnosis clips are not going to help, but if they are pretty calm about it all, clipnosis clips allow this to be easily done by one person with a totally chill cat who will just stay where you placed them until you're done. So once I've placed the clips on kitty, she just chills out on the towel for a second while I take check her feet. Any nails that are missing a cap, I trim the nail with the fingernail clippers. You want them *short*. Don't clip the quick, because that will be painful and traumatic! But you definitely want them trimmed back short. Once I've clipped the nails and counted how many caps I need, I will take out that number of caps and lay them on the counter. Take out a new applicator tip, clip the end off with the fingernail clippers (they ship with the ends closed off, so you need to clip the end off for glue to flow through the applicator), and then apply to the glue stick. Take your first nail cap, insert the applicator point INTO the nail cap, and squeeze the glue stick until the glue fills up the little cap. You want it to be nearly full of glue, but not so much so that it runs out and all over your fingers - then you just end up gluing yourself to the cap, the cat, or both. Hold the cats paw with one hand and depress the toe slightly to extend the claw, and place the nail cap on the nail. If the nail cap does not seat all the way back on the nail, the cap size is TOO SMALL or your nail is TOO LONG. Since you've already glue the cap on, just make a note of this for next time - either size up or trim the nail back further if you don't think you trimmed it enough. Its not going to hurt anything by not being fully seated on the nail, but it does make it easier for kitty to get caught in loose weave blankets (you need to make sure you don't have those kinds of hazards around) and it will make the nail cap shed off faster. Once you have applied all nail caps, I leave kitty laying on her side while I pack up all the supplies. She needs to remain still and calm for a minute or so while the caps dry, or she could easily shed them before they set. I remove the applicator tip from the glue stick and close the glue stick. Discard the applicator tip - the glue remaining inside will dry hard and make it impossible to use next time. Then I remove clipnosis clips from kitty and give her a treat and some cuddles. I dump the glue stick, clipnosis clips, fingernail clippers and caps all back into the mesh bag, and zip closed. Voila! A few notes on the negative reviews I have seen, and how to possibly avoid those pitfalls: Yes, these nail caps can make it easier for your cat to get caught up in loose weave blankets - think knitted throws. I have had this happen to my kitty, and I had to put the offending throw in another location where she wouldn't be likely to get caught in it. This was an easy sacrifice for me to make to have an alternative to declawing. No, my cat is not a problematic scratcher. We apply nail caps to protect our leather furniture from scratches it incurs from daily running. She likes to run and chase and parkour all over the furniture, and while she is not meaning to, this is damaging. So the nail caps eliminated that. My cat does groom her feet immediately after application, and sometimes seems to chew on the caps, but is not obsessively grooming or gnawing her feet. If she seemed particularly bothered by the caps, I would probably try desensitization by only applying a few caps and seeing if she got used to them little by little, or by distracting her immediately after application with some food. I have not had ANY issue with the caps not shedding in a timely manner - definitely no nails growing into her paw pads due to the caps not shedding. But I think if you're going to apply these caps, you should do your due diligence and check your cats feet once a week for any issues. You are applying an un-natural things to them, after-all. If you notice your cats nail is growing long and the cap is not shedding, take her to the vet to have the cap removed! They can remove it with a harmless solvent. I think that clipping the nails short before application and checking their feet periodically will eliminate this issue.
