I just found out that I am pregnant and have a siamese cat. She has scratched several of my friends. Maybe if I have her declawed, would she be good around the baby?
I have 2 preschoolers & a Siamese cat and he is very good with the kids, they love him very much and vice versa.
Your Meezer probably won’t want much to do with the newborn baby, but she will be curious. Put a net to keep the cat out of the crib (she may decide it is a warm cosy place to sleep.) You might also get a very tall gate that is easy for you to open while holding a baby, and put across the door of the baby’s room so you can leave it open but keep the cat out.
Also, to prepare her for the baby try to get a recording of a baby crying and play it sometimes so it won’t be a sound she’s never heard. Get big items like the crib, changing table etc. early and let the cat smell them (but don’t let her get started sleeping in the crib.) Buy baby products like powder lotion etc. in advance, so she gets used to those smells. If you have the baby at a hospital /birthing center get your husband or a relative to bring home a little blanket the baby has slept on ASAP and leave it in the house where the cat sleeps to get her used to the scent.
Make sure you don’t just ignore your kitty when the baby is there. Try to give the cat some extra loving while the baby is napping, or while someone else is holding the baby.
As your child gets older, he or she will be fascinated with the cat… make sure she has places to jump to and hide, to get away… and it is important to teach kids how to be gentle with animals. Scratches can happen when kids chase cats and touch them roughly, wake them suddenly, grab them around the stomach in trying to pick them up etc. Your toddler/preschooler should only interact with the cat if supervised and only if they are able to control themselves to just pet the kitty very softly on the back and speak softly to it.- -and I give my kids TONS of praise for being gentle with animals and tell them how VERY proud I am of them…also in their hearing I tell others how proud I am of them being so nice to animals (which is nothing but the truth.)
If this is a very nervous cat, it may be best to just keep your child from bothering her at all until he or she is 5 or so, but just play it by ear.
Re those claws:
There are claw covers now that you can get at the vet.
Do you clip her claws? It really makes a difference - -doesn’t totally stop them from scratching but can avoid accidental scratches. If you’ve never clipped her claws before you will need to work up to it very gradually, using treats and petting, accustom her to having her feet touched, then to clipping a claw- -at first just 1 claw in a session, then treat. Takes patience but in the end it is worth it.
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Declawing: I would make the an absolute last resort. It can sometimes make the cat more likely to bite, which is much worse than a scratch. The bad side effects on health (lameness, pain, etc.) and behavior (biting, not using litterbox, personality change etc.) certainly aren’t universal, but they can and do happen. And since humans have "phantom limb" pain years after one amputation, why would cats not have it after 10 or 18 amputations? Cats hide their pain so well that they could be in chronic pain for a long time. I think it is important to at least learn about exactly what it is before getting it done. and to realize there is a reason why it is illegal in almost all other "industrialized" nations.
Congrats on your pregnancy, Mama-to-be!
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