Well…

… my vet trims Monkey’s nails now. Its much easier taking her there rather than me having to dona full suit of armor to do it. That bunny is crazy, I tell ya.

Have yet to do Moose’s, but he sits much better than Monkey does. He’ll lay there upside down if I cuddle him against me, so I suspect his will be easier to do.

Haha, this is exactly why I take Otto to the vet to have his nails trimmed. He’s just so squirmy and he hates me for days after I attempt it.

Beka once posted a recipe for nail trimming that I still love:

Insert bunny into carrier.
Drive to vet.
Pay bill.

I’d like to say the first time is the hardest when you do it yourself, but unfortunately, it’s not.

Yep, I follow Beka’s recipe exactly for Monkey! lol

Although, the rabbit rescue here does outreaches every month that people can bring their bunnies to for nail trims and grooming for a donation. Im gonna take Monkey to their next one on the 13th and see if they can handle her lol

You know I can’t remember my first nail trim experience-but I’ve had dogs and guinea pigs and know my way around a thrashing animal who hates you at that point in time.

I know I’m super at it now-one hand holding towel wrapped bunny against me-and one trimming and done in a few seconds. I used to trim all the rabbits at the humane society here when I went as the techs weren’t comfy doing it I do my friends bunnies for them too It’s gets super easy with practice You become more confident and better at handling the clippers-and the bunny understnads it’s not the end of the world-the clipping stops soon and then treats are to be had

K&K, I wish you lived near me and would trim Otto’s nails! He’s getting progressively worse with the vet tech and has started growling at her a lot. Haha.

I’m still scared to try to clip Jolene’s nails even though she prob. needs it. She’s a Flemish giant too, so she’s quite powerful when she struggles. I’ve tried to trance her using techniques on various videos (they all make it seem so easy) but she starts struggling and I quickly stop to prevent her from hurting herself.

I find that for me it has gotten easier with time, before I would take FOREVER to do just one bun, now I think I do it in about half the time for two.

The easiest technique I would say is I set the bunny on my bed on a mountain of pillows so she/he is a little below eye level with me when I sit on the bed. I clip three of the four feet with the bunny just lying on the pillow, with Thistle I have to put a blanket over him so he can’t see, because otherwise he trys to escape. For thistle I can cut all four feet with him just lying on the pillow, but Fern does not like it when I pull her back legs from under her so the right back leg is hard for me because I am right handed and in my technique I wrap one arm around the bunny and hold with my right arm as well as clip with my right hand – its hard to explain.

When I flip them over for the last foot or the anal glands I put the bunnies head under my left elbow so they can’t see. Fern for some reason does not trance and this needs to be done or else she just flips herself right over – she does not kick thankfully.

I don’t know I found the bunny burrito to be ineffective and I hate flipping the buns over for extended periods of time, it makes me nervous and Fern starts to get fed up after a while because she does not trance.

Afterwords Thistle is always fine, like it never happened, but Fern gives me the stink eye and is wary of me for a day or so LOL! I am forgiven through treats and pats though.

I’d have to show my technique because it is kindof hard to explain. I tried to make a movie once but it was from a bad angle and you could not see anything.

K&K, I wish you lived near me and would trim Otto’s nails! He’s getting progressively worse with the vet tech and has started growling at her a lot. Haha

Understandable-if a stranger held you upside down and bugged you I’d growl too!

Start training your bunny to be held for nail trimming-whatever way you want to do it-burrito or trance-make it a game for your bunny…I.E. I hold you like this for four seconds and you are a good bunny-then you get a treat! Keep it up, lengthen the duration your holding the bunny for and then work up to handling his/her paws during it. Then nail trimming is really quite easy. Just follow every session with praise, reasuring words, treats, nose rubs-whatever your bunny is a sucker for. They are super food motivated so pretty easy to train

She’s a Flemish giant too, so she’s quite powerful when she struggles. I’ve tried to trance her using techniques on various videos (they all make it seem so easy) but she starts struggling and I quickly stop to prevent her from hurting herself.

How’s your cuddling relationship with her? If you can hold her and cuddle -try just holding her in slightly different positions and getting her used to that-like standing in your lap, then tipping back a bit. And just reward her for tolerating it and being still-trancing takes practice-but once you get it figured out-it’s easy to trance pretty much most bunnies

And I guess a technique I use with Noot who will not trance will not burrito-probably doesn’t even sleep he’s so hyper (and uncomfortable being handled) is I put him in my lap and we sort of have an agreement-I won’t tip him over or tie him up with towels if he behaves So I just hold each foot (akwardly sort of! lol) and trim them-he holds very still and I think he is glad I finally figured out how NOT to handle him

Some people have had great success with this technique where the bunny is not burritoed, nor tranced, just flat on all four, but it’s hard to explain so I do suggest getting the video http://www.rabbitcare.org/video.htm (it’s may be a little pricey, but it’s also helping rescue bunnies)

just flat on all four, but it’s hard to explain so I do suggest getting the video http://www.rabbitcare.org/video.htm (it’s may be a little pricey, but it’s also helping rescue bunnies)

Yeah that’s sort of what I do with Noot! It’s hard to explain but really the hardest part is orienting myself to move nails and see clearly-but it really works for him

just flat on all four, but it’s hard to explain so I do suggest getting the video http://www.rabbitcare.org/video.htm (it’s may be a little pricey, but it’s also helping rescue bunnies)

Yeah that’s sort of what I do with Noot! It’s hard to explain but really the hardest part is orienting myself to move nails and see clearly-but it really works for him

For some reason I’ve never had a problem trimming bunny nails. I just grab them, hold them, trim, and let them go. j

I can’t do my dogs nails to save my life though. Of course he’s 110 lbs and if he doesn’t want me to touch his feet there’s no way I’m getting near them.

The lady at the petshop where I got Nixie will do hers for free. I just bring in Nix, she gets to run around with her mom and sister for a while (so cute!), and sometimes I can even go run errands and the woman will just let her run and play.

Actually, last weekend I brought Nix to Petco to talk to someone about volunteering with a rabbit rescues -they have rescues come every weekend– and this woman was like “oh, trimming rabbits nails are like cats, right?” and I wasn’t sure but thought they were pretty similar. So before I had much time to think she had her clippers in hand and had me hold Nix. Poor baby, the woman drew blood on two nails and halfway through she was like, “Now I’m getting kind of nervous…I’ve never clipped a rabbits nails before..” …really? haha..I felt so bad and after I thought about it again I can’t believe I totally missed that she never did it before. But Nix is a trooper and just sprawled out and fell asleep on the way home. I swear nothing phazes her.

Marlee has black nails so the petshop lady will also do hers for me for free.

I keep reading about this burrito technique..anyone have a picture?