Nervous about nail clipping

[Sukichan]

Ok, So Im bad person, I have yet to clip my bunnies nails. I'm really nervous about it, my friend promised to help me but she forgot and now shes too busy to be able to help out. I don't even like cutting my dogs nails and hes cooperative about it , I bought the pedi paws to make myself feel more comfortable. But with the bunnies I know they'd hate that and I'm still having trouble with picking them up. They are definitely not scared of me unless I try to pick them up, if they catch onto what I'm doing, they get really upset and scared. However they are good with me petting them and they will eat from my hands, so I am nervous about cutting their nails, I have no idea how to get them to stay still (i heard of bunny burrito, but i dont know how am i suppose to accomplish that?) and i KNow how to cut nails. Im just nervous about it. Any words of advice? Thanks!:?

 

[elrohwen]

I would recommend taking them to the vet and let the vet techs do it! My bunny is also extremely hard (impossible) to pick up and hold and we were just getting incredibly frustrated trying to clip his nails. Now I take him to the vet and let someone else deal with him ;-)

In the mean time, I'm working to desensitize him to having his feet touched and being picked up. Because the vet does the trims, I can go slow and take as long as I need to get to a place where I can do it myself. I find that the more nervous I am, the worse he acts, so going slow is as much for his benefit as for mine.

 

[JimD]

The first couple of times, I just took the buns to the vet to have their nails clipped.
It was well worth the cost, and they were able to show me exactly what I needed to do.

I prefer to use the burrito technique.
While the bun is on the floor, I take a towel and put it over their back. Then I just pick up the bun and towel together.
Once I pick them up and have them on their back I wrap them up so they're snugly held in the crook of my arm. Kind of like swaddling a baby in a blanket.
Then I gently expose one paw at a time to clip, wrapping it back into the burrito before taking the next paw out.

The possibility of cutting the cuticle always makes me a little nervous.
With light colored nails it's usually easy to see the quick, but dark nails can be more difficult.
With dark colored nails I first hold a flashlight behind them to get an idea of where the quick is before I clip. And then I clip just a little at a time...like "whittling" a bit of the nail at a time.

I ALWAYS have ready; a small container of cornstarch, q-tips, paper towels, and a small container of water....just in case I cut the quick, and the nail starts to bleed.
Dip the q-tip in the water, then dip it into the cornstarch, then apply it to the end of the bleeding nail.

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