Pets Keepers Guide Forums

I recently adopted a full grown neutered male cat from the local shelter, only realizing after I adopted him that had I not adopted him when I did he would have probably been euthanized. I'm so lucky to have found my kitty when I did!

My only issue with him is his claws. I do NOT want to declaw him as I know just how painful that can be for them and how it leaves a poor kitty defenseless if he ever needs to defend himself, so my question is... what other options do I have?

Do any of you trim your cat's claws? Is it difficult? Are there any tips you can give me? How about other ways to manage them?

My kitty isn't scratching people but at times is scratching at my furniture and other things. I do have children who adore him and I do worry about his razor sharp claws with them sometimes. Any hints, tips, or advice would be really appreciated.

I am so happy to hear that you are against declawing your cat. Declawing is such a painful process for them and it really does leave them defenseless. I am aware of one other method when it comes to preventing scratches, but sadly it will also leave your cat defenseless if it goes outside and such.

There are caps that you can buy for your cat's claws. The caps are painless. You use a special glue to apply the caps to the claws, which will leave them covered and unable to scratch your furniture.

(11-16-2015, 01:43 PM)lexinonomous Wrote: [ -> ]I am so happy to hear that you are against declawing your cat. Declawing is such a painful process for them and it really does leave them defenseless. I am aware of one other method when it comes to preventing scratches, but sadly it will also leave your cat defenseless if it goes outside and such.

There are caps that you can buy for your cat's claws. The caps are painless. You use a special glue to apply the caps to the claws, which will leave them covered and unable to scratch your furniture.

This is very interesting and I'll have to look into it. My cat is an indoor cat, the only time he is ever outside he is in his travel cage and it is locked. I just got him a couple weeks ago and I don't plan on him getting out. I'm more worried about him being defenseless if he happens to slip out of the house. He is microchipped and he doesn't ever seem to want to go outside, but I'm worried that he might slip out one day when I'm not expecting it.

Have you heard of people clipping their cat's nails? I've seen some things online about it but it seems so very scary and I wouldn't want to damage the "quick" and make him bleed.

(11-16-2015, 01:55 PM)KerriFL Wrote: [ -> ]This is very interesting and I'll have to look into it. My cat is an indoor cat, the only time he is ever outside he is in his travel cage and it is locked. I just got him a couple weeks ago and I don't plan on him getting out. I'm more worried about him being defenseless if he happens to slip out of the house. He is microchipped and he doesn't ever seem to want to go outside, but I'm worried that he might slip out one day when I'm not expecting it.

Have you heard of people clipping their cat's nails? I've seen some things online about it but it seems so very scary and I wouldn't want to damage the "quick" and make him bleed.

The claw caps seemed to do the trick for me. They never bothered my cats at all. My cats were inside at all times, so I never had to worry about them defending themselves from anything but my dogs and my dogs were pretty used to them at the time.

I've never heard of clipping the cat's nails, but I can't see why it wouldn't be okay. I want to say that it'd be easy to hurt the cat if you weren't super careful. I found a photo of the claw caps in case you were wondering what they looked like.

See if someone had left me this kind of advice on my post, then I would have had a better opinion of why not to declaw the cat. I do see everybody's point with the declawing issue, but nobody was giving me any advice on how to prevent the scratches besides don't get a cat. I think that if you are going to criticize, then you might want to give a better suggestion. I like this cat nail cover idea. How long do they stay on? How often do you have to change them?