Even if they’re just a little on the long side, they could still catch on things and break, which can be painful.
Cats didn’t evolve with upholstery. There’s not much equivalent in the wild.
So a cat’s instinct is probably to have longer claws than are safe in the modern context.
On the other end of the spectrum, my cat was fine using her scratchpads and posts for more than a decade but she’s now quite elderly and doesn’t play like that as much as she used to. Shamefully, I didn’t notice her nails had grown too long until she started limping because one had grown long enough to cut into her footpad.
Cats didn’t evolve with upholstery. There’s not much equivalent in the wild.
So a cat’s instinct is probably to have longer claws than are safe in the modern context.
On the other end of the spectrum, my cat was fine using her scratchpads and posts for more than a decade but she’s now quite elderly and doesn’t play like that as much as she used to. Shamefully, I didn’t notice her nails had grown too long until she started limping because one had grown long enough to cut into her footpad.