Soft Paws - if you have used these, how well did they work? Thinking of using them on a kitten. They also make them for dogs too.
Oooooh! Me!
I use them regularly for a cat that is (obvs) not declawed, but occasionally likes to scratch me or the furniture.
They are easy to use, though I do usually need a friend to put them on my hellbeast. I love that they come in lots of silly colours, and they last pretty well. Keep an eye on your cat when you first put them on, as sometimes they will lick/bite excessively at the beginning. Once the cat has given up on life and stops licking, they last for 3-4 weeks.
I will tell you that I get some W-E-I-R-D emails from that company now that I’ve ordered from them. They have tried to sell me some weird stuff (like a fishbowl you put over the cat’s head so it can’t bite you!) and have weird ads for the SoftPaws (arty farty descriptions about how the ‘new colour palettes’ will make your kitty feel. Makes me feel like a Krazy Kat Lady!). If you can deal with that though, I think they are a good alternative to declawing.
I tried them once, but the glue in the kit I got was old and didn’t work. I just made a more concerted effort to limit kitty’s opportunities to scratch on the wrong things.
So if you try them, just make sure you have fresh glue. 
I used them, but you do have to be careful–sometimes they will not fall off when the claws grow, and they prohibit the natural shedding action that shortens the nails. I had one cat where the tip of the claw/cap nearly grew into her pads.
I have used them in the past, and one of my cats would chew his off in almost no time. He apparently did not think much of those soft paws!
I used to use them and had good luck with them. Neither cat was difficult to work with.
I did find that I needed to monitor claw growth to make sure it wasn’t doing anything funky. I found that I could remove even the most glued-tight SP by clipping the whole length of it with a (human) nail clipper. Once the side was open it could be peeled off.
This was before they started with the fun colors, alas… 
I noticed between applications that these two cats simply DID. NOT. SCRATCH inappropriately. So I was able to save my time and money!
Thanks for the replies - if I use them, I will definitely watch the claw growth and I’m glad I found that out on here. I have a tom kitten who is too young to be neutered yet and since he was born feral, I’d like to get him very accustomed to human handling before taking him in - I was hoping the soft paws might keep him from “loving” the furniture a little too much. He has toys and a scratch post but prefers the furniture.
I used them have leather furniture and 3 indoor cats. One of which I’d use them with regardless she is a tiny tiger or so she thinks and will take a random swipe at you. My lower legs are now safe to roam about my house.
They work fine … youngest cat chews hers so I reapply sooner on her but the two 10 year olds don’t seem to notice or care.
You might try different types of scratching posts and devices also. A friend used soft paws on her daughter’s big dog and they worked well to prevent scratches on the new wood floors. The second the soft paws came off the floors were trashed so they worked well. The cat soft paws (yes she got that dumped on her too, by the same kid) worked well but it’s better if kitty’s claws are well trimmed first. And there wasn’t a problem with them staying on the claws too long, and they did come off when the claws grew out. Kitty didn’t seem to mind them, and the dog didn’t even notice he had them on.
I’ve used them on two kittens and liked them for the most part. The only issue I had was that they would occasionally hook a claw into something soft (like a knitted scarf or cat toy) and a thread would get caught between their paw and the edge of the soft claw. They couldn’t get loose by themselves…luckily we were home to remove the offending item. I think that happened only one or two times to each kitten, but it was enough to give me pause about using them…
Probably unpopular, but I ended up declawing both kittens when they were neutered (very young). They were simply too rambunctious and were destroying furniture with no interest in scratch pads or posts. Both were fine immediately after the surgery and you cannot tell they ever had anything done.
Caitlin
I tried using them a few times but my normally docile kitty turned into a she-devil when it was time to put them on. I had to wrap her tightly in a towel like a kitty burrito and also hold her by the scruff of the neck while SOMEONE ELSE put them on her for me. If I could ever get them on and give them a shot at drying before she fought her way out of her burrito, they would last for several weeks and work great. However, the risk to human life was too great to continue using them :lol:
I have trouble imagining a cat letting you put these on-- I have used them on an elderly dog who started dragging a hind leg and was wearing his toenails painfully down past the quick. They went on easy, and stayed on forever. I actually trimmed them with the toenail clipper as the nail grew out, and then had to kind of cut them and peel them off in order to apply a new one. I didn’t use the glue they provided- it’s just superglue, I used Rhino glue.
They work pretty well. If you cat will let you clip their nails, you can usually get them on yourself. If the kitty is not good about that, best to get a friend to help. Cats, naturally, can be quite opinionated about these things! I think they are truly worth a shot.
I used them for awhile on my kitten. We generally had one or two fall off in the first 24 hours after putting them on… usually if they held on for the first 48 hours they were good for a few weeks. We did have one instance where one didn’t fall off and we eventually had to trim the nail with the cover on it because it got so long. Our cat has been very good about not scratching furniture… she has a post and she sometimes uses the front door mat so we haven’t put any covers on in a long time, we just trim her nails every so often.
