Question From A Friend Of Mine!

[kittymommy3]

My friend Mattie has asked me to ask you guys a question since you've helped me out so much.

She has a young male kitten named Bianco who is roughly the age of my two young ones, Leo and Mercury, he is a sweet, pure white Domestic Medium Hair.

I have no photos of him but this cat could be his literal twin (Bianco is just a little bit smaller), it looks just like him, eye color and all.

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• kittymommy3
• Sep 20, 2013

He has a very severe scratching problem. She has tried giving him scratchers of all kind, cat trees, toys and even spraying the existing scratchers with catnip and he still refuses them and instead scratches the curtains, couch/loveseat, carpet, clothes hanging in the closet and once he started kneading/scratching on her 6 month old daughter that caused several long scratches on the baby's hip and leg.

She knows that he is not doing it maliciously and he is a very sweet and lovable cat. She is considering a declawing procedure and whats to know if any of you have had your cats declawed or if you have any tips or trick to getting him to stop the scratching without having to resort to the procedure. 

I'm honestly not sure what advice I can give her, none of my cats have this problem since they love their scratching posts but I have told her about the cons of the procedure. Though as some of you know, Nova, my oldest, was declawed for medical reasons due to his paws having a deformity that caused his claws to continually puncture his pads when he walked that caused  open sores that kept getting horribly infected despite constant trimming and management and I was very against the procedure until it was apparent that it was the only thing that was going to stop the open sores and infections permanently. We even tried Soft Claws, which I also recommended to her, but his feet and claws were shaped in such a way that they did not fit correctly no matter what size we tried. In some cases the claw was so oddly grown that it looked more like a trident (and not in the way a usual cat nail sometimes splits to shed)

Thank you all!!

 

[vball91]

This site very anti-declawing. As you probably already told your friend, declawing is amputation. Declawing for a medical reason like your cat's is very different from voluntarily declawing a healthy cat. Studies have shown that declawing changes the way a cat walks, causing arthritis and pain as they get older. It also can lead to behavioral issues like biting and litter box avoidance. There are very good reasons why declawing is illegal in many countries and some cities in California.

There are many things she can do to train him to not scratch inappropriately. It will take time and patience. He needs to be redirected to a scratcher every time he scratches something inappropriate. She can put deterrents like double-sided sticky tape and bitter apple spray where he shouldn't be scratching. Until he is trained, she can keep his claws trimmed so they don't cause as much damage and use Soft Claws as you suggested. I am on my phone, but I will post links to threads with more suggestions later.

 

[kittymommy3]

I am trying to convince her of Soft Claws, which is what we have on Leo because he plays roughly and likes to swat at my sons feet when he kicks, we are trying to train him to not get so rough and have put the soft claws on so that he doesn't cause any accidental damage in the mean time. They are wonderful and I have tried to tell her about these multiple times but she sees them as cruel (Which is EXTREMELY ironic). I have never heard of bitter apple spray but I will pass that along to her as well. Thank you!

 

[denice]

She thinks soft claws are cruel but she is considering declawing?  I don't think she really knows what is involved with declawing.  I think they would be the best solution for a hyper curious little kitten.  She will get past this stage and grow out of this.  I know bitter apple works very well for chewing.  My cat got into the habit of chewing the cables on my computer and the bitter apple stopped it.  I don't know if they dislike the smell or the taste though.  Patches went back to chew, got a taste and that was the end of it.

I know my cats, and I think most cats, hate the smell of citrus.  I think to get just a scent deterrent anything citrus would work really well.

 

[kittymommy3]

I don't understand her reasoning on the soft claws either 

 I've tried explaining that declawing is amputation of the digits, not just taking the claw off. I will pass on the info about citrus as well, thank you!

 

[jcat]

Rather than resorting to a cruel procedure that can't be undone and might cause serious behavioral and health problems, she could start by temporarily taking down or pinning up her curtains, covering the couch and love seat and keeping all closet doors shut until the kitten is past this phase. She could also put more effort into finding what the cat likes to scratch and redirecting him. He seems to like cloth and/or furniture, so she could get an old/used upholstered dining room chair he could make his own, or get some pieces of plywood, foam rubber and upholstery fabric and make some scratching boards for him. How long would it take her to tack them together? Strategically placed throw rugs or carpet squares would save her carpets. She should pick up some cheap ones and put them in his favorite spots.

I live in one of those countries where declawing is fortunately illegal and know from experience that cats can be trained not to destroy your home with their claws if you observe their scratching behavior to find out the best alternatives to offer them and are consistent about directing the cats to them.

 

[kittymommy3]

She's a single mother who works two jobs to keep supported, she's rarely ever home. I drop in and make sure Bianco has food and water throughout the day and I watch her daughter on Wed and Fri each week while the other days her daughter goes to her parents house. She honestly has very little time to do anything, not ideal for cat ownership especially one with behavior issues. Bianco just sort of showed up at her house and chose her as mommy one day and she didnt have the heart to turn him away or give him up. I honestly believe he was dropped off due to the scratching issue. I will pass all the ideas along to her and see if we can work something out. 

 

[orangeblossom]

My kitten was like this, too, for awhile until she "grew up" a bit. She scaled curtains, attacked my dresses and husband's ties hanging in our closet, tried to chew on our (new) living room couch and dig her nails into it, climbed all over our fabric-covered dining room chairs. At one point, I had the dining room chairs and a pricey living room wingback chair draped in aluminum foil, that sticky double-sided tape they sell for clawing problems covering any corner and entire bottom of our couch, and bought a couple Ssscat units to set up on the dining room table and coffee table. We also bought a tall cat tree with a long post to climb and claw, and put scratching surfaces in all rooms. We made sure to close the closet immediately after retrieving what we needed. We got some great, tall posts for under $20 each at TJ Maxx. I had to pin up ALL of my curtains, which was a real pain since our bathroom has glass French doors and you had to take the curtains down for privacy whenever you used it and then pin them back up...but it was worth it to protect them.

It took several months, but eventually the foil came off, the sticky tape was removed, and we didn't have to use the Ssscat anymore. I would have loved to try Soft Paws, but my girl has been very anti-paw-touching from the get-go and requires burrito-ing in a towel and lots of treats to bribe her into a manicure session, let alone glue on nail caps.

It also helped to spend as much time as possible "draining" my girl of her energy...she would literally go-go-go until panting and then GO-GO-GO some more. She would run up walls and flip off of them, turn flips in air after a feather on a stick. A laser pointer was my best friend since I could sit on the couch reading while she raced around after wherever I pointed it. My previous cat was never like this as a kitten; I think some are just so full of energy they need to have outlets. Maybe while you're there you could try and help him burn off some of that mad kitten energy, too.

There were times I was just going insane with the clawing - my husband and I are newly married, we don't have much money, but managed to get some really nice furniture when a local store went out of business and sold it at auction - I was DYING inside with every new thread pull because I knew we wouldn't be able to afford to replace it with comparable pieces for a long time and was so proud of how nice it looked...but I grit my teeth, covered surfaces as best I could, and knew I was making the right choice. As a side note, I had a cat as a child who had a botched declaw procedure, and it caused awful, lifelong complications...images that stick with me now as an adult. It really is a wretched thing to do. But I know you know that; I hope you can convince your friend.

 

[kittymommy3]

Yes, I'm trying to convince her to at least try the Soft Claws, I have some on my kitten Leo as he gets a little rough and we are trying to break the habit so that we can stop needing Soft Claws. So I'm trying to convince her to at least let me put some on him for even just a few days to see how he does hoping that she will like the results