Has anyone used Soft Claws nail covers on their cat?

[gshoemate]

We have a 5 month old kitten and he is just scratching us up. He's really good with the furniture but my 2 year old DS has scratches all over him and my 6 year old DD is terrified of the cat. We are still up in the air about declawing him (please don't flame me, I know everyone has their own thoughts on declawing) but I have seen these nail covers that you glue on over their claws and it is supposed to help with the scratching. They will eventually come off and you just replace them with new ones. Has anyone tried these....how well do they work and are they easy to apply??TIA

 

[Rajah]

Have you tried *trimming* the cat's nails?

As for Soft Paws, I haven't used them, but I have heard of *lots* of good reports on them. Please, please, please use those instead of declawing.

(After all, would you ever consider cutting off the tips of your 2yoDS's fingers at the first joint just to keep him from pulling hair or objects off shelves? I would hope not, but that's essentially what you're doing when you declaw. Either that or cutting the muscles/etc that allow the fingers (claws) to work at that joint.)

BTW -- I've known of a lot of cats that have been declawed turning to biting instead of scratching. And it frequently results in loss of confidence in the cat for some period of time ranging from a few days to the rest of their life.

 

[aynt79]

Definately try trimming the nails first. If you don't want to do it yourself, I don't think it would cost too much for a vet (or groomer?) to do it. We recently acquired a 4 month old kitten and we had the vet clip his nails when he went in for a checkup. Now when he trys to grab us it doesn't hurt at all.

 

[Twigs]

Since you say that your furniture isn't an issue, try trimming his claws. I always did this with my old cat and now with my 4 1/2 month old kitten. As synt79 says when he tries to grab you it doesn't hurt. You will have to keep up with this as his claws shed just as you would have to put on new soft claws.

 

[cati]

Yes, definately try soft claws. We have a 5 year old cat and he does not mean to claw my children but when he jumps off of their laps it accidently scratches them.

We have used soft claws for about a year. The vet does not have to put your cat to sleep to do this. The vet will trim the cats paws, then they glue the soft paws (all it is, is plastic in the shape of a claw nail). This does NOT hurt the cat. They stay on for about 6 weeks. It cost about $15.00. My cat no longer scratches on my furniture. When the vet puts the plastic soft paws on my cat, he just sits there and looks at him.

I would highly recommend them. Our cat now sits on my DD (3 yrs) lap and never once scratches her. She loves our cat now.

 

[SeaSpray]

I just had a thread on this exact subject about a month or so ago. I tried to look for it, but the search function is down.

We have a 3 yr old Siamese and we were getting new furniture. Mushu has already ruined several couches, and we DO trim his nails. The Soft Paws work pretty well. Here's their web site:

http://www.softpaws.com/