Trimming Guinea Pig Nails...

[greenmansions]

We are watching the kids' school's guinea pigs for a couple of weeks. We are noticing that their nails are very long, curving around and today one of the pigs is bleeding near her ear from what I believe is a scratch from their nails.

Since we are new to the school, we don't really know who is responsible for this type of maintenance and based on what else we've seen regarding the animals, it's up to the families to deal with any issues that arise.

We'd like to trim their nails - can anyone provide some advice/instructions on how to go about it? There are 4 piggies to do.

Thanks so much.

[journeymom]

Yup, nails that are curving around need to be clipped.

We wrap our guinea pig in a towel, gently but firmly hold a paw and clip his nails with one of those pet nail trimmers.

http://www.guinealynx.info/nails.html

I have also taken him to the vet to get his nails trimmed.

I found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNAX_k2EGw4

However, the sound is not working on our computer currently : so I have no idea what was being said!

Yay you for doing this! It's very important for their health and comfort.

[MommyTorf]

We wrap our pig in a towel and use regular nail clippers. Just cut the claw sideways instead of up-and-down.

[miss_sonja]

I use human toe nail clippers on my cats. Works great. The longer handle makes it easier to hold the clipper in my hand and keep it steady.

[Thalia the Muse]

Yep, we use human nail clippers turned sideways, with one person to hold the piggie and another to clip. I must say they HATE it, but it's quick and effective and they are never too traumatized to accept a treat afterward.

[lilyka]

i use my dog nail clipper on the pigs. just be sure you don't get them too short. go a little at a time. you can always clip off more.

[greenmansions]

DH and I ended up cutting their nails. We went to the pet store, bought clippers and some styptich (sp?) powder. We did them one by one, I wrapped the piggie in a towel as suggested above, pulled one foot out at a time and DH did the clipping. He grew up with all sorts of pets and used to work at a zoo, so he was more comfortable doing it.

I noted in their notebook that we had done their nails and that the next family should do it again so that they would get to a normal length without bleeding. We only had two nails bleed, for 4 pigs that's not bad. One of the pigs seemed to go into shock and went kind of limp when we did her, but she is the shyest and very nervous. She was fine as soon as I lowered her into the cage afterward.

I have no idea if the families after us took care of the clipping or not, but we'll do it again when they're on our watch next. Looks like this year the school has assigned a parent to pet care so hopefully they'll be better maintained.