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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

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Original poster

Trend of claw covers

82 replies

Vinorosso74 · 14/09/2017 12:55

‘Cruel’ cat owners criticised amid growing trend of fitting pets with fake nails to show off on social media | London Evening Standard www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/cruel-cat-owners-criticised-amid-growing-trend-of-fitting-pets-with-fake-nails-to-show-off-on-social-a3634576.html

Just saw this and my thoughts were WTF?! I mean why would you do this to your already beautiful cat?

OP posts:

Original poster

Vinorosso74 · 14/09/2017 12:56

Link fail!

OP posts:

Weedsnseeds1 · 14/09/2017 15:07

Utterly bizarre!

KinKinKitten · 14/09/2017 16:41

I don't think it's a fashion thing - more like stop the cat destroying the furniture. I live in a rented apartment and if we can't train our kitten to not scratch the furniture we'll get some claw covers.

AllTheWittyNamesAreGone · 14/09/2017 16:44

It's not a stop it destroying the furniture thing its a stopping it doing natural cat thing thing.
Why have a cat if your going to mistreat it?
People who use them are up there with the cunts who declaw their pets

BertrandRussell · 14/09/2017 16:45

Better, I suppose than claw removal. But still cruel.

Ttbb · 14/09/2017 16:45

It's to prevent scratching, fairly reasonable when you consider cat scratch disease, danger to small children etc. They are removable covers that do not harm or hurt the cat, it's not like they are declawing them or anything.

BertrandRussell · 14/09/2017 16:46

"I don't think it's a fashion thing - more like stop the cat destroying the furniture. I live in a rented apartment and if we can't train our kitten to not scratch the furniture we'll get some claw covers."

Why did you get a cat if you don't have a suitable place for it to live?

stonecircle · 14/09/2017 16:49

But shouldn't cats be able to retract their claws? How can they do that with covers on them?

Taxminion · 14/09/2017 16:53

I've seen these on Amazon. Unfortunately most cats will scratch and however many scratching boards you have, cats seem to think there is nothing like fresh sofa or carpet - I think it may be a territorial thing. It is part of having a cat. It you can't deal with it rehome your cat.

Do vets have to put these on - I would be scratched to death if I messed with my cats claws.

meltingmarshmallows · 14/09/2017 17:01

These cause health issues for the cat, for gods sake please don't buy them.

Anxioustabbycat · 14/09/2017 17:40

Train your cat to accept having claws trimmed regularly? My last 3 cats have accepted claw trimming with good grace vets also offer to do it. Scratching posts, telling off when court in act of destruction and generally accepting that you love the cat more than the pristine condition of the stairs carpet. But I have never seen claw covers and know little about them.

Notreallyarsed · 14/09/2017 17:48

Why the fuck would anyone do that to their cat? If you can't hack scratching don't get a cat. Either that or have scratch posts everywhere and discourage them (gently) from doing it on anything that isn't a scratch post. Surely it would hurt if they tried to retract their claws?

Original poster

Vinorosso74 · 14/09/2017 18:34

People in this article had matching colours for them and their cat! The covers clearly stop the cat displaying natural behaviours.

OP posts:

KinKinKitten · 15/09/2017 01:41

I didn't get a cat the cat got me he was a street kitten I fell in love with and took home against my better judgement. Rehoming his isn't easy because everyone seems to want girl cats and there are hundreds of them.

So his choices are my apartment and not scratch the furniture, back on the streets or in a shelter and ultimately PTS. Would trimming his claws make a difference to how destructive he could be? At the moment we're keeping him in some interconnecting rooms with not too much of the landlords stuff in but eventually we want to give him free run of the apartment while we're out and that's when we'd try the claw caps. I didn't realise people thought they were cruel - they sound great on the soft paws website.

KinKinKitten · 15/09/2017 03:29

Hopefully we'll move into our own place by the end of the year then we'll be less bothered about the curtains and furniture cause we can buy cheap stuff in the knowledge that it'll probably be ruined.

UnFuckingAcceptable · 15/09/2017 04:56

I've been debating getting these for my babies.
As unsure about them after a little internet research I asked the vet her professional view.

Some of the cats in her care have them. She seems to think they are fine?? I asked about them not being able to retract and she told me that as far as she knew they COULD retract?
Wouldn't she know?

I really want to get some as, although we trim the claws and they have scratching posts And I don't care about the holes in the curtains or the rips on the cushions...boy cat has hurt his sister so many times when they 'play'. He's just too scratchy!
I was hoping that buying some clear little soft caps would protect her.

If you Google one of the main reasons is that it's unnatural and it is often compared to dressing up animals. If the only real problem is that my kitty might be 'judged' as unnatural cos he's got dressed up then I might give it a go.
Besides, the vet suggested we give them a go and Mr Scratchy pants himself will let us know if he doesn't like them.

Does that sound like a plan?
I really don't want to do the wrong thing

JigglyTuff · 15/09/2017 06:16

They cannot retract their claws with them on. They're horrible

JigglyTuff · 15/09/2017 06:19

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/13/pet-owners-should-stop-giving-cats-dogs-cruel-manicures-rescue/

KinKinKitten · 15/09/2017 06:35

But if they really cause a cat excruciating pain as the article says surely the cat would object strongly to them being put on? That doesn't seem to be the case.

stonecircle · 15/09/2017 06:53

Animals can be in considerable pain / discomfort and not show any obvious signs. They're not like humans you know.

I honestly despair that anyone who professes to care about animals needs convincing that this is not a good idea.

KinKinKitten · 15/09/2017 07:10

I know cats will hide when they're ill but if I do something to my cat that causes it pain like tread on its tail I know from its reaction it doesn't like it! I don't think a cat would sit patiently while you apply excruciatingly painful nail caps to it. It just seems like an exaggeration.

Happy to have a non-hyperbolic discussion of the merits and downsides of claw caps but I'm not sure calling people who use claw caps cunts (as a pp did) is really constructive.

KinKinKitten · 15/09/2017 07:16

www.softpaws.com/questions-answers-cat/

The softpaws website addresses the questions re natural behaviour and retracting the claws. Obviously they have an agenda but still. It's hard to know what to believe. I don't want to hurt my cat but I also don't want him to destroy the landlords expensive sofas.

CrankyTheCrane · 15/09/2017 07:21

Would it stop them being able to kill small animals? If it did then they should all be fitted with them.

stonecircle · 15/09/2017 07:24

Er yes ..... soft paws have an agenda! And they describe it as an excellent alternative to declawing. That's ok then

And yes, treading on a tail gives a sudden shock which an animal will show an obvious reaction to. Ongoing pain and discomfort is not so easy to recognise in a cat or dog.

pufflepup · 15/09/2017 07:27

Would it stop them being able to kill small animals? If it did then they should all be fitted with them.

I genuinely don't understand this. This is cat behaviour. It's nature

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