How to Trim Your Pet's Nails

If you're going to the vet's office or a groomer to have your pet's nails trimmed, you're probably spending $10 to $15 per nail trim. If your pet needs their nails trimmed once a month, that's $120 to $180 a year! For $10 to $15, you could easily find some nice nail clippers and do the job yourself. Many people are afraid to trim their pet's nails on their own. Others just don't know how it's done. While a few pets out there may require more restraint than you or your friends are capable of providing, for most pets you'll be able to trim their nails on your own.

Types of Nail Clippers: Which One to Pick?

Basically, your choices are the guillotine style, scissor style, and human nail clippers. Each works to get the job done, when used properly. Most people are already comfortable using human nail clippers. You use these nail clippers for yourself, so you have a lot of experience with handling them. If you have a small pet such as a small bird, small lizard, hamster, or rat, you'll be able to use human nail clippers instead of buying pet nail clippers. If your trimming nails on a young guinea pig, rabbit, or kitten, you might also be able to use human nail clippers (or at least, human toenail clippers, which are a bit bigger). Unless you really want to use another type of nail clippers, when you can use human nail clippers, it's generally easiest. Scissor style nail clippers seem to be the next easiest choice for most people. These are made in all sizes and are easily used on birds, reptiles, rodents, rabbits, cats, and dogs. I like these clippers because it's easy to see what you are doing. Even if you're trimming the nails of a neglected animal with curling nails, these clippers allow you to get in there and do the job. Personally, I find the guillotine style clippers the hardest to use. Some people like them however, so if you like this style, don't be afraid to buy them just because a lot of people don't like them. Use whatever works for you and your pet.

Trimming Nails: The Basics

Before you can understand how to trim nails, you must first understand the anatomy of a nail. Nails are more than just keratin. Nails also have a tiny blood supply, referred to as the "quick." When you trim your pets nails, start first by locating the quick. If your pet has dark nails, use a flashlight. Otherwise, you should easily be able to see a pinkish red line going up to a certain point. Think of this as being similar to the white and pink of your own nail (but not quite the same). You'd never trim past the white of your nail, so don't do it on your pet's nails either. Trim the nail a little bit after the quick. Make sure you see where the nail clippers hit the nail before you clip, especially with guillotine style clippers. It's as simple as that, you're just cutting off the excess nail after the quick.

What to Do if You Mess Up: Stopping the Bleeding

It's not the end of the world if you mess up. Everyone hits the quick sometimes. Maybe your pet jumped at the wrong time. Maybe you didn't quite see the end of the quick. Don't panic, you just need to stop the bleeding. Products are made to stop the bleeding of nails and you can purchase them at a pet supply store. I'd recommend having them handy while trimming nails, just incase. If you find yourself trimming nails without these products and mess up, some simple household products can also work. Cornstarch is effective in stopping the bleeding of nails and flour will also work in a pinch. If you just barely hit the quick, it should be easy to stop the bleeding. If you hit the quick higher up, it may require some pressure to stop the bleeding. You may need to see a vet if the bleeding doesn't stop quickly, especially if you hit the nail higher up. With certain animals, such as birds, they cannot afford blood loss so you must take extra precautions so that you don't hit the quick. If you find that you hit the quick frequently, ask your vet for a demonstration of proper nail trimming technique. Maybe you just need to see it in action before you try nail trimming on your own.

Special Tips for Dark Nails

Many pet owners fear trimming nails because they have pets with dark nails. Dark nails are not impossible to trim on your own. While you can spend extra time locating the quick with a flashlight behind the nail, there are other techniques as well. Unless you have a pet who jumps at everything, try gently squeezing your clippers before you actually cut the nail. If the pet jumps, you're too far back. If the pet doesn't jump, you're probably in a good spot. Another trick is to cut a little bit at a time. You'll notice a white dot appears on the part of the nail that was cut. Once you clearly see this white spot, you're close to the quick and can stop cutting. The shape of the nail with also help guide you once you've clipped their nails a few times. If your pet has a paw with light nails and another paw with dark nails, trim the light nails first and then you can use the length comparison as another guide. Remember how much you had to trim off the first paw, then go for the dark nails estimating the same length roughly. Use one of the other methods in addition to estimating to ensure you don't hit the quick. It's not impossible to trim dark nails yourself, so don't think you're doomed to paying to have nails trimmed forever because your pet has dark nails.

Special Tips for Nails on Extra Toes

Extra toes present a few extra problems. Aside from giving you more nails to trim, extra toes are generally unique. Sometimes extra toes are just smaller, other times extra toes aren't supported by bone at all. Having a helper to hold the foot will help you a lot here. Make sure not to pull on an unsupported extra toe, but instead have the foot held and then work your clippers around the section to be cut. After awhile, you will get used to your pet's extra toe(s) and they won't cause you any problems.

An Alternative to Nail Clippers: The Dremel

Some pets really hate having their nails clipped. There is something about the sound or the feel of it that they really don't like. Amazingly, many of these pets don't mind the sound and feel of a dremel tool, and are much more cooperative for this. Make sure that you don't take off too much too fast, and you'll do fine with one of these. Test out the tool on objects first before you go for your pet's nails. There are dremels made specifically for pets, but if you know how to use one, you don't need to buy the special pet type. You can buy different heads that take off nail at different speeds. I recommend going slower and being safe rather than quickly shearing off nail. The dremel tool is most commonly used on dogs, but is also sometimes used on pets such as rabbits, guinea pigs, and birds. I have used this tool on older rabbits, who have nails that are thicker and therefore harder to fit into regular nail clippers. Make sure your pet isn't afraid of the sound however, as it is especially easy to give birds and rabbits a heart attack. If your pet doesn't mind and you're skilled with a dremel, this method definitely works well.

Now you can save your money for other things. Trim your pet's nails yourself and you'll save time, a trip, and money. Use what you're comfortable with, whether it's a dremel, guillotine style clippers, scissor style clippers, or even human nail clippers. With practice, trimming your pet's nails will become quick, easy, and routine.