If your cat's claws drive you crazy check out our Soft Claws Nail Caps review which is a more humane alternative to declawing.
I received the products used in this Soft Claws review in exchange for my honest review of how life is after no longer having holy shirts or carpet shreds everywhere.
As may already know, we have multiple cats who we love dearly. That also means multiple times the claws and scratching fiends.
Luckily, we have not had many problems with the cats scratching things they shouldn't (though they do like to scratch on the carpet now and then, unfortunately).
This is probably mostly thanks to clipping their claws regularly and having cat trees and other cat scratching items throughout the house.
We have had an issue before, though, when one of the cats scratched another cat's eye when playing, or when they scratch us when they don't mean to, or put holes in our shirts when we need to hold them, etc.
However, clipping one or more times a week can be quite stressful for both us and the cats. Some cats obviously tolerate claw clipping better than others.
I personally do not support declawing cats, unless it is for a health benefit to the cat or owner, because of the negative ramifications it poses to the cat for the rest of its life.
It's not simply removing the claws but part actually removing part of the bone from their paw. I recommend this article detailing what declawing is for more information.
So, when I heard about Soft Claws (sometimes referred to as Soft Paws), a product that is non-toxic and much more humane than declawing, I was eager to try them out.
About Soft Claws
Think of Soft Claws as being like a fake nail, just for cats. (there's a dog version too). Then there's the benefit of keeping your cat from being a living breathing shredder.
Soft Claws are very easy to use and put on. You simply open the glue, apply the applicator and then fill the nail tips with glue and slip them onto your cat's claws.
The most difficult part at first is knowing exactly how much glue to put in. On the first application, we used a minimal amount of glue when applying the tips to our spazziest cat.
A few days later, she had gotten about half of them off, so we applied more caps to the bare claws, only using more glue this time, and they are still there a couple of weeks later.
Heads up: At the time of this review it's suggested that the glue should be stored in the fridge after opening.
Soft Claws Review
Applying the cat claw caps is relatively easy, just make sure you get the correct size caps. I got the medium size for the females and the large size for our males as they are rather large cats.
The biggest help is to have someone fill the caps with glue while the other person holds the cat and applies them. Just make sure that you "pinch" the cat's claw so that it fully extends and then gently tap it on.
This is obviously easier said than done with some cats.
If your cat doesn't want to cooperate you can always just do a couple at a time with breaks in between and lots of positive reinforcement.
If your cat doesn't like to be held like most of mine, I find the best position is to hold the cat against one of your sides while sitting.
I was afraid it would be impossible to hold my cats for the 5 minutes to make sure the glue dried, but I just petted them and offered some of their favorite cat treats and they were fine.
The cats did obviously go for their claws as soon as they were let go and tried to get them off, but with the additional glue, they were unable to do so and seemed to no longer notice them or try to get them off a couple of days later.
I knew that when they were still able to catch toys with their claws and were stretching, scratching, and climbing on their cat tree as normal, along with "making biscuits", that the Soft Claws were going to be a great solution for us for some time to come.
If you'd like to give Soft Claws a try, you can find them available for purchase at Amazon.
Final Thoughts
I originally wrote this review probably 10 to 12 years ago - time flies!
Unfortunately the cats we had at the time that really benefited from Soft Claws have since passed away.
But while they were alive we used them for several years with great success and I still recommend them and would use them again if we had issues with a cat inappropriately using their claws.
If you feel like your only other option is declawing, be sure to give Soft Paws a try. But please, don't even consider declawing an option.
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