Need up to 30 seconds to load.
hi everyone yes you asked and i
delivered in today's video i'm going to
show you how to cut your guinea pig's
nails and run through some tips and
techniques that work for very young or
very skittish or scared guinea pigs or
if you yourself are not that confident
at it yet and don't know where to start
with handling your guinea pigs and
getting them to sit still whilst you cut
their nails then this video is for you
before we get started i just want to
reassure you that it's absolutely
possible for you to be able to do this
yourself it just takes practice and
finding out the right techniques that
work for you and if you're someone who
takes them to the vet to get it done
then i highly recommend having a go
yourself and then hopefully you won't
have to pay someone else to do it and as
for equipment i use a standard human
toenail clipper to cut my guinea pig's
nails these tips will still work with a
curved pet nail clipper but i like using
this one because i find it really easy
to see where i'm cutting and i can use
it to angle the cuts and get a bit more
off than usual if the nails are getting
a bit long guinea pigs have four toes on
the front feet and three on the back all
claws have a blood supply which is
called the quick you can see the quick
in white nails but it is difficult to
see in black nails ideally you want to
avoid cutting the quick but don't worry
if you do it's not the end of the world
also you might find that your guinea pig
squeaks even when you don't cut the
quick just if you get close and one more
thing before we get started is that
you'll see the nails change over time as
your piggies get to maybe six months the
nails will start to thicken up by the
time they are fully grown they will be
quite thick and sturdy and then as a
piggy gets older the front claws might
curl over even when they are relatively
short this can also happen if they
aren't cut and are left to overgrow as
we'll see with pedro's front feet okay
then who's gonna be first lyra's got the
right idea she is just a pile of hay
[Music]
okay so with phoebe i'm doing what i
call the table technique for this you
just need a blanket laid out on the
table in front of you make sure you're
not wearing a zip up hoodie or cardigan
or anything with layers that they'll
want to try and burrow into get right up
close to the table and position your pig
right next to you the only cover they
have is you so they want to stay close
to you this one works if your pig's
reaction to having their nails cut at
least to start with is to freeze up and
be scared often if they're scared like
this then it's easier for us and i'm
going to try and not make her any more
scared by over-handling her or trying to
manipulate her too much i also do roxy's
nails in this way so i'm going to
include some clips of me doing roxy's
nails as well a great tip for piggies
like this is to take them out of the
room where their cage is and where their
friends are and into a room they don't
know it sounds cruel but it will help
and get these front feet
so see how i'm picking up the foot i'm
right-handed so i'm using my left index
finger to scoop up the foot and my thumb
is just resting lightly on top i'm not
squeezing her foot at all phoebe has
white nails so i can see the quick if
your piggy has black nails you can try
with a torch like some people say but to
be honest i don't think it's very useful
you can predict where the quick is it's
not going to be right at the end of the
nail it's going to be sort of at the
point where the nail starts to become
thicker so if you're not sure just cut
the very end off so you'll see how i'm
only cutting small amounts off even when
i can see the quick i prefer to just
take a little bit off at a time
especially when she's not moving around
too much and then as i get closer to the
quick you can almost see it recede um
it's kind of cool really and then you
could keep taking off a little bit at a
time and just get the nail a little bit
shorter than kind of where the quick was
originally what i'm going to do to get
to this other part is just lift her up
lightly
like so
gather her paws together and then i can
see the nails here you might find that
they always want to turn to the side so
if you try and work from above then i'll
give you the best
so viewing angle
[Music]
see those nails are quite long and
almost time to curl over a little bit
[Music]
he's okay i'm sorry
[Music]
with the front feet especially
try and get the angle of where the nails
are curling so because they're starting
to curl over this side i'm going to go
more in from sort of this angle and if
you are getting quite close to the quick
and you're not sure whether you're going
to catch it or not you can always just
press down with the clippers
lightly and if they sort of nudge away
then you can tell that you're quite
close to the quick and with practice
you'll be able to tell the difference
from when you're okay to cut and when
you should just move them back down the
nail a little bit once i've done the two
front feet and the left back one things
get a little bit tricky as i can
position my hands to do her back right
foot easily so what i do here is turn
her around hold her foot with my right
hand and the clippers with my left and
get the position right using my hand
that's holding her foot then all i have
to do with my left hand is push it down
and make the cut i know sweeter
she's biting my jumper
you might find they do that so don't
wear anything too precious
so of course another tactic would be to
distract them with food
however i found that it doesn't really
work because they eat it so fast and
then they're kind of back on to get off
my feet please so unless you give them
something maybe like a carrot that
they'd eat have to eat more slowly it
could work and i'd definitely try it if
you are struggling but when i've tried
it going back it's never really worked
that well one of the best things you can
do which a lot of people don't realize
if your biggie is starting to really
struggle is to just leave things for now
and take a break so leave them back in
the cage for half an hour or so and then
carry on with the nails afterwards so
with pedro next things get a bit more
challenging pedro is a rescue piggy and
he had really bad bumblefoot when he
came into the rspca so basically he's
got foot issues
that said i have found a way to cut his
nails easily pedro will not sit there
and let me pick up her foot so i have to
pick him up and this has always been my
go-to move with squirmy piggies so for
the front feet i hold pedro against me
with his front feet lifted so i can see
the nails and do it in a similar way to
phoebe and roxy except that i'm holding
him much higher up and this is where we
can see the other problem with pedro's
feet get a little bit closer
and you great big nose out of the way
because he was neglected in the past his
front toes and nails are seriously
curved over so i go kind of
perpendicular to his foot with the
clippers
a tip for anyone who is particularly
nervous and what i do with almost every
cut is to test their response by
squeezing lightly with the clippers
first if they jump and squeak loudly you
know to go a bit lower down on the nail
this is also a good way of committing to
the cut because they can move they can
flinch a little bit or hair could get in
the way as long as you've given it that
first squeeze you know you are good to
go ahead and make that snip even if you
can't see it as well
let's get this one down here
ready
oh no goodbye
and another technique you can try with
squirmy piggies is to lift them up
against you like this and then cut the
back feet as they are dangling down now
obviously you don't have the same
control
but you can sort of get into
a fairly good position
hold it before you snip and then once
you're sure
once you're sure you're not going to
catch the quick then you can snip
[Music]
method also works really well if you
have a second person to help you because
obviously someone can use both their
hands to get to these back feet dangling
down and you could even use your spare
hand to maybe support their bottom a bit
more and make them feel a little bit
more safe and secure
and you can also do this method using
something to wrap your piggy up so
generally
lighter cloths will work better than big
fluffy fleece blankets
i would use an old pillowcase like this
and
simply wrap up your pig
pick them up
and then hopefully you can tease out
one of the back feet to work with and
this will just leave them feeling a bit
more secure than if you were just
holding them up against you with your
hand alone and what we can see here is
pedro's other body quirk and that is
that he has an extra toe on his left
back foot i think this is called
polydactyly and it's very common in
guinea pigs so don't be surprised if you
have a piggy who's got this in most
circumstances this little hanging toe
has its own blood supply and it also has
its own nail so the bad news for me is
that this nail needs cutting as well as
all the others and for that i'll use
another way of cutting pedro's nails
which i find quite easy so rather than
having him completely on his back i'll
sort of prop him up and wrap my left
hand around him and use it to pick up
whichever back foot i'm going for so we
might struggle a bit at first but then
he's fine so this way i can hold the
foot properly and have better control so
i'll use this to get his nails down
that little bit shorter
and also use it to cut that hanging
on his little extra toe as well
i think we definitely deserve a pea
flake after that don't we yes
and if you do cut the quick and you see
that the nail is bleeding for starters
don't worry it's likely that you've just
caught it and only a small bit of blood
is going to come out that probably
doesn't even hurt them so in this case
just hold a clean tissue to it for a
couple of minutes and the bleeding
should stop if you've caught it higher
up and there's more blood you might want
to use saline to disinfect it and you
can use things like cornstarch or
stipetic powder to stop the bleeding but
it should always stop on its own after
10 or 15 minutes and just make sure when
they go back in the cage their bedding
and everything in there is nice and
clean to prevent any infection so i
really hope you found this video useful
guys if you did please drop us a comment
below to let us know and if you have any
questions then i will do my best to get
back to you and if you want to learn
more about guinea pig grooming or health
problems then i will put up the playlist
to this on the screen now okay guys
thank you everyone for watching please
comment like and subscribe and we will
see you in the next video bye-bye
[Music]
