Soft Paws

To answer your questions:

Are they easy to put on? IMO, yes - but others may have had problems if the cat was wiggly or did not like it.

Are they OK for the cat? Yes

Do they work? Yes - they do fall off over a period of time, so you have to re-apply them.

Here is also a link to one thread on them. If you search the forums, there have been quite a few threads on them over time.

I have had issues putting them on a cat but yes they work and are as safe as any plastic cat toy

I think they are easy. My friend has a fat lazy cat that doesnt move for beans and when they were talking about declawing her I freaked and got them to order the Soft Paws and showed them how to apply them now kitty is saved from a horrible unnessesary surgery and I dont have to beat them for their stupidity! If I ever had to worry about my cats scratching the couch I would get them SoftPaws.

Easy to apply depending on the cat. Genever was so easy. She's the best!



My cousin's cats, they didn't take to it as well, I don't think she ever got a whole set on any of them before finally giving up.

They should last up to 4-6 weeks, but they can fall off before then. If they stay on longer, then you need to cut the tip of the cap and that breaks up the glue bond and they'll come off.

Or...

The cat can chew them off. Like Genever started to do in November after about 6 months of tolerating them pretty well. It got to the point where she had them all off the same day I put them on, and since she really didn't bother a whole lot with scratching, I just stopped and went back to just nail clipping.

They're cute with all the colors you can get, and definitely safe.

Good luck!

i've never tried these (still trying to 'train' mine not to scratch the old fashioned-way... unsuccessfully ).

i'm curious. while wearing them, it doesn't appear that the cats can fully retract their claws. can they? if not, isn't that annoying to the cat? and after extended use, would full retraction still occur naturally?

don't get me wrong, a minor thing like that beats declawing by a long shot, i was just curious...

No, the caps only go on so far and don't interfere with retraction, they look like the claws are all out because the plastic cap goes over/around the nail (or the nail inside the cap) and so it's thicker and longer because of the plastic covering.

I love 'em to death, but it just got annoying when G-cat started chewing them off. She is good though, she rarely uses her claws when playing or being picked up or moved, at least when body parts get involved. I think I only got scratched once since November when we gave up on the soft paws. She is much worse with biting. sigh.

If only they made Soft Jaws..

ah, i see. so part of the cap that's showing doesn't even have any claw in it, it's just an empty tip?

i should consider these further. my cats have a big homemade cat tree that they like to scratch routinely, but they sometimes have these crazy jags of furious couch-corner scratching when they're really excited or happy. usually very brief, and over before i even realize what that sound was. but still, one piece of furniture in particular has definitely payed the price for these episodes of unbridled enthusiasm

soft jaws! haha. let me know when you catch wind of these. i also have a kitty who could use a pair!

Well, not exactly, the claw is still inside, but since you have to trim their claws before applying Soft Paws, there probably is some empty space in there. A cat's claw still sticks out when it's 'retracted' but not as much as when they extend to scratch. And yes, Genever did do her scratching bit just as often with the Soft Paws as without, whether on the carpet, couch, or scratch board. From the Soft Paws website FAQs:

I've been using them for years (although we recently slacked off and now have to apply 30 of them to three cats). They work really well, and they are perfectly safe, and I've never known my cats to be bothered by them. My furniture only suffers when I get too lazy to reapply them. It's never my cat's fault, it's mine! And the cats can't claw each other or accidentally claw us when they jump on us at night.

I find it easiest to clip the claws (just do the very tips, so the glue has something to stick to) earlier in the day and give the cats a break before applying the caps. Then I fill all the caps for one cat at once, and then my husband holds the cat while I put on the caps. It's pretty speedy and simple as a two-person operation.

The trick to keeping the caps ON is to distract the cat for 10 minutes after you apply them — to give the glue a chance to set before the cat can chew them off. Often, the cat will forget about the Soft Paws after those 10 minutes of treats and playing, and the caps will stay on for weeks. Often ours stay on so long that we have to clip them off because the cat's nails are overgrown.

It's easiest to start out with the clear caps, not the colors, because you need to see how much glue you're getting in there. If you use too much, you'll get glue on the fur, and if you don't use enough, the cap will come off too soon. You want to be able to squeeze the cap and see a bit of glue coming out of the opening.

I love her nails!