Question: I have always had declawed cats. Recently, I adopted a one-year old cat who has her claws. I have bought cat scratching toys, but she has not shown interest in them. The carpet and the mattress have been favored instead. Can you help?
Answer: Nail scratching is a normal, necessary part of your cats grooming and marking routine. It keeps her nails healthy as well as letting other cats know she’s been there. All cats scratch, even declawed cats, though without nails declawed cats can’t do as much damage. Nail scratching becomes a problem when our kitties choose to use what we consider inappropriate items (i.e. furniture, walls, carpets, etc). To correct this problem we must train our kitties to use appropriate scratching items.
Unfortunately one training method doesn’t work for all cats. Though all success stories have some common threads. Some of those common threads or ideas are:
- Patience – no negative punishment
- Offering a variety of scratching items
- Consistent, positive reinforcement when the cat uses the appropriate items
- Making inappropriate items unavailable
- Patience again – if one method doesn’t work try another or combine methods.
Steve Dale of Steve Dales Pet World has provided a very nice Internet article “Think Twice Before you Declaw”, this article touches on a lot of the issues and answers that surround this subject. Other excellent sites that deal with cat scratching are: www.catscratching.com and www.indoorcat.org. A few articles of interest that you may find helpful are: Declawing and it’s Alternatives or The Definitive Guide to Saving Your Couch from Your Cat or Scratching
Also, remember your vet can also be an excellent resource on assisting you in resolving this problem too.
Lastly, another option to training and declawing are Soft Paws nail caps. These are glued on soft plastic nail coverings that can be applied to your kitty’s nails at home by you, by your groomer or by your vet. Most cats seem to tolerate them well and they reduce the damage that scratching causes. They are not permanent; therefore they must be reapplied as your cat’s nails grow.
