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Has your cat taken to clawing up your furniture? The first idea which may come to mind when dealing with scratching and clawing is to have your feline friend de-clawed. Before you rush into this procedure, you should consider the pros and cons of the procedure, as well as what it truly means for your cat. The de-clawing procedure is not a simple one, as it is actually a serious surgery which involves the amputation of the tip of all of your cat’s toes.

The de-clawing procedure is one which will be extremely painful for your cat. Your cat will receive pain medication for the recovery period after the procedure, but your cat will typically be in pain for several weeks or months while the nerves in the tips of his toes recover from the surgery. This can cause aggressiveness and irritability in a normally extremely affectionate feline.

Your cat’s claws are his biggest defense against predators and threats. If your cat finds himself in a situation where he is alone in elements and has to protect himself against another cat or a predator, how will he protect himself? There are always possibilities that your cat will be confronted in a situation and left unable to strike back because his claws have been removed. Your cat’s only other defense is his teeth, but that means getting very close to a potential predator, which can actually make the situation much worse. Therefore, de-clawing your cat is actually turning him into a victim unable to protect himself against threats and predators.

De-clawing has other cons as well. For example, a de-clawed cat is far less likely to use the litter box regularly, because it can be painful for them to walk on the litter and to dig and bury. De-clawing can also lead to issues with biting, since biting is the cat’s only remaining defense mechanism. If a cat cannot scratch during play, he may be more likely to bite as well. De-clawing can also cause problems with the joins later in life, because an absence of the tips of the toes can affect the leg’s joints, causing arthritis in the hips and the joints later in life.

You do not have to sacrifice the quality of your furniture simply because you cannot remove your cat’s claws. You can easily train your cat not to scratch the furniture as long as you are willing to put a little bit of time and patience into it. Offer your cat some scratching toys, a cat tree or a tall scratching post, or even some corrugated cardboard and when he realizes that scratching these toys is just like the furniture or better, the switch will be easy to make.