How young can a kitten be for them to be declawed?

Answers:
Please do not AMPUTATE he toes of your new kitten.

: (

It's animal creulty and already outlawed in many places.

---

Please don't get your kitten declawed!!! It is a form of mutilation as a part of the bone of the paw is removed. It can be extremely painful for kittens and some have to be put down as a result as they cannot heal properly afterwards.
It also leaves your kitten less able to defend himself against others as they rely on their claws so much. A cat that cannot claw to protect himself may resort to biting and if he is pain because of this unnecessary operation he will constantly be aggressive and bite you. DON'T DO IT!!!

---

6 mths

---

Please don't consider declawing any cat. They remove part of the cats toe, so they never walk the same. This is the most pain any cat will go through. Try buying cat clippers or have a professional clip the nails if the cat fights you. It doesn't cost much.

---

I hope you know what the procedure really entails. It is not just the claw that gets removed you know. It is an amputation of the end of the digit up to the first joint. It is brutal and many vets will not even do it anymore. It is very painful and unnecessary. If you want to have pets then you have to make a decision that they are more important than the furniture and whatnot. I have five cats and they do not tear things up. My daughter uses those little tips they haave now and they work great. Easy to apply and they stay on real well. And painfree!

---

Don't get rid of your cat's claws because when a cat tries to fight with it your cat will lose.

---

Please don't mutilate your kitten. Cats can be trained to use a scratching post. If you have any compassion in your heart for animals, you won't do this.

---

Don't even get it declawed! Our catwe found,(we didn't declaw him) Was declawed, and he pees all over the house! Thats because that he is declawed, It hurts him to try and dig, Cats need to dig in orDer to go to the bathroom! Why they dig when they go to the bathroom; they dig for a clean spot in the catpan, then after they go, they bury thier poo. So.. DON'T GET IT DECLAWED!!!

---

declawing is mean and just wrong it would be like cutting off your fingers.Would you like that?? just keep the claws trimmed and maintained rather than declawing

---

It is usually done at the same time that the kitten is neutered or spayed. That is usually done, where I work, when the kitten is eight weeks old or weighs four pounds. But animal shelters spay and neuter even earlier.

Many people are dead-set against declawing. The technique of the surgery has made tremendous strides in the past decade and, in the hands of a skilled vet, it no longer has the complications and bad after-effects it once did. It's not the equivalent ofhaving your fingernails pulled out or the ends of your fingers cut off. Cats' feet are not constructed like human hands.

In modern declawing, the tendons which attach the last tiny bone in each toe, and the claw with it, are severed. The bone is not cut. Tendons contain no nerves and very little in the way of blood vessels. The terminal bone and the claw come away cleanly. The end of the next bone in the toe is not cut or disturbed. The operation leaves a little pocket in the loose skin of the toe where the claw and last joint were, and a tiny bead of surgical cement is placed in the hole to seal the capillaries. The surgery is almost bloodless (I have watched it many times) and feet are bandaged for only a couple of hours, to let the cement set and the capillaries seal off.

Kittens are up and playing and using their litter boxes normally within within a few hours. They get post-op pain medcaton, an anti-inflammatory, and an antibiotic as a precaution, and we keep them overnight to be sure the cement bead doesn' t dislodge too early, which could allow their paws to bleed lightly from the capillaries.

In a perfect world, cats would not be declawed. But if it makes the difference between being able to keep a cat or taking it to the shelter (not all cats there are adopted) I think it is the better choice.

I had two of my own five cats declawed. One was three years old and she had to be declawed due to fighting and injuring the others and the other was nine years old and had to be declawed because she was literally shredding the house. That was five years ago in one case and six years ago in the other case. Neither had any complications whatever.

---

Here's an article about declawing that may help:

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?ac...

http://www.declawing.com is also a good resource about declawing

---

please dont get the poor kitten declawed when it grows older you can clip them and when they scatch it doesnt hurt

---

Shame on you. That is so cruel. Please do not declaw your cat. Try pulling your own nails off!

---

I have a declawed cat, I adopted, and she is lovely, happy, wonderful.

I have read all the horrors of declawing. My friend, who is a nurse, and real cat lover says that declawing can be safely done now, and the cat can be medicated for the pain.

the only thing with declawing, is that the cat MUST BE INDOORS. the claws are needed for outdoor romping and defense.

it's better not to declaw, but if you need to, it can be done well.