Living With a Clawed Cat

There may be some nerves and excitement for any new pet parent when you finally get to bring your new furry family member home. Whether it’s your first cat or your fifteenth cat, you may wonder how you will be able to prepare for safely living with a clawed cat. Although cats are adorable creatures, clawed cats can also present some risks with their sharp little claws. Still, just because a cat has claws doesn’t mean you won’t be able to live harmoniously with your new four-footed friend. The article below lists the best practices for living with a clawed cat so you can get your relationship started on the right foot (or right paw).

Should you keep your cat’s claws intact?

If your cat has claws, you will want to make sure you have a plan for handling them. While declawing used to be a popular practice, many veterinary professionals denounce the procedure since it causes health problems later in life for cats, such as arthritis and chronic pain.

If you have small children or are otherwise worried about your cat’s claws threatening your family’s safety, you should consider alternatives to declawing. Some simple, non-invasive grooming techniques, such as trimming the nails yourself or having a groomer trim them regularly, can reduce the instances of cat scratches. Additionally, you can buy specialized nail caps for your cat’s claws so that they can continue to live pain-free, and so can you – and your furniture!

Best practices for living with a clawed cat

For first-time cat owners and experienced owners alike, maintaining a cat’s claws is a key part of responsible cat ownership. To eliminate the risk of extreme damage to surfaces or your body, you will want to trim the cat’s claws on a routine basis. If you don’t know how to do this, your vet should be happy to demonstrate the safest way to trim your cat’s claws. Some groomers and vets will also provide this service for a small fee.

Additionally, you will want to give your cat proper scratching materials such as scratching posts and other resources so that they can safely act out their instinct to scratch. If your cat tends to scratch out of fear or anxiety, it is important for you to determine the cause of its anxiety and address it. If environmental changes don’t help, a trip to the vet can help treat their anxiety. You’ll also want to play with your cat appropriately and have the other members of your household do the same. Playing with hands or “rough-housing” can cause cats to act aggressively and lash out. It can also increase the potential for cat scratches on human family members.

When you create appropriate boundaries with a cat, discourage unwanted scratching behavior, and offer healthy alternatives to inappropriate scratching, you can live safely and happily with a clawed cat.

Categorised in: Cat Tips

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