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Clipping Rabbits claws

gwaterhouse

Wise Old Thumper
Hey,

Wondered if it was something that you can do yourself? to save the journey of taking them into the vets and the stress of that, if it's something I can do myself then that should be a lot less stressful for them...

Any tips etc? Feel free to say it's not something I should be doing....
 
I've always done my bunnies' claws myself :) I normally wrap them gently in a blanket and just remove one foot at a time to clip the claws. Sometimes if you have a very jumpy bunny though it's better to get someone else to hold them whilst you do it.
 
I tried repeatedly to do mine, however tbh I didn't get far and I figured the stress would be much less for them and me if I just got the vet nurse to do it. She did daisy fine but had to get the vet to do Levi as he's a wriggler. I never think the car journey stresses them too much anyway, they are always their normal inquisitive selves at the vets. I will not be attempting to do them again myself!
 
Hi

Out of my 3 I can do all 4 paws on Stu as he was a lone bunny I spent a lot of time and he doesn't struggle at all when I hold him I sit on the back step so if he does decide to 'go' it's low level :D

I had been picking them all up like this for a few weeks so that they got better without cutting ;) and then of cause a treat

Put his bum firmly in your lap tilt back slightly and hold with crook of an elbow this way that hand can hold feet
Place finger in middle of foot and hay presto bunny claws appear (stu is white so claws are easy) as you can see thru the nail:D did a bit of adjustment but managed all 4 this way

Casserole and Dumplin I did the front by myself they are large bunnies and rather strong plus I was at work when I had them so not so calm with a cuddle but getting there:D

Grey bunnies have dark claws so be careful as they are harder to see where the pink bit is

Good luck
 
I plan to do this by myself next time - i've taken them to the vets in the past but now we havent got Lilly, i think it might be better to do it myself. I plan to do it much like the vets do - one of us holding the bunny while they are on a table and the other gently coaxing them to give me a paw at a time. I think using a table would be a good idea.
 
Me and OH do our buns claws together. He holds them securely and feeds the odd treat if necessary to calm them, whilst I trim their nails.

If they have light colored nails you can easily see the blood vessel in it so they're easy to cut short without cutting the quick. With dark nails it helps to shine a torch behind them so you can see the blood vessel a bit better.

My Timmy has totally black nails meaning I can't see his quick atall, so I just do little and often with him.

If you do cut a quick it will bleed a lot (I did it years ago with my Tilly, never felt so guilty!) but dipping it in corn flour or just regular flour will help it stop :wave:
 
I do Chrissy's claws too-as long as she can see what is happenning around her she endures it. Recently I bought some scissor for claw clipping, it goes really quickly with it.

trixie-deluxe-dog-claw-scissors-211-p.jpg
 
I use guillotine style dog clippers for mine and find it much easier if one person holds and one person clips.
If you ask when you go for their vaccinations, a lot of vets will clip them for free.

For buns with small claws cheap clippers are probably fine, but Eli's claws were quite thick (bigger than small dog claws) and his bent the cheap clippers so we bought a more expensive pair and they were fantastic.
 
I think it depends on the bun in question. If you have a real wriggler it can be less stressful to take them to the vet nurse, who has more experience with doing them and so can do them much quicker and easier than you. If however your buns get really stressed traveling then i think its best to do it yourself - preferably with one person to hold bun and one to cut nails.

If bun has black nails then it can be harder. Fortunately ive always had one bun with light nails and one with black, as they live together they need about the same amount trimmed off, so i always do light nailed bun first and that helps me work out where to cut to on dark nailed bun.

As someone else said its best to have flour on hand, just incase (you just dip paw into it)- i found out about this from a vet nurse.
 
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I do my lot. Just pop them on a table with a non-slip surface and hold out a paw at a time. It's about a 2-minute job with no need to visit a vet surgery.
 
Yip, I do my two....as well as my cousins two, my friends one and my sisters cats :)

I can do them no problem by myself, just bunny burrito, hold like a wee baby in my arm whilst sitting on the chair, then stick whatever paw out and clip.
 
I do one by myself (Blackavar) as he's the soppiest one :love: and I get help with the the other three as two are wrigglers & the third would take my hand off!! I do struggle with Blackavar the most those as he's black so has black claws - I can never tell where to clip so it's a bit like Russian roulette but so far, I've managed not to cut him. The others all have white claws so a piece of the proverbial :lol:


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I use clippers like the ones in Tonya's post. :D

If your bunnies are fairly easy to handle there's no reason why you can't give it a go yourself. Lola's a bit of a handful so I wimped out and let the vet do it last time. :oops::lol::lol:

There's some good advice from the RWAF here and we use the squeeze/squeeze harder method mentioned in the link for Alfie's nails because it's harder to tell where the quick is. If you're in doubt and don't want to cut too far then just take off a little at a time or you could ask the vet to show you next time you're there and then try yourself once the nails have grown a bit more. :D
 
I just went to look at my clippers and realised we did go back to using the scissor type after our cheap guillotine ones bent.

I don't get on with the ones marketed for small animals at all though, I have tiny hands and still found them very uncomfortable and fiddly to use.

The ones we use are similar to these:
dog-nail-scissor.jpg
 
There is no way on this planet that I could clip my rabbits' claws as they'd fight too much and get too stressed out. I take them to the vet which although is also stressful - they pant - they don't fight and are in fact quite compliant. I know that is because they're scared but I'd rather have them scared quiet rather than scared fighting tooth and nail and therefore risking injury.
 
Here's a tip for the front one at least. Pop bun in a run or cage (something with mesh) and wield a treat so they have to stand on their back legs. Bingo! Claws pop through the bars...snip snip snip!
 
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