Ok...you all should go get your fingers cut off and see how it feels to you...not too good I bet..just because you can't understand what a cat is saying doesn't mean it's not begging you to not cut off it's claws...it is so horrible
De clawed cats become neurotic and tend to be hostile and tend to bit i have had my cat for 8 years and she was declawed before she was one and never once has she changed or bitten anyone i have a kitten how has her claws and she has to be the nastyed cat i have ever had and there has been alot i cant wait to bring her no more claws
I never heard how inhuman it was to have a cat declawed until recently. I can tell you from my own personal experience. We have had 3 cats declawed. One was a siamese, one was a persian and one was a tabby we found at a camp ground. The siamese belonged to my husband and he was very sweet. The persian belonged to me and she was great and the tabby belonged to my mom and she had no temperment problems. I never noticed a personality change in any of these animals. Although all were declawed before they were a year old. I am going to research this in detail as I was going to get both my kittens declawed. I love my pets. My vet does declaw cats and I respect him so much!! When my older cat had CRF he came to the clinic on Sunday before church to give him meds and he didn't charge me. I am totally surprised by this Savas. I can't believe he would do this to the cats if it was so horrible. My kittens are already trained to a scratch post but the one loves to attack your feet. Anyway, thanks for the info. I am going to totally research this before I make that decision
Well, the deed is done or it isn't. I'm glad you've got a sweet cat there, but it while not impossible to have a declawed cat be normal, it's highly unusual. The ones who are normal tend to have been declawed at a very young age. Declawing an adult cat is just inhumane.
http://members.petfinder.org/~NJ40/index.html
The above link is to an associated resuce organization. They have a section on declawing, and provide additional links to specific medical information.
Personally, I think if you're about to declaw a cat, you should just give it away or have it put down. We actually won't foster to declawed cats anymore. As bad as we feel for them, they're to disruptive to the enviornment, and we lack the means to deal with such specialized care, and we foster to cats who are blind and missing limbs.
And it's very easy to tell if a cat is declawed (squeeze the pad, no claws extend!), and the only pro's are for the human, there are none for the cat.
I'm very happy your cat worked out for you, but that's only one cat. I've had around 12 come through our home, and I've seen quite a few at the shelter. The cruelest irony is the people who had them declawed generally ended up giving them to the shelter because they were unhappy with the cats "personality change" and how hostile and neurotic they became.
So they created the situation, and still abandoned the animal. It's not that hard to train a cat not to scratch, it's just laziness and lack of will to go to the option of declawing. The vet we work with won't do it, and most responsible vets won't.
I got a shelter cat and it was already declawed, it does not bite and he has the sweetest disposition. Try some cat treats and use cat toys for play. I'm neither pro disclaw or against, cause when you rescue a cat you'll never know if it's already declawed till you hold it. It's your choice and I'm sure you've thought the pro and cons thru. Good luck with your cat and have fun with it. I am pro kindness towards animals!
I really wish you wouldn't. De clawed cats become neurotic and tend to be hostile. It's the equivalent of cutting off a person's fingers at the first joint.
De clawed cats also become biters. They can't cope with the loss of their major defense mechanism, and start biting as a result. Hard. They tend to break skin.
Is your cat scratching you? There are ways to train him out of that.
Is it a furniture problem? There are products that can help with that too. "OFF!" is an example. If you want more information, let me know. But be aware the cat you take home will NOT be the same cat you took in. Be prepared for a major personality change, probably for the worse.
I'm actually concerned enough that I'm letting you know I'll check back into this forum at 10pm tonight. I work with strays and fostering strays and have dealt with hundreds of cats. And I've got to tell you;
The de-clawed cats are always the hardest to deal with in terms of behavior and anxiety.