¤ Declawing ¤

mamavazquez · Happy Camper Joined: 13 Mar 2007 Posts: 34

I am thinking about getting our 8 month old cat declawed. He is always inside. What are your views on this?

newbie · Active Poster Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 99

a cat person, but my friends are - they think its cruel to declaw unless they are harming themselves....

mamavazquez · Happy Camper Joined: 13 Mar 2007 Posts: 34

but he is constantly scratching at everything.This is my first inside cat but it is my understanding alot of people remove just the front claws for this reason.

Lena · Active Poster Joined: 21 Apr 2007 Posts: 100

DON'T DO IT.

Sorry to shout but declawing a cat is extremely cruel, it's like amputating your fingers at the second joint. Cat's have a psychological need to scratch.

But they don't need to scratch your sofa/carpets/whatever. If you haven't already then invest in a good scratching post and, if possible, a coir mat. That way you cat can either scratch vertically or horizontally. If your cat is indoors exclusively you really need a cat tree or you'll end up with a bored and very destructive cat. A good cat tree will have lots of areas that the cat can scratch. I have two indoor cats, with claws, and the only place they scratch is the tree.