Also, watch his front legs and joints as he ages. Declawed cats have a MUCH higher rate of early arthritis in their front end and even hips. Some cats at our practice would come in at 6 or 7 after being declawed as kittens with such severe elbow joint degeneration they needed thousands of dollars in surgery or euthanasia. Not super common, but it does happen, and the sooner you catch it the better. Declawing changes the cats natural gait and puts unnatural amount of strain on his joints