Has anyone used soft claws?

[NeedaDiscoNap]

One of my cats has developed a habit of scratching the carpets, to the point where two of the stairs are almost down to the plastic backing and various other spots in the house are very thin.

She has a scratching post which she chooses not to use. She goes out (supervised - long story!) but does not scratch on the fence etc.

We've tried various training sprays but nothing seems to work. Has anyone had any success with soft claws? Or have any other suggestions? Really want to save my carpets!

[NeedaDiscoNap]

Bump! Anyone?

[RabbitsarenotHares]

Are they the things you put on over the claws? If so, then I have tried them with my cat, briefly, when she first moved in. I had a house rabbit at the time and although they were never going to be together unsupervised I wanted to minimise the risk of the cat hurting the rabbit.

She hated them. It was a struggle to get them on, and I felt awful as she was obviously so unhappy. She couldn't retract her claws properly, and I think they must have been pretty uncomfortable for her.

They didn't stay on that long, and once they came off I didn't replace them.

[NeedaDiscoNap]

Thanks Rabbits. I suspected that might be the case. God knows what I'm going to do!

[RabbitsarenotHares]

Give up?

[RabbitsarenotHares]

Or buy some rugs?

[NeedaDiscoNap]

Put down some laminate probably!

[Canshopwillshop]

Clip her claws. We do our cat and kitten with nail clippers - just push the end of their toes to get the claws out and clip the sharp edge off (making sure not to clip too far down). Our 2 are quite used to the once weekly routine now. It hasn't completely saved the stair carpet but has certainly helped.

[purplemeggie]

Another vote for clipping - they get used to it fairly quickly. I was a bit concerned to start with that I was depriving dcat of his defenses, but last time he went to the vet they asked if I wanted his claws clipped while we were there, so it must be okay.

They grow back really quickly - you'll need to do it every couple of weeks.

[NeedaDiscoNap]

I do clip her claws once a month (which is a right palaver, she's a complete drama queen!) but it's probably not enough. Need to get those clippers out!

[EleanorAbernathy]

We used a version of Soft Paws on one of our cats - he had a scab which he was insisting on scratching off every time it had nearly healed so we figured it was worth a try!

We got some from ebay, getting them on in the first place wasn't the easiest but once they were on he didn't mind too much (after a few minutes walking round shaking his paws in a confused manner!)

They stayed on for a few weeks then gradually started coming off, which was long enough for his scab to heal :)