Cats are the descendants of bigger predators hence they come with natural weapons, the claws. Pet or domesticated cats do not exactly need these claws but it is part of their anatomy. Most pet owners find these claws a serious threat to sibling pets, pet birds, and above all the furniture. Our precious kitties have this natural tendency of scratching the furniture, rip toilet roles into bits, and tearing apart anything which is soft. Moreover, the encounters that the owners come across while giving their kitty a bath is another reason owners want their furry felines to get rid of those killer claws, they want to keep their flesh safe!
Declawing the cats is not encouraged anymore, rather in recent decades, it has been seriously discouraged by the American Veterinary Medical Association. Some pet owners still imply this practice to stop their cats from unnecessary scratching. You might simply want to keep your cat from scratching the furniture or climbing the curtains or fastening against your leg with those prickly locks by declawing it, but what you don’t know is that this procedure can be very painful for your cat.
Here’s a Twitter thread started by a cat parent who along with being concerned for her furniture is also thinking of the wellbeing of her beloved kitty and hereby gathered up all the fellow cat parents to pour in ideas that could be an effective alternative for declawing. Along with being an extremely informative thread, you might find some funny stories about the adorable kitties.
1. Declawing isn’t the end solution!
2. Get them a nice calming manicure, perhaps?
3. Encourage positive scratching behaviors rather than taking this natural instinct away from them!
4. Scratch posts and scratch trees would do
5. That’s logical
6. Teach your cat to learn and earn a treat
7. The scratching kitty needs your attention
8. Training the felines on their scratching behaviors
9. Such a good girl!
My two girls are horizontal scratchers. When they want my attention or are just in a good mood they'll walk over to their "scratching rugs" to scratch. These are the designated CAT rugs and the only rugs they scratch. They really want to scratch carpet so this was my solution. pic.twitter.com/yBxf9PgAht
— Kikidoodle & Purrmaids & too many cats (@KikiDoodleTweet) December 13, 2020
10. Ideas for where you can get these rugs for your furballs
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11. It’s all about what texture do they like to scratch
12. Operant learning behavior
13. In case you’re wondering why your cat still scratches the furniture despite having a scratch post
14. Keep the scratchers in view of your little scratchers
15. Trimming instead of declawing
16. Some ideas for the pet nail trimmers
17. Another one
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18. A guide to ‘ where to trim your cat’s nail ‘
Declawing doesn’t only mean you’re removing the claws/nails, rather the first knuckle of the cat’s paws also gets removed which is an anatomical change and is very painful for the animal. The cat might still face difficulty in walking and the healing might take a lot of time. Moreover, the kitty also loses its personal defense system, hereby this procedure remains highly controversial for its consequences being harmful to the felines.
19. Be careful with the quick if your kitty is new to nail trimming as it might be longer than usual
20. Freshly done nails
21. People have their research done on all nail issues your cat might face
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22. The kitties need to behave in order to escape the nail time
23. If you’re a beginner, this one’s for you
24. Nail time ends when mom wants it to end
25. That adorable little girl is keeping up with the nail-time training, her mom is so proud of her
Gandalf is a very good girl at getting her nails done. You can hear her complain a little, and you can SEE her unhappy tail wiggling but she patiently waits because I trained her to deal with it. pic.twitter.com/HiZfkHdL1y
— Kikidoodle & Purrmaids & too many cats (@KikiDoodleTweet) December 13, 2020
26. Not all cats are bad, they just need to be rightly trained
27. Be firm with your grip
28. Pros of nail-time
29. That’s fancy!
30. Be careful in selecting the right product
31. Keep a close check
32. Plastic nails require a little grooming too
33. Here’s a guide to applying plastic nails in a way that they’ll last much longer
34. How to avoid glue from sticking to the fur?
35. You might need help during the nail time
36. Soft paws will do the job only if applied properly!
Source: KikiDoodleTweet
This sure was an informative thread with a lot of ‘ how-to ‘ guides that may pose pretty beneficial for new cat parents or those who have changed their minds on getting a declawing procedure done for their beloved kits.
How do you keep your cats from scratching the furniture? How does your nail time go with your cat? Do let us know in the comments!