How long should his nails be?

[Nicole]

Hi fellow bunny slaves!

So its taken me months to figure out how to cut my rabbits nails with out him squirming away or being traumatized in the process. The good thing is that I can now do it relatively easily and I don’t have to take him to the vet to have them do it.  And he doesn’t seem to mind too much as long as he gets his treat after. The problem is, it took me so long to figure out how to do it that his nails have gotten pretty long. They don’t seem to bother him but when I touch them I can feel how long they are. I just cut them again today and I’ve realized that the quick has grown longer as well. I want to get his nails to be shorter but I can’t cut to where I want them to be because of the quick.

Maybe the length is fine if it doesn’t bother him? I just don’t want to wait until it becomes a problem and then have him get hurt. How long should his nails be? .. and if they’re too long how often do I need to cut them to keep the quick from growing so much?

Thanks in advance,

– Nicole

[Megan]

The more often you trim, the smaller the quick will get. As far as how long they should be, I’m not sure! I trim my bun’s nails every two weeks. It’s a pain because I have to use a flashlight since she has dark nails.

[Hazel]

Generally, nails should be short enough that they don’t touch the ground when the animal is standing/walking normally. Like Megan said, frequent trimming will shorten the quick over time. I just ran into the same problem with our dog, the quick seems to have grown a bit too long on his front paws. Another method of training back the quick is to cut the nail as short as you can without nicking the quick, and then carefully shaving off the nail around the tip of the quick on the top and sides, so that the quick ends up sticking out somewhat exposed. The quick will then shrivel up and fall off without causing any bleeding, and next time you can cut the nail a bit shorter. You can repeat this process until the desired length is achieved. Doing this without cutting the quick is of course pretty tricky, and since rabbits have such small nails, it might not be a good option. Using a dremel makes it a little easier/safer, but most rabbits would be scared of the noise.

[Nutmeg]

I also agree that the more often you cut the shorter the quick will get…. As my bunny’s are getting long now too… so that being said PLEASE share what you found works for yours for cutting them as I am about to start driving them an hour round trip to the vet lol

[Muj Mom N Bun]

I am having the same issue with BunBun’s nails. She has given me such a hard time with trying to cut them for her that over the past week I’ve noticed that her quicks have gotten quite a bit longer… and she is still giving me a hard time … I’ve managed to get two nails on her back feet done while she is asleep flopped out on the floor mid afternoon… sneaky, I know… but those long nails were just sticking rt out calling me…. but I know that there are only two ways to really get the quick to recede: cutting often or cutting the quick and forcing it to recede back. The second option is simply not an option… I hated having to do that to animals… at either the owners or the shelter’s request when I used to work… I’m not hurting my little girl! Plus it lets in the chance for infections… so I need to try to clip her nails often… even though the fight she gives me these days is the reason why her quicks became so long now. I hope she lets me, bcz hopefully the more often I do her nails, the more quickly she will become used to the process.

[Muj Mom N Bun]

I was very happy to see that budget bunny was the first, and so far, only person to clarify the time of day that may be easier for you to cut a bun’s nails… I kept telling myself that I need to make the time to do it when she is in her mid afternoon daily nap time… that way she is less active. But, of course she still hasn’t let me take care of all of them.

[Nicole]

Thank you for your responses! I’m going to try to watch him and see if his nails are touching the floor. He’s got fluffy feet so its hard to tell haha. As far as my method goes… I put him on top of my clothes dryer when its on. The vibration makes him sit still in order to steady himself and its perfect height for me to easily reach his paws. The first time this worked like a charm. Now that he’s familiar with the dryer he doesn’t sit still as well as before but since its such a small area he doesn’t have anywhere to go. Additionally, I put a small towel down for him to stand on and he doesn’t want to step off of it onto the dryer because it’s slippery for him. I felt bad initially because he was nervous on the dryer but he got over it after the first time and it was a better option for me because he used to squirm so much I was worried he would hurt his back or legs jumping out of my arms. He definitely doesn’t enjoy it by any means but I give him a treat in between each paw so he seems to just tolerate it for the treats.

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