Declawing help

Hello, all i rescued a kitten from the shelter and i need some advice. Im taking her in to be spayed in a week. But the vet recommended declawing at the same time. She will not leave my furniture alone but i dont want to declaw her. I have had a siamese when i was younger that was declawed and he didnt seem to have any problems but i love this kitten and i dont want any harm to come to her. My husband wants her declawed because he has been redecorating and she has been trying to tear holes in the new wall paper. My question is i read about soft paws does this really work. Do they bother kittens to wear them. And are they hard to put on? Thanks for any answers that i may get.

Hi Candi Girl.

There are many alternatives to declawing. We do not support it on this site. Cats can be taught not to scratch furniture, and soft paws are a great help, too.

I am moving your thread to out Health and Nutrition forum, and I'll give you a link to info on declawing.

Candi Girl: I commend you for not wanting your kitten to be declawed, and hate that a vet would recommend it. Unfortunately the same thing happened to me, but that's a different story.

I'm going to give you a few links to some past threads where this issue was discussed. There are some links within these threads that show what declawing really is. If your husband has any caring for this kitten, if he sees what the procedure is he will change his mind about wanting her declawed. The other thing is that kittens are really quite easy to train to scratch on appropriate things! Basically, you just have to have them available for her. There are tips in these threads for helping her to know what is OK to scratch and what isn't. I have a cat with claws, and she has NEVER destroyed and furniture or wall coverings. It CAN be done!!

Declawing
Declawing...some thoughts (this one talks about Soft Paws and even has pics of what they look like on the cat)
Declawing Sticky
Soft Paws

P.S. Oops, Deb and I posted at the same time and decided on different forums. It should be in the Health and Nutrition.

Oops! I see Heidi beat me to it.

Please check out these links. We support the position that declawing is an inhumane mutilation of the animal. It is actually outlawed in many countries and can lead to a host of behavioral problems afterward.

If she is just young, you could get her accustomed to trimming her claws. I do this to my male cat as he is pretty rough on the furniture.

Candi girl... I also commend you on asking questions before you had her declawed! We here at TheCatSite are very much against declawing. If it were not for this site and the education I have gotten here about all things cats related, I too might not have known how horrible declawing a cat actually is. I never knew they had to break all of their knuckles to do it and how horribly painful it is to them and how it can even alter their personalities. There are several alternatives, however, including the softpaws. My indoor cat has never clawed or destroyed any furniture, even though I never tried the softpaws...I just bought him a scratching post when he was very young, and every time he started to claw anything...I said "NO" and picked him up and took him to the scratching post and put his paws on it. He soon got the idea, and I have never had any problems,

I hope you will keep us posted on how it goes!!! (and don't declaw him!!! )

We have 2 cats (male and female)under a year and they haven't damaged any furniture. We made a couple of scratching posts before we got them and that's what they use. Occasoinally they'll use the carpet, but stop when we tell them to.
I do trim our cats claws. It's easy to do, especially if you start when they're young.

I have decided to go ahead with the spay but not the declawing. I am going to go to petsmart and buy some of the soft paws and try that. Im also going to try to get a scratching post. Thanks for all the answers feel good about what im not going to do.

I'm so glad! You have definitely made the right decision! Definitely get the little one some scratchers. I get my little girl the little corrugated cardboard in an enlongated box scratchers. (You'll know them when you see them.) They only cost about $5 and Ophelia LOVES to scratch on those! Feel free to ask if you need tips on getting kitty to scratch where you want her to.

Finding the right type of scratching board is important too. I have several different types in my home of 6 cats - never have had a problem with them scratching things I dont want them too. Most of mine prefer the cardboard type scratching boards to the rug type, sisel (sp?) type though 2 of them use the sisel ones just as much as they do the cardboard ones. Im glad to hear you have decided against declawing.

Strange that so many people don't get it as it's really quite simple:
Cats come with claws.
Live with it - or get a goldfish.

I didnt come on here to get talked to rude i came on here to ask a question. Yea cats are born with claws they are also born intact but many of us feel the need to spay and nueter them and change that part of there life to. I have decided for now what im going to do. Jeez dont people know how to be nice these days. Thanks for all the nice replys

Candi, just to let you know, I'm raising 2 girls to be polite and considerate of others feelings, so there will be a couple more nice ones. :>)
I've run into my share and then some of rude people, mainly ones who think they know all and I've gotten pretty tired of it since I try not to do that to people. You should see the blasting I got on another forum for asking a simple question. I decided not to go back there since they don't appreciate my efforts to show others there are better ways to treat some animal problems. I've gotten a lot of flack for over 15 years on my alternative health usage, but I just try and take it in stride knowing it will just be a matter of time before it's more mainstream. It has already changed a lot. I don't try to force it on anyone or claim to know it all.
You opened up a can of worms with me!
Hope all goes well with your cat. It's good that you care enough to seek out answers.