What do you do if your indoors cat spurns the lovely scratching post you provided for their delight and entertainment? Deprived of a nice tree trunk or a fallen log, indoor cats are quick to find alternatives, but their idea of suitable may not be your idea of suitable! Fflwff, for example, prefers the carpet to the scratching post, and we’ve had other cats who’ve gone for the wallpaper, the corner of the sofa, or the doormat.
Cats don’t scratch to “sharpen their claws”, but to help shed old claws and reveal the fresh claw that has grown underneath, to exercise and stretch their paws and front quarters, and to spread their scent from glands under their front paws. They need a scratching post that meets their needs: it needs to be tall so they can stretch out, rugged so that it doesn’t come apart, stable so that it doesn’t tip over, and covered with a material that’s nice to scratch, such as sisal fabric.
Something like the Purrfect Post, which was developed by a cat vet might do the trick. Some cats, however, like to scratch horizontally, not vertically. A sisal mat can sometimes be a cheap solution, although there are posher versions available if you’re picky.
But what if, even after having bought the best designed scratching post or mat that you can, your moggie still turns her nose up and attacks the chaise longue? Well, declawing is not an option. It’s inhumane, involving as it does the amputation the last joint of the cat’s toes. It causes pain and suffering, not just after the operation, but possibly for the rest of the cat’s life. Indeed, it’s illegal or considered extremely inhumane in many European countries, including the United Kingdom.
If you are truly at your wits’ end, though, there’s always SoftPaws! These are vinyl nail caps that you glue to your cats claws which don’t harm the cat, but stop their claws snagging.
Thanks to .robbie
I love the way that the SoftPaws site says that:
Soft Paws® are easy to apply. Simply fill the nail cap with the adhesive provided and slide it on over your cat’s claw. The glue dries very fast.
They must be using a different definition of “easy” because I’m pretty sure that getting them onto Fflwff’s pointy bits would prove to be an interesting, and bloodsoaked, task. They later on say “If you can trim your cat’s claws, you can apply the nail caps.” Big if.
Still, as least the fashion-conscious cat will be happy to hear that the caps come in a variety of colours, including the classic white:
Thanks to Gossamer1013
SoftPaws should only be used on indoors cats. Kitties that roam the neighbourhood need a full set of working, i.e. sharp, claws so that they can defend themselves in a pinch and make sharp exits up vertical surfaces should they need to. Thankfully, this excludes Fflwff from the pool of potential SoftPaws users, which means I’ll never have to test my theory about how hard they’d be to put on!
That makes a lot of sense – it’s the same technique for getting a cat used to grooming (which I’m trying to convince my parent to do with Fflwff). If you play with kitty’s paws, then give them a treat, they’ll soon be happy with you playing with their paws. Trimming the very tips off the claws or gluing on tips will be less… dangerous.
Equally, brushing kitty a few times then giving him or her a treat will acclimatise kitty to being groomed. Fflwff has awful mats in her fur, and it’s impossible to trim them out because she freaks out. I’m hoping that some preliminary training will go a long way towards helping solve the problem.
I read somewhere, someday, how to get yourself (and your kitty) to a point where you can clip his/her claws: when the cat is resting, and you’re cuddling, petting, etc — get it used to you playing with its paws and claws.
If you do that all the time, then clipping claws isn’t a big deal — the cat isn’t going to freak because all of a sudden your touching its paws, which you never do.