Hmm... trimming is definately the best thing to help. And with kittens, those little nails grow into little needles real fast! As they get older, they learn to play without extending their claws. Even when Pouncer was highly upset about the foster kittens, he never once swatted at them with claws exposed. So Iwould think it was most important to keep those kitten nails as dull as possible. I don't know how often you'd need to trim them.

When they start to scrtah things they shouldn't just pick them up and redirect their scrathing to the posts... thats what I did with my litle fosters last week. Its amazing how quickly those young ones learn! Someday you might be lucky and have a cat that never uses his/her claws. I hardly ever trim Allen's because he never ever uses them to scratch anything other than his post. I always forget he even has claws for that reason! Pouncer on the other hand can be a bit nawtee about what he scratches... but why should that be a surprise?