Nail clipping help!

[mitsy]

So my dad normally cuts the rabbits nails but they need to be done and he is busy working to get wood done for the house. So I was wondering how short to cut their nails or where the wick stops. One of my bunnies have black nails on her back legs so If their is a wick I can't see it tips on cutting dark nails will be helpful to!

Thanks in advance.

 

[FreezeNkody]

Just snip the tips off. I wouldn't go to short, you don't want to hit the quick.

 

[mitsy]

How can you tell where it is?

 

[Sophie's Humble Servant]

If you shine a flashlight behind the nail you will be able to see the quick. This may require 2 people if you use the flashlight.

 

[PaGal]

Usually if you place the clippers over the nail and press firmly but without cutting if it is too close to the quick the bun will often let you know by trying to jerk their leg away. So yes use a flashlight if at all possible and put some pressure first while watching your bun for reaction.

 

[mitsy]

is the quick different on all bunnies? and is it normally short?, I will be doing this on my own sense no one else here likes cutting nails and my father is working

 

[FreezeNkody]

The quick is pink. Seriously just clip the tips of the nails. They don't have to be super short.

 

[njbunny]

The quick is going to be different lengths on every bunny. If you cut the nails frequently the quick should be a bit shorter than those who don't get cut frequently. I would just take off the points and you should be fine. I agree that you should do pressure to see if the bun reacts and if not then go ahead and make the cut. You should press hard enough to create a white line across the nail but not actually cut into the nail more than a tiny bit.

 

[Curlew]

If the nails are black you'll struggle but if in doubt just cut the very tips off, and the quick can grow with the nail but usually it's not bad. You should have seen some rabbits nail's that i've cut, not nice. But don't be scared of doing it! I went to college to do animal management and everyone but me were scared of cutting animals nails

 

[Imbrium]

The flashlight trick is great if you're not comfortable doing dark nails without it - you can always figure out a way to prop it up using whatever you've got handy (books, a foot stool, etc.) to backlight the nails if you don't have someone to hold it for you. Failing that, applying slight pressure before actually clipping can tell you if you're too close... however, be prepared for the bunny to jerk/struggle in response if you were too close!

Here's a video I made yesterday of doing nail trims on my new rescue bunny, who had never been flipped on his back before and whose nails probably hadn't been trimmed in nearly a year (poor guy!! ):

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQzlUM2NEFY[/ame]

I also have another handling and nail trim video that I made not too long ago using my girls (who I've had since they were babies) - it can be found here.

 

[mitsy]

ok, thanks I'll just try to cut them. The problem is I don't cut them and my dad does them but he doesn't do them often enough. so they are getting pretty long. My problem is, is I cut the tips of all the nails but they still look really long to me. what would help is if some of you would post a picture of your bunnies nails so I can see the average length of what bunnies nails should be.

I'm paranoid of cutting the quick because I have done it before an another animals and I hated it so i'm always nervous of doing it other animals nails that I don't cut.

 

[Imbrium]

The thing is, the appropriate length to cut them to depends on where the quick is - if a bunny doesn't get nail trims frequently enough and the nails get too long (like my new bunny's nails), the quick gets longer too. To make it possible to trim them shorter, you have cut just the tips off but do it more frequently - every couple weeks instead of every 4-6 (which is the length of time most folks normally go between trims). Each time you cut the nail back a little bit, the quick recedes slightly and you'll be able to cut them back a little shorter the next time.

This diagram does a great job of illustrating the "overgrown nails" issue and how to get them to the proper length .

 

[Imbrium]

Here's a picture of one of my new rabbit's nails:

I wish I'd taken a "before" picture of how bad they were - this is about one day after a nail trim. His nails are still extremely long because I could only clip them back a little bit - I'll have to do them again once the quick recedes a little.

 

[Sophie's Humble Servant]

Another tip I learned from the vet tech was you have to be careful that when you're cutting the nail that you make sure there's no fur in the way. The rabbit will twitch and jerk if you clip/pull some of the foot furs.

 

[mitsy]

ok, thanks my bunnies nails after I cut them yesterday are not near as short as that but I think I can cut them alot more then I have, One of our bunnies we got from someone who was moving and couldn't take her, Her nails were so bad that they curled and now for some reason they always have a bit of a curl, which is why I am probably having a hard time judging where to cut.

Another question I used human nail clippers yesterday but Oreo's nails are really thick and the clippers wouldn't go over the nail. Would dog clippers work?

 

[Imbrium]

I use either bird or cat clippers (I have a pair of each that look identical other than different colored handles)... clippers for small dogs would probably work as well but ones for larger dogs would probably be too big.