Should I (Gasp!) declaw my kitten?

Pass the cat on to someone who cares for the cats welfare & wellbeing, you’re obviously not cut out to care for this critter… Give it to someone who is, without the amputation :-/

I strongly feel that declawing is inhumane, but if the alternative is losing his home, going to the shelter, or being put to sleep, then it’s a viable option.

Is there a localized area that he uses? I’ve seen some really creative uses of those carpet squares, wall mounted as a scratching surface.

(I would also mention that if you type “declawing” into the search bar, you’ll find quite a few discussion of this topic. Unsurprisingly, they’re largely negative, but you may find some helpful information.)

He is only 3 months old, give it some time. Think of him as a toddler.
You can’t expect a one year old to not open cupboards, so, you put safety locks on them.
With enough attention and supervision and being confined at times, he should eventually learn to not scratch. I think you are expecting too much from a 3 month old kitten.

There is nothing wrong with confining him to a room like the bathroom for a few hours at a time.

Just like kids, it is all about consistency of behavior.

Whenever he scratches in the wrong place, tell him “No!” and take him on his scratching post.

You can also try the “Feliway” spray for trouble spots.

I would do everything in your power to avoid the de-clawing, which could change his personality for the worse and cause new problems.

Try the Feliway spray on your furniture, along with confinement while you are away and focus on consistency.

Put his scratching post in the room he is to be confined to, ideally with no other furniture.I’d go for bathroom

@coloma

Good advice. My ex insisted that we declaw one of the two white cats we use to have. I reluctantly agreed. The cat was later killed by a dog, probably because he couldn’t defend himself. I STILL feel bad about that!

If the alternative is the cat not having a home, then get it declawed.

Keep up with the scratching posts and cat nip, and understand that it’s a cat they scratch when they are kittens. It’s in their nature. They grow out of it eventually.

If you positively reinforce the cat when it uses its scratching post (praise, a treat, etc), and negatively reinforce furniture/carpet (squirt bottle is perfect).... the problem will go away eventually.

This is another cool option.

Please don’t do it. Removing the cats claws amounts to someone surgically removing the first and second digit bones of your fingers. It’s very painful for them and puts them at risk when they can’t climb or defend themselves.

That’s like having a puppy and expecting it not to chew on stuff. Don’t do it. He’s still a baby. Give it a few months and if the problem continues, you should consider re homing him. A cats claws are their only defense. If you take that away they become completely dependant on humans and sometimes that doesn’t turn out very well.

I once had a friend look after him. She doesn’t want to look after him again until this problem is resolved. None of my friends want him either because of this problem. He scratches up their walls as well. I used to work at an animal shelter, and I’ve seen many cat problems. I’ve raised 5 of my own over the years so I know a lot about cats. He’s just a baby and that’s fine…but even with toddler children, some behaviour is just not tolerated (I also have worked at a daycare, and I’m going for child psychology in school).
I know what declawing a cat entails, I’ve seen it done. I don’t like it one bit. Re homing him will be extremely difficult because no one wants their walls destroyed.
He doesn’t claw at our carpet, but that is a very creative thing to try. I have tried having a piece of sheet rock on the ground for him to claw at, but he didn’t touch it. His scratching isn’t concentrated. He goes to the nearest wall, and as soon i take him away from where he is at, he goes to another spot…I am doing everything I possibly can to stop this behaviour.

@Chihirolee

Do you plan on making him an indoor/outdoor cat eventually?

If he is allowed out as he matures he may naturally stop the behavior.

My cat is 2 years old now and she is fastidious about using her scratching posts, but, she is also allowed indoor/outdoor access through a cat door and she plays and climbs trees and scratches on the fence posts of my corral and pasture too.

As far as the toddler comparison, my point was that one simply removes or confines a child from situations that are destructive. A 3 month old kitten or a 13 month old toddler simply do not have the maturity and ‘training’ to be expected to control certain behaviors.

Either you are willing to keep trying to modify his behavior or you are not, but I think with time and consistency the odds are good you can train him.

12 weeks old, jeez, the kitten has only been actively romping around for about 6 weeks!

I stand by giving it more time and attention to routine and confinement as he continues to learn.

Strictly indoors..He can’t climb or jump, so even with claws, he can’t very well defend himself out in the world. Plus I don’t want him to suffer anymore than he already (getting you leg cut off and all). I am amazed that he survived. There is no infection or anything wrong and the scar/callous looks nice (by a healing standpoint). I do hope he stops, and I don’t expect him to understand.
I don’t plan on doing anything (along the lines the question) until he is neutered, because I hope that will calm him down a bit.

Hell no.

@syz has given you some good advice. You can also buy one of those shocking mats or one that emits noise and tape it up to the places he scratches so he knows walls aren’t for that. There are even products that use tones and charges.

Normally, I don’t like shock training. But I’d rather you not lop off part of your cat’s remaining feet.

No.

I was going to say “Yes”, until I read your details.

Here goes: It would be a yes, if he was a typical cat, and you were providing a forever home.

The reason it’s a “No”: You have a handicapped animal. He needs all of the natural help he can to keep himself upright and to prevent falls.

My handicapped cat just passed away. He required his claws to prevent some nasty spills from being worse…even with them he took a couple of good hits to the head over the years from his mobility issues.

If you feel he can’t remain in your home with the claws, maybe you could alert your vet to post the adoption. I know I personally am looking to take in another animal with a handicap. We have a lifestyle that affords special needs pets the attention they so need.

I think you answered your own question as to the real issue here when you said ”I’m in college and my husband works, so we cannot watch 24/7, and I don’t want to confine him in any way.” Most likely your cat for at least the first two years of his life will need more attention than you or your husband can give.

By the way, thank you all for your input. I greatly appreciate it. :)

You say you’ve tried a technique like squirting water everytime he scratches for the past two months? If not, I’d think that it would take a lot longer than that to change his behaviour. Be persistant and don’t give up. If you have done this everytime, everyday for 8 weeks then I don’t have any further suggestions other than it would be quite cruel to declaw him at that age. He’s only young still!

@Chihirolee

I am sure if you do decide to re-home him you will look for a home where he will have more time and attention.
IF you do, make sure you offer to take him back if he does not work out for the new people within the first month or so.

I gave my daughter and her BF a stray cat she had found in August, a 6 month old female calico that would not accept my 2 yr. old female after a month of trying.

I am home a lot and I was not willing to manage the situation or keep the cats separated forever. It is working out now with my daughter and her boyfriend, thank god, as I really liked the kitty but, no way was I going to cope with the cat drama. lol

Some pets are just not a good fit and if you have done all you are able or willing, no shame in finding a home that might be a better fit for a special needs cat.

Good luck!

Personally, I have found that declawed cats are more likely to bite, so it really is a poor solution. We trim the claws of our cats, but what really keeps them from destroying the house is interactive play. Cats get bored easily, and few things are more destructive than a bored cat. They like to chase things; toys that don’t move on their own aren’t fun. A few minutes with a Cat Dancer will keep them from clawing the sofa for a while.

Also note that cats don’t know “cause and effect” very well, so things like squirt guns don’t help; they feel punished without knowing why.

Please don’t. If you really care about animal welfare, you would do ANYTHING to either quell the behavior or find someone who can handle the kitty. You would NEVER consider maiming a tiny animal.

Put the word out at your vets office, post on craigslist, try a behaviorist, etc. There is someone out there who can
help you.

I support the idea of giving the cat to someone who really loves it. You might care for the cat but from what you said I can’t see you truly love the cat.

@Hibernate If she didn’t love the cat, she would have just gone and done this w/out asking for opinions, right?

Here we have a three legged cat, a handsome lad that often visited my garden over the years & ruled the street as top cat until his owners moved away to pastures new…. They doted on him, as did I & so did all my neighbours. He was a very social cat who would scale fences over six feet high to keep his regular appointments for affection with us all & the odd tit bit :-/
here & there….. Had he been de-clawed, he would never have been able to scale those fences, instead being restricted to roam the streets & not socialise on the scale he did, what a sad cat he would have been then…… give your cat the chance to be all he can be.. If it was a child you would not cut off their fingers to correct them, would you ? :-/

@SpatzieLover there’s a difference between caring and loving. I said he/she cared for the cat.

Caring is good enough at this stage.

Love takes time to develop, whether it is a pet of a person, short of your own child.

I cared for the stray cat I had, but, I did not “love” her after only a few weeks.

I liked her, I thought she was very cute, sweet, and I wanted no harm to come to her, but, there was no deep bond during those weeks.

Both of my other cats, I came to “love” after “caring” fro them for about 6–8 months.

I don;t think you can find fault with not feeling deep “love” for a new pet during the first few months of caring for it.

I do agree love comes softly though I only said I support the idea suggested by others to give the cat to others who would appreciate it earlier then he/she will ^^

I wouldn’t have the cat declawed. I think (reading between the lines in your post) that you are already reluctant to do this and know it isn’t in the cat’s best interest. I was about to post the same thing as @jerv. Make sure your cat has lots of toys to keep him occupied. Change the toys regularly. Hang things up that are on elastic for instance. Things that roll. My instant thought was boredom, so it would be worth at least trying to provide more things to keep him interested and active when you can’t be there. Hope you find a solution. As @Coloma said though, he is still very young. He is still learning.

Is another cat an option? I find that Izzy (our old cat) spends too much time smacking Darwin (the one we got to keep her company while we were at work) to do damage to anything else. The same was true years ago when we lived in a small cabin in NH; we had multiple cats and they played with each other to relieve boredom and get rid of excess energy.

If you do decide to declaw make sure you ask around, seems some are more radical than others when they do the surgery.

Also, my neighbor said that the big trick with scratching posts is to make sure they are tall enough. He says the cats don’t use them if they can’t stretch/reach up tall when using them.

As @tedd said. But instead of a water bottle use a water gun. Spray his little face when he is on the wall. He will eventually just associate with scratching the wall with a wet face. I haven’t met a cat yet that is ok with that feeling.
He may be bored as well so get him a few toys that is easy for him to chase and a tall scratching post he can learn to climb and scratch.
I saw some sort of rotating scratching pad that can help cats file down there own nails.

Like others have said, I would give it more time. Some cats don’t learn patterns as quickly as others and its only been a couple of months. I know its difficult but be patient.You also might want to talk to the animal behavioralist at your local shelter for suggestions.

In the meantime, have you checked out getting caps for your cat’s claws? It would prevent damage while you train him to scratch in more appropriate places. Double sided tape on the spots he’s scratching might also be effective in getting him to stop (since cats don’t like sticky stuff on their paws).

Do you have a Vet school anywhere near or an animal behaviorist with whom you can consult? Hopefully they can help you nail down WHY this kitten is choosing the wall for his scratching preference.

The reason I ask is because walls are smooth and cats usually prefer surfaces into which they can really sink their claws into easily.

I would suggest that in addition to the scratching post you already have that you try a variety of other surfaces as well. Not every cat goes for the carpeting usually found on the typical scratch post.

A few other things to perhaps try would be wrapping the post with sissal rope. Or cover a surface with corrugated cardboard taped to it. It would be cheap enough to keep replacing by cutting up boxes.

Other cheap options to try would be going to the woods to find a large tree branch or trunk with the bark still on.

Or how about trying to find the same type of shingling or wood as what he was used to at the farm.

If nothing else it would keep him busy during the day when you’re away. You may discover that he will choose one of these surfaces.

Another possibility could be to get a free box spring or mattress from Craigslist and propping it against the wall to see if he’d take to that.

Obviously it would be most helpful if you could put these choices in one room to cover as much of the wall surfaces similar to the pics that Syz posted. If he were in this room whenever you or your husband aren’t home to supervise with squirt gun in hand, chances are he may settle upon a different preferred scratching surface other than the walls.
If you also covered any extra wall surface in this room with double stick tape, (cats absolutely hate the feeling on their paw pads) he would have to pick a different surface.

I really don’t understand why you state that you’re unwilling to confine him to only one room in your absence until you get him to scratch something else? Since it would only be temporary for a few months until the problem is solved, I just find that really puzzling.

I know that if I were a cat, I’d much rather be confined to one room (TEMPORARILY) than to have my first digits of each toe amputated PERMANENTLY. (That is what declawing really is. They don’t just remove the claw. It’s the human equivalent of chopping off each finger at the first knuckle. Declawing is a polite euphimism to cover over the reality.)

I realize that you’re trying to avoid maiming him further. But by insisting that you will not confine him, this severely limits your options. Why is it necessary for him to have the run of the entire house right now?

Don’t you realize that’s making it well nigh impossible to limit the destruction and force him to choose a different scratching preference? Do you not realize that by giving him total access to every wall in the place while you’re gone you are dooming him to failure?

Since he’s this young he is still trainable. He has no idea he’s not supposed to scratch walls. He’s just following his instincts and doing what cats do.

In order to train him you have to optimize his odds for finding a better surface while limiting his access to the one he’s using now.

This is very similar to house training a puppy. You don’t give him unlimited access. When you’re with him you watch carefully and take him out frequently and praise profusely when he does the right thing. When you’re at work and not with him, you don’t allow him to pee or poop all over the place. You limit the damage as much as possible.

The key to training any animal (or even human children) is consistent supervision and limitations). Eventually they learn.

If you can’t see your way clear to limiting him in order to try to train him, I would agree with others suggestions to find him a good home, but please do it while he is still little and trainable and cute.

I wish you the best. You’re heart is in the right place and perhaps this is just too much for you to handle at this time.

EDIT. I just realized that the person just before me mentioned some of the same ideas while I was still typing. Great minds and all that :)

Could you tape tinfoil around the bottom of your walls. He’ll hate that and maybe turn to the cat scratchers and later you’ll be able to take it down.