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SPark wrote:Nirvanacat13 wrote:
That’s why you should at least get the front paws declawed….
Eeep. Sometimes it may be neccessary, but PLEASE do not get a cat de-clawed casually! It’s HORRIBLE for the cat. They have to essentially amputate part of their toe. Yes, if you have an indoor cat that has real behavioural problems it might be neccessary, but don’t do it just because they sharpen their claws on the furniture once in a while! There are better ways to get them to not do that.
When they are really young they bounce right back from it…it’s when you have to declaw older cats that you get real problems. Also, KNOW YOUR VET, I’ve seen some real botched jobs that horrible vets have done and my mom has had to try and fix up. Declawing DOES NOT have to be a horrible experience. For the most part, my mom can do a declaw on the persons kitchen counter (she has a house call practice) in 30-45 min…TOPS, and the kitten usualy doesn’t even know what happend and is back to normal in about a week, they just get kinda screwy with the bandages. Note: She will not declaw cats over 1 year old, as that CAN cause problems. That’s why you get a kitten, and get it done at about 2-3 months old. All the cats we’ve ever had were declawed and none have had any problems whatsoever. Once again though, KNOW YOUR VET and make sure they know what they are doing!
dragonessjade wrote:SPark wrote:Nirvanacat13 wrote:That’s why you should at least get the front paws declawed….
Eeep. Sometimes it may be neccessary, but PLEASE do not get a cat de-clawed casually! It’s HORRIBLE for the cat. They have to essentially amputate part of their toe. Yes, if you have an indoor cat that has real behavioural problems it might be neccessary, but don’t do it just because they sharpen their claws on the furniture once in a while! There are better ways to get them to not do that.
Care to share how? My bf wants to get a cat.Spray bottles….whenever you catch the cat scratching something it’s not supposed to, give it a squirt….Supersoakers set on stun work well too….Also get them a scratching post/kitty tower, if they avoid it, sprinkle/rub it with catnip.
dragonessjade wrote:Sweet. Now all I have to worry about is the stuff coming out of the kitties butt. 😯 😆
ROFL Feed them Science Diet, Iams, or Eukanuba and you’ll be fine…none of that Purina/Fancy Feast $ht…..Trust me, it’s worth the couple extra bucks to get SD, Iams or Euk….
Dragonessjade wrote
Quote:Now all I have to worry about is the stuff coming out of the kitties butt.
Royal Canin is good, too. Nirvanacat is right. Go for the good stuff.
Nirvanacat13 wrote:dragonessjade wrote:Sweet. Now all I have to worry about is the stuff coming out of the kitties butt. 😯 😆
ROFL Feed them Science Diet, Iams, or Eukanuba and you’ll be fine…none of that Purina/Fancy Feast $ht…..Trust me, it’s worth the couple extra bucks to get SD, Iams or Euk….
I would personally not feed any of the crap already listed, I feed vet food only because I have too, but try and find a better quality food if you can. Orijen makes a good cat food, so do Chicken Soup for the Pet Lovers Soul and Solid Gold. You want to stay away from any meat “by-product” or “by-product meal” this is feathers, fur, feet and horns. Always look for meat or meat meal as the first ingredient. Most cat food is made with chicken, and make sure if there are grains that they dont break them down. By this I mean corn, corn meal, corn flour, they will do this to make to seem like the meat out weighs the corn, but after that it doesnt. Corn is used as willer as well, it just comes out the other end.
This is very interesting, Nirvana – I’ve always heard that declawing cats was really horrible, and I’ve met a few cats who’s declawed paws obviously caused them pain. I didn’t know about the difference in younger cats vs. older cats.
My cat is very rambunctious, but luckily he’s never been interested in clawing things he isn’t supposed to. He just uses his scratching post. ^_^ Though I did trim his nails once in a while for my own sake – he plays rough!!"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."
-J R R TolkienHeavens, trimming Kali’s nails is a nightmare. It would almost be worth getting her declawed to never have to do it again! (Almost, I’d never actually do that to her.) She’s normally very good with being handled, is easy to medicate even! But touch her claws and she acts like you’re trying to kill her, and tries to kill you right back. I theorize that a previous owner must have done it wrong and trimmed down to the quick, or something, because she’s so good-natured about everything else.
We trim our cats nails as well, but he is used to it and at 10 he doesn’t fight that much. But at over 20lbs if he wants to fight there is no stopping him either. He likes to try and beat up on my dogs occasionally as well. One just walks away the other bites him right back.
We (our family) have four cats now, and the family has owned at least two cats forever. None have been declawed and we’ve never had a problem. It’s like the folks that de-bark a dog, it’s usually 100% unnecessary and just stems from people having an animal they should not. If you don’t want a cat to possibly claw your furniture- for goodness sakes don’t get a cat. If you don’t want a dog barking at inconvenient times once in a while then don’t get a dog.
I know it’s not that simple, and a lot of us rescue animals that we didn’t necessarily ‘ask for’. I totally understand that situation but with a little effort we can get around the problems. It’s usually a pain but if you trim your cat’s claws regularly even if they do scratch it’s not as harmful. They also make plastic caps you can glue (these are totally safe, they’re like fake fingernails) over the tips of the cats claws, which make them blunt and smooth. Getting them ON the cat requires two people and it’s NOT fun, but no one said that owning an animal was ALL fun! 😉
There are several other products out there that help prevent scratching. There are sticky sheets you can put on the cat’s favorite spot to claw that they won’t like the feel of. Also, provide an alternative or 3- get ’em scratching posts, if they don’t like those try the cardboard scratches, etc. This combined with training can prevent most incidents. 🙂I will totally agree with Nirvanacat on keeping your cat indoors only. Please do! 😀
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My art: featherdust.comI never knew about the ‘fake fingernails’ for cats. My older female cat gets SO excited when a new cardboard box comes into the house. Its like catnip for her! All our boxes have the corners scratched up. She doesn’t care for scratching posts too much, but she LOVES boxes. Now if I can only get her to stop licking herself so much!
(She’s licked all her fur off and licks so much she bleeds. We took her to the vet, and he gave us pills and shampoo. She hates both with a passion and she’s such a tender hearted and sweet happy cat, she has such a look of betrayal and hurt in her eyes after I bathed her the once, or after I try getting a pill past her tounge. I’m thinking of getting her a cat sized shirt to cover herself with so she cant lick!)
speaking about cardboard boxes and cats… my cats are addicted to Pepsi box’s either the 12 packs or the 24’s.. I swear that they must put cat nip in those boxes…. 😀 it is the best present you can give to my cats. forget about the toys or whatever just give them the box and they are happy.. lol
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