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Declawing and fixing

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jungle boy

Savannah Super Cat
Hey I just thought of something! What if I had an itch but had no fingernails to scratch it with. For that matter, what if my fingers were amputated! That would be really, really terrible!

:(
 

Rafiki

Site Supporter
Rafiki doesn't scratch furniture. She bites it! Lots of puncture marks on chairs and sofas. So, anybody recommending I should de-tooth?!?
 

Rafiki

Site Supporter
All kidding aside.... We picked up Rafiki at 12 weeks of age and she was fixed the day before. The vet used medical adhesive instead of stitches and her incision healed great. There have been no adverse effects to having her fixed so early.

We had not had kittens in the house for >20 years so we were somewhat concerned about having our furniture clawed to death but Rafiki has not shown the slightest inclination towards scratching furniture. I attribute this to a large extent to her breeders. The scratch posts that they have are extremely large (they have an army of F1's that live in the house) and tend to be solid wood....they do not resemble people furniture in the least. Her scratch preference are the double wide scratch pads from Trader Joe's. As my husband mentioned in an earlier post, she does tend to bite furniture (double-back tape deters this) but she has never scratched it.
 

AundreaLea

Site Supporter
Teach your kitten from the start what is acceptable to scratch on. You MUST provide them with acceptable surfaces. We have both horizontal and vertical surfaces. My furniture is fine, but the cat towers and scratching posts are well used. When one of my five (all SV) wants some praise they will run to a scratching surface and scratch and look to you for the praise. They love to hear good kitty. :cat:

Play with the kittens paws from the start as well and get them use to nail trimming. I did not do that with all of my kittens. There are a couple where I have to catch them sleeping to trim nails. I play with their paws when they are asleep so they are use to it. When they're awake I think the sound of the clipping is what freaks them out.
 

Rafiki

Site Supporter
I trim Rafiki's nails every 2 weeks. I cannot say that she likes it but she generally puts up with it. She did bite me once but that was after plenty of warning....she placed a paw on my mouth (her way of saying no) twice and hissed 4 times. When I continued, she bit me. I examined my nail trimmers and found that they were wobbly and probably squished her claws when I went to clip them. I bought a new pair and she has been fine since then. She is so used to it now that if I go longer than 2 weeks, she starts chewing on her claws like crazy so I think that she has gotten used to the shorter claws. I agree with AundreaLea, constant playing with kitty toes is totally necessary! If you only touch their paws when doing a mani/pedi, there will be issues!
 

Bristol Lad

Savannah Super Cat
Sahara is almost 4 months and she still hasn't been neutered but it's on the cards. As for declawing I would never do that and my family wouldn't agree with it as Sahara relies heavily on her claws.
 

kravenheart

Savannah Super Cat
So I'm going to play devil's advocate on the declawing here...from the other side of the house. Beth's a professional ballerina, and she had to have surgery to reduce/remove toenails because the dancing on them constantly has deformed them to the point they grew in painfully. Other dancers have had the same thing done. Some even have their pinky toe removed so shoes fit better.

So people get declawed too...sort of.
 

admin

Paige
Staff member
I have had cats all my life...when I was in my early 20's I did not know any better and declawed my cats...behavior changed to biting for one and hiding for the other...I would never do it again...my savannahs have never scratched my furniture or anything else...I have many scratching trees, sisal posts we built and the cat walk...they use all of them to scratch on - never the furniture...
 
D

Dantes

Guest
So I'm going to play devil's advocate on the declawing here...from the other side of the house. Beth's a professional ballerina, and she had to have surgery to reduce/remove toenails because the dancing on them constantly has deformed them to the point they grew in painfully. Other dancers have had the same thing done. Some even have their pinky toe removed so shoes fit better.

So people get declawed too...sort of.
I don't think this is normal, I am friends with a few professional ballerinas (male and female, including sf ballet) and while I agree their feet are pretty disgusting, none of them have had either of these procedures AFAIK -although I've never asked. Now I'm tempted to ask but am worried about getting grossed out.
 
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