Should You Declaw Your Cat?

The Humane Society of the United States opposes declawing except for the rare cases when it is necessary for medical purposes, such as the removal of cancerous nail bed tumors.What’s the big deal? It’s just like cutting a nail off, right? The truth is more disturbing than that. Declawing a cat is equivalent to cutting off the first knuckles of all of your fingers. Doesn’t sound like such a small thing anymore, right?Declawing a cat involves amputating the last bone of each toe from a cat’s paws. Cats scratch to get rid of dead husks from their claws. It isn’t done with malicious intent, it is normal cat behavior. Cats should normally be trained when they are 8 weeks old about scratching dos and don’ts. The myth that cats cannot be trained is exactly that, a myth.A little bit of research will tell you all you need to know about training your cats. However, if you don’t want to do a lot of research, the trick is to find out what motivates your cat and use that to train them.

Declawing a cat is banned in 22 countries around the world because it is looked at as an inhumane act.Declawing a cat leads to health complications like infected post operated wounds. Cats also face problems with walking, balancing and posture after a declaw.In addition to the above, declawing removes a way for many cats to cope. Almost all cats scratch to destress, Instead of declawing your cat, you can play with him/her, give them plenty of hiding spaces and find alternate ways of helping your cat destress.Cats also develop plenty of new bad behaviors after declawing. Declawed cats are usually more aggressive, go to the bathroom outside of the litter box, and find other methods of dealing with stress and chronic pain.

• You can keep their claws trimmed versus fully declawing them which will minimize a lot of the damage your household objects will take from them.• A cat is going to scratch something, it is in their nature. So play to that by offering them alternate places to scratch like scratching posts and boards. Bonus points if you can offer them objects made of different materials such as carpet, sisal, wood and cardboard.• If your cat is being a stubborn puss, you can try Soft Claws or a similar product. These kinds of products are silicone sheaths similar to sword sheathes in their functionality. They are glued to cat nails and need to be replaced roughly every 6 weeks.Do not punish your kitty for doing what he/she does naturally. Would you like it if someone punished you for sweating too much? You cannot help sweating and in the same vein, a cat cannot help it when they scratch. It is as natural to them as breathing is to us.