Declawing a cat....please help!
 

Hello everyone,

I never declawed my cat b/c I thought it was
inhumane. However, he did ruin my old furniture.
Not badly, but enough to bother someone anal
like me. And it was more from jumping up on the
dressers than it was scratching the couch and what
not.

Anyway, I just got my cat back (long story) and I have
new furniture and I have to buy more, etc. and I
figured that I should get him declawed.

However, I got up this morning and cancelled the
appointment. I just don't have the heart to do it.
I just can't get over what they do to the cat. It
seems inhumane. I'm afraid he will be in too much
pain, for too long and I'm afraid it will change the
type of cat he is.
They do have their own personalities...I swear!

I know some of you might think I'm crazy and that
I'm thinking about it too much. However, I'm hoping
someone (cat lovers?) can offer me some words of
wisdom. Advice? Comfort? Reason?

I really am torn. I don't want a life of scratched and ripped furniture, but I don't want to put my cat through hell either.

i would never delclaw a cat, it is inhumane. and to let you know most (I say most, and know I don't remember which, I know most of Europe) of the world it considered inhumane if not illegal!

Think about that, you can get those little plastic covers for your funiture to keep it nice. and it is painfull. The claws are part of the bones. and they have to break the bone and then rip it out, most cats then loose there balance and have infections with the feet for the rest of there life.

Buy your kitty one of those tower carpet things. Where she or he can play and scracth that. if it does not alreadt have catnap on itI am sure you can sprinkle it with it to make your kitty use it.

Don't do it. My older sister declawed my cat without my consent. I had no idea she was planning on it. That was about 10 years ago (he's 12 now). It is never the same for them. They can't hold onto things and fall off of furniture when they jump onto something. They lose their balance easily and its a long recovery period. Do a little bit of cat behavior research. I'm sure there are some other ways of keeping him from ruining your furniture or at least when your home and you can catch him.

Please Please Please DON'T do it! Many vets don't even declaw cats anymore because it is inhumane.

What they do is DISLOCATE their first joints of their "fingers" so they can't retract their claws.

And, yes, it sometimes does change the kittys personality. Often times they stop using the liter box and other personality traits are "off."

My suggestions are this, 1) you may not have a problem with your kitty scratching but DEFINITELY buy a scratching post for EACH level of your house. And, IF they start to scratch your furniture, either squirt them with a water bottle or put a soda can with some pennys in it and rattle it when they scratch. You need to be on top of your kitty to train him/her to not scratch your furniture.

I am the biggest neat freak on this planet and my kitties have scratched this one chair of mine. I purposely only spent a little on it because it is unfathomable to me to declaw them. But what I did was put a scratching post next to the chair and then scratch that instead of the chair.

Please don't declaw your kitty. Please!

They also make little caps that you can put on kitties nails. They are soft plastic and fit right on without bugging them. They still keep thier claws and can use them, but they aren't sharp enough to snag fabric. They make them in different sizes depending on how old your kitty is. They don't hurt and you can pout them on while they are sleeping, eating or hanging out in your lap, it's not a huge process and they hardly notice they are there.

Those are called SoftPaws. I got some, but my kitty is too little to put them on yet. Does anyone know if they actually work? Has anyone used them?

DONT DO IT!!!

I heard of this spray stuff that you can spray on your furniture (people cant smell it ) that makes a cat not want to claw at things...

the squirt bottle for water works well too

I agree with everyone who says don't do it.

If your cat goes outdoors, s/he will lose all methods of defense without claws.

I'm in agreement with the others responding to your post. I've had three cats and none of them have been declawed. I don't think it's cool to physically modify a cat simply to keep it from doing something which comes naturally to it. However, we must all live together and thus the key is to train the cat properly. Look again at what aabby757 said:



I take the approach that aabby757 details above. My first cat liked to try and scratch the corner of my couch below the armrest. Whenever she did, I would call out a sharp "Hey! Hey!!" and clap my hands about three times quickly and loudly. That would startle her and send her skidding away. The pennies in a taped up aluminum can works too, but I found that the sound isn't as sharp and effective. The short yell and clap worked better for me and was easier than trying to fumble for the can while my cat tore up the couch. Nonetheless, it's the same concept.


In addition, I used a second method to drive my point home with the cat. I happened to have an extra piece of scrap carpet. You know, the sample squares they always seem to be throwing out from carpet stores? Since she would sometimes scratch when I was in another room or not home, I leaned the carpet piece against the area of the couch she liked to scratch. That helped keep it safer.


If I was home and I saw her trying to scratch the couch, I would run over (or go chase her around the room), grab her front paws and put them on the carpet. I would then make her run her claws across the carpet piece. Yes, forcibly. Why? Because at the very moment she exhibits scratching behaviour, I need to take advantage of the current state of her kitty mind and demonstrate *where* to take out her scratching urges.


It didn't take long at all for her to associate scratching = carpet piece. As a matter of fact, I recall that she would go over to the carpet piece and then look at me before trying to scratch. When she would go right for the carpet piece and scratch, I did nothing (no yell and clap, nothing). After all, that's exactly what I want her to do. Once she got that down, I moved the carpet piece away from the couch and viola! no more scratching on my furniture. Whenever she wanted a scratch, she simply found the new location of the carpet and went there.


My second cat didn't scratch furniture at all. My third cat was a tiny kitten and so she did try. However, she didn't need all of the extra training the first did. A yell and clap was all it took for her to realize that "mommy doesn't like me to scratch on this." :)


The same thing goes for training your cat to go in the litterbox. If I saw my cat about to go, or going, I would immediately jump up, run over, *pick up the cat* (yes, while it's making piddle) and run over to the litter box and place her in it. I would then hold her feet and force her to paw at the litter. Why? Again, peeing is what's on the cat's mind. Their instinct after peeing/pooping is to paw at the "dirt." So, I tap into the cat's instinct by dragging it's feet through the litterbox. Yeah, it's not great having to pick up a dripping cat, but it's not great that the cat is peeing outside the box anyway.


With all pets, one has to make sure that you also give a lot of love and praise to the animal so it doesn't feel "got at" while you're training it.


I even retrained my friend's cat after she found herself practically ready to give it away because of it's bad behaviour. My friend had no clue how to raise an animal. When the kitten tried to pee on the carpet, my friend would scream at the kitten by yelling out the cat's name and then throwing a shoe at it. :( After some time, my friend wondered why the cat was still peeing on the carpet, why it didn't seem to like her, and why it wouldn't come when you call her name. (Uhm... it won't come when you call it because it associates it's name with a flying shoe).


My methods may sound off beat, but they have been *extremely* effective for me. It only took about two weeks to get my cat to stop scratching the furniture, a couple of *days* to get my friend's cat to properly learn her name, and about two weeks to get both cats litterbox trained.


Dogs have a slightly different set of training but, again, hands on training is necessary, even with the "icky" or "irritating" behaviours. Declawing a cat is a relatively easy way out...just eliminate the claws and all is better, right? Training takes extra committment and effort. Then again, people who don't want to make any committment and effort shouldn't really own pets.


Just be patient and firm and your cat will come around soon enough. Best of luck to you!


.....Kelly :)

Great advice Kelly!

BTW. I've litter trained 3 cats and they each only took me 1 day! So send them to me if you need help LOL! :D

I agree with everyone! I have three cats with claws (and one without, but she was declawed before I got her) and I've really not had a problem with clawing at all. I got one of those gigantic kitty jungle carpeted things that's like 6 feet tall, and that gets most of the action. :)

I'm in complete agreement with everyone who says not to do it!

I'm a kitty lover even though I can't keep cats at my current place of residence, but we do own several cats at home.

It will definately hurt them!

Like someone else mentioned there are other options like using that spray that will deter them from going on or near the couches and other furniture. My parents used it successfully with our cats at home, and it doesn't smell like anything (to humans anyway)

Kelly, AWESOME post! great advice! :)

shopgrl, best of luck with your feline friend :)

I have 2 declawed cats and they really do not know that they don't have front claws. They will paw at the sofa and the wicker back chairs like they are clawing. They do still have back claws. They never go outside. If you are going to have in & out cats, I would not do it.

Been there
 

My last kitty (R.I.P. :( ) was NOTORIOUS for scratching on my couch. Here's what worked for me that got him to break that habit...

1. Buy a scratching post! As soon as I got him one, he left my furniture alone.

2. Squirt bottle. On those ocassion then I would catch him getting ready to do it on my furniture. After a few squirts, he left the furniture alone and just used the scratching post.

3. Clip his nails. I kept my kitty's nails clipped because those things do get sharp. They sell kitty clippers for about $3-$5 bucks everywhere (pet store, Wal-mart, etc.)


I'd thought about getting him declawed, but didn't, mainly because I'm cheap.

WOW!

I never have heard people so opposed to declawing a cat.

We have had 4 cats over the years, and all have been declawed. They are all indoor/outdoor cats, so just have the front claws removed and they are fine out at the barn and around the yard, etc. We did make this choice by talking with our vet. He also declaws his own cats in the same way.

I guess if your more worried about the cat than your furniture you can opt not to declaw, but it is safe and we have never had a cat get infected paws from it. I'm not sure what kind of vets you all go to, but I can reassure you that my vet is not only safe, but makes sure owners know the proper after care and follow up visits.