how old must a kitten be before they can be declawed?

Answer 1

At least a thousand years old, which means never. Declawing is a brutal amputation of the first joint leaving the cat a cripple. Imagine if someone were to chop off every one of your fingers at the first joint. Just the thought of it. OUCH! When we choose to share our home with a cat or dog, it is us that must work to understand the needs of the animal and accommodate. Scratching is essential to the health of the cat for it helps remove the death sheath around the claws since they are constantly renewed. They also need to scratch to relieve frustration and also to stretch the muscles of their arms. Cats can be trained to use scratching posts or scratch pads (such as rubbery tiles or mats) with relative ease. Hold the paws of the cat and gently make a scratching movement on the scratching post. When he does it praise him profusely. If he start doing it elsewhere, pick him up and take him to the scratching post and say 'Here' . After a few time, he'll remember. I have several rubber mats around the house so there is always one available when they get the urge. (I have several cats).
Some people might say declawing is not painful because it's not they having their own fingers chopped of. Most countries have banned the practice as cruel and inhumane. Why the US hasn't is a mystery to me. Please check out the following sites for a detailed and graphic description of declawing.
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http://www.declawing.com
http://declaw.lisaviolet.com

Answer 2

My vet was more concerned about weight of cat than age of cat. My kitten was declawed and spayed at the same time when she finally reached 4 pounds [she was about 5 months old before she weighed enough].

The vet was concerned about how the kitten would do under the anesthesia and it is apparently easier to calculate the amount when the kitten weighs a certain amount rather than age.

My other cat, I had declawed when he was 5 years old. So it is really dependant on weight again because he was a 7 pound cat and the vet said that if the cat was 10 pounds that was too heavy because it then affects the healing process. [too much weight on sore feet does not help the healing process].

Answer 3

Ok I won't hastle you about the declawing -- Though just for the record,. I have a declawed stray and I got a new kitten 1 year ago and didn't declaw her. The two of them get along and there has been no issues relating to the claws. The worry was: she would climb trees and all that,. She climbs up and climbs down from the tree so -- no worries. Good luck either way.

Answer 4

Please don't do that. It's unnecessary cruelty and pain to your kitten! If you're afraid it'll scratch your furniture, get a scratch post, and spray some catnip on it, and train your kitten to use it. Training is as simple as encouraging the kitten to scratch on the post by placing its paws (claw end) lightly on the scratch post, and moving the paw very gently over the post surface so it can feel for itself how the scratch post feels like. Whenever you see the kitten wanting to scratch the furniture, bring it to the scratch post immediately and repeat the same thing. When the kitten does the right thing, reward with kitty treats and praises. It's really inevitable for some furniture to get scratched initially during the training phase. But cats are extremely intelligent creatures and learn really fast. Be consistent with your method, and you'll soon see the acceptable behaviour you want.
Whatever you do, please do NOT declaw your kitten. It's absolutely inhumane! The simple act of regularly clipping the cat's nails (taking care not to clip too low that it touches the blood vessels and causing bleeding and pain) when they get too long should do the trick just fine. You can get a proper cat/ dog nail clipper from any pet shops or pet supplies stores.

Answer 5

Never! When I learned as an adult what they do to the cats toes to declaw them - I was sick! They amputate the toe down to the first joint; otherwise, the claws would grow back like our fingernails. Imagine how you would feel having your fingers amputated down to the 1st knuckle! Some ignorant people still insist on declawing their cats, and some of these same people don't even replace the cat litter in the boxes like they're supposed to with shredded paper for the 1st few weeks so that their poor cats FRESHLY AMPUTATED toes won't get infected from the litter! Can you imagine the pain those poor cats go through? My mom delcawed our cats when I was a little girl and I remember what the poor felines went through. Not only would the cats limp for a few days but they would also pick their paws up in pain and shake them like "OWWW!!" when they jumped from something and landed on their poor front feet! Other than being inhumane, declawing a cat inhibits them from properly stretching their back muscles. Cats need to hook their claws into an appropriate surface (like a sissal cat post) so they can get the proper leverage to stretch their backs correctly. Please don't declaw your cats. You can clip their nails like others have said. You just need to be careful not to clip them below the quick or they will bleed. You can also look into capping your cats claws with plastic caps; but the caps are only temporary and need to be replaced often, and there wouldn't be any gurantee that the cats wouldn't chew the annoying things off and swallow them. The caps look goofy, too. Imagine your cat with pink or purple nails!

Answer 6

Did you know that declawing a cat means major surgery...they cut off the first knuckle to stop the claws from growing back. In some countries it is banned for it is considered cruel.
There are alternatives available to declawing...you can buy caps to glue on the claws. Or you can simply keep them trimmed. Or you can train the cat to claw nothing but the scratching post.
Also when you declaw a cat it is very traumatizing to the cat and can cause bad behaviors. I rescue cats and found that most cats that have been declawed have behavior problems.
Please consider the alternatives for the cats sake.

Answer 7

Declawing is cruel. How would you like to have your fingers cut off at the first knuckle? It is a very painful process for the cat. And what if your cat gets out? It will have no way to defend itself against dogs or be able to climb a tree. Take the time to train your kitten. It's not that difficult. If you love your kitten Don't do it!!!!! Besides that, most vets won't do it anymore because it is so cruel & painful.

Answer 8

Any vet I have ever used will remove the front claws at 6 - 8 weeks. Some vets shy away from removing rear claws because in reality they are the ones used for defense. the front claws are used for grasping, which every cat I have seen still can do by using its toe pads as fingers. Trimming the claws only triggers the need for scratching, which defeats the purpose. People have been modifying pets since time immemorial and always will. from cropping dogs ears, tails to declawing. People that bemoan keeping an animal pure when talking about claws and then gleefully butcher the animals genitals (for convenience) make me sick.

Answer 9

Declawing a cat is inhumane and a lot of vets won't do it anymore. It's not only removing the nail of the toe, but actually amputating the entire last joint of the toe. Ever thought about that? Why don't you just spend the time and effort to train your kitten right?
http://maxshouse.com/Truth%20About%20Declawing.htm
PS: You can also learn to trim your cats claws. It's not hard and if you get your kitten used to it early not a problem at all. I did it with mine.

Answer 10

do not dewclaw the second cat, what they do in that surgery is not taking off just the nails it's actually cutting off the upper part of the cat finger bone, yes bone.
there are several things that can go wrong most cats who have been dewclaw instead of scratching began to bite, they start to have beaver problems, and the worst thing: they can actually die from the surgery, if you knew my native language i would have send you a posting from a cat group I’m a member of, it’s of a guy who dewclaw his cat and the cat died because of the dewclaw.
if you search the net for explanations of dew clawing in sites such as the peta
organization site you will see how awful this surgery is. i advice you to change your vet to one who does not support this surgery.
there are alternatives which are cheap and don't cause your cat any life long pain.
one is to cut the edge of the fingernails once every two weeks your vet can show you how to do it. My cat has some beaver problems which makes it very hard on me to trim her nails I do it while she’s asleep a nail at a time it works.
there are also these great silicon caps that you glow to your cat’s fingernails, they stay on for about a month and half more or less. this is called soft paws. it's such a great invention it's cheap and it comes in all kind of colors: www.softpaws.com

also if you do that and have enough scratching posts then your cats will scratch on them.
if your scared for your sofa them you can buy a special spray to spray on your sofas and carpet it doesn't leave any stains the cats hate the smell and don’t touch those places.

Here’s a link to some info about dew-clawing: http://www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=42