Twitter Users Discuss The Alternatives To Declawing Cats

• By Umer R
• May 2, 2022
• 5 minutes read

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 (@KikiDoodleTweet) December 13, 2020

10. Ideas for where you can get these rugs for your furballs

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

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

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

https://twitter.com/KikiDoodleTweet/status/1338227278577201153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1338227278577201153%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcheezburger.com%2F13185541%2Falternatives-to-declawing-cats-informative-viral-twitter-thread

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!